The Adopt-a-Family program is a partnership between City of Scottsdale and Scottsdale Community Partners, the non-profit philanthropy arm of COS. Families are interviewed by city social workers, who record children’s requests for three gifts for the winter holidays as well as clothing and shoe sizes.  Susan Vargas matches up adopters and adoptees and emails assignments and full information in mid-November.  Every effort is made to match troops with a child near their age if possible.  

Then, you purchase at least three gifts of at least $100 in total value for each child based on their wish list.  You also provide a $40-85 gift card to the family’s grocery store to help provide a holiday meal.  Troops frequently supplement the three main gifts with clothing, stocking stuffers, or other items, and sometimes also include a small gift for the parents.  Many troops also include gift wrap, bows, and tape for the families. All gifts are given to the families unwrapped, so the parents can have the pleasure and dignity of wrapping their own children’s gifts. The total expenditure per sponsored child is at minimum $140.

You will drop off a donor report and all the gifts, bagged and labelled for each recipient in mid-December to either Vista del Camino (if you sponsor all kids in a family) or to Susan Vargas's home (if you are sponsoring some but not all kids in a family).  Thank you for making a child's holiday special!