In a secure wing of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office at the edge of the agency’s monolithic jail facility, a group of children in foster care enjoyed a couple of hours of pure joy Tuesday despite their incongruous surroundings.
A total of 25 children from 13 families enjoyed lunch and, more importantly, generous gifts donated by employees of the sheriff’s office as part of the agency’s annual Adopt-A-Family event. Ranging in age from 4 to 13, each child was given a towering pile of meticulously wrapped gifts and allowed to open one on the spot. The rest would have to wait nearly a week until Christmas morning.
These were not stocking stuffers. They included Apple AirPods, bicycles, scooters and hoverboards. One little girl chose to open a present nearly twice as tall as her, revealing a 10-room dollhouse that would be more than 4½ feet tall and 6 feet wide when assembled.
Now in its 16th year, the Adopt-A-Family event is run, and mostly funded, by employees of the sheriff’s office. While the agency does accept donations for the event, DeKalb Sheriff Melody Maddox told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution it was a chance for her employees to give back to the community in a different way.
“These men and women went inside of their own pockets ... and purchased these gifts. This didn’t come out of the sheriff’s office budget; it didn’t come out of taxpayer dollars,” Maddox said to the crowd of foster families and employees gathered in the staff dining area. “That’s because we love and embrace our community.”
The beginning of the event was muted as families trickled in and Maddox and Chief Deputy Temetris Atkins gave speeches. Most of the crowd was made up of uniformed deputies and detention officers. But excitement began to grow among the children after lunch, donated by local Chick-fil-A and Honey Baked Ham franchises, as the kids took center stage one by one and began to open their presents.
The first few kids seemed trepidatious as Atkins directed them to pick out a single gift from their own individually labeled, overwhelmingly large piles. They gingerly tore into the wrapping paper, revealing LEGO sets, Ugg boots and an Easy Bake Oven.
As the magnitude of the gifts began to set in, each successive present was opened with more eagerness and excitement. Many gazed in awe at the gigantic sacks of presents that would be sent home with them.
The mastermind behind this holiday cheer is Carolina Mincey, a member of the administrative staff who helps plan and execute events for the sheriff’s office. She has directed the Adopt-A-Family event for 14 years and also runs a nonprofit called Inspiring Greatness in You, which encourages girls to pursue interests in both golf and STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math).
Mincey said she thinks about the event year-round, but the real planning begins in October. She coordinates with the state’s Department of Human Services’ Division of Family and Children Services kinship program and Bethany Christian Services to select deserving families. Both programs provide foster care to local children, including those placed in the system due to a parent’s incarceration.
Each family can only be invited to the Adopt-A-Family event once, and it’s a boon to be selected. The joy on the faces of the children, their gasps of amazement as they opened their gifts and their twirls of celebration were proof of the event’s impact.
“Christmas is my favorite holiday,” Mincey said as she took a short break from directing the show. “I grew up as a kid having everything, so it just means a lot to me to be able to give other kids the opportunity to have everything.”
Asked about any memorable gifts or children’s reactions, Mincey said that TVs tend to get the biggest response.
“For a 7- or 8-year-old little kid, 32 inches is big to them,” Mincey said. “And one year, we did a dirt bike.”
This year, one of the most exciting gifts was a hoverboard/go-kart combo given to a boy who was also celebrating his birthday. Mincey said the boy was particularly excited to see another family at the event and she asked if they were his friends. It turned out the other kids were his siblings who had been placed in a separate foster home.
“They’re a united family joined today. So they’re having a great day,” Mincey said.
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