The CALL’s Breakfast With Santa set Dec. 7

The CALL in Garland & Hot Spring Counties will host its fourth annual Breakfast With Santa on Dec. 7, and is currently seeking sponsors to help provide necessities for the event and financially benefit a foster home.

“Not everyone is called to be a foster or adopt family, but everyone is called to do something for children in foster care. It’s not an ‘if,’ but a ‘how?’ That should be the question everyone asks themselves when it comes to helping people in foster care,” The CALL County Coordinator Diane Wright said.

With a mission of educating, equipping and encouraging the Christian community to provide a future and a hope for children in foster care in Arkansas, The CALL in Garland & Hot Spring counties strives to increase the average number of 46 families available to take care of the 207 children in foster care, according to thecallinarkansas.org.

This year’s Breakfast With Santa is Hawaiian-themed, with Santa falling within the theme, and will include live music, gift-giving and the traditional pancakes decorated as Santa.

The event is The CALL’s largest event that raises the most community awareness, Wright said.

“It brings everyone together for a common mission to create the needed community for their (foster and adopt) families,” she said. It’s to “prevent burnout. National research shows it’s easier to recruit a foster family than to keep one.”

Although foster parenting can be the most gratifying work anyone will ever consider, it is not simple emotionally, socially or in terms of time, according to nfpaonline.org.

Wright said when community members show support for foster and adopt families, it removes the feeling of isolation

from the community.

“When people come they can see the families in real time and maintain Christmastime magic for those families.”

Each year at Breakfast With Santa, The CALL has managed to raise more money than the previous year, she said.

For non-foster families, tickets cost $10 per person. For information on tickets or sponsoring, contact Wright at 501-772-2522.