A local non-profit organization is looking to make Christmas brighter for some very special children, and they are asking for the community lend a helping hand.

Cap the Gap for Foster Care is a non-profit organization that works to provide needed items to children who have been removed from their home and are transitioning into foster care. The organization also helps out local foster families when needed, especially at times like Christmas.

“We started in 2013. This will be our fifth year doing something for Christmas,” said Joni Cannon, President of Cap the Gap for Foster Care in Carter, Johnson, and Unicoi counties.

Many times when the children are removed from their homes by the Department of Children’s Services they have only the clothes on their back when they head into foster care. Sometimes in the cases where drugs were involved the children don’t even get to bring those clothes.

As foster families work to provide for the needs of the children it sometimes becomes difficult to get those extra things, such as Christmas presents.

Cannon and the Cap the Gap organization works with social workers to get a list of foster families with the greatest needs. Cap the Gap gets a list which includes the child’s first name, age, gender, a wish list, and a list of items which are not needed.

“It’s similar to the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program,” Cannon said.

Cap the Gap then finds sponsors to help provide the items for the child. Sponsors can be an individual or a group of people working together to provide for the child.

Over the years, the need for this support service has grown, according to Cannon.

“Last year we did 41 children,” she said. “This year we are going to be doing more than 60 because of the opioid situation. We also have a lot of sibling groups this year.”

This year Cap the Gap will be providing Christmas gifts to 13 groups of siblings who are in foster care. Sometimes it is a group of just two or three siblings, but this year there is a group of seven siblings who are in the program. A team of sponsors from a local bank have stepped up to adopt the whole group of seven, Cannon said.

Those wishing to sponsor a child can either receive the child’s wish list and do the shopping themselves or make a monetary donation to Cap the Gap and volunteers with the organization will make the purchases.

While there are more than 60 children being served for Christmas already, Cannon said that number is likely to grow even further. There are times that children are removed from their homes just days before Christmas and Cap the Gap strives to provide Christmas to those children as well.

Each year, Cannon said she is humbled by the outpouring of support from the community for this program.

“Folks have always stopped up to help us,” she said. “People have been so generous. These people have the biggest hearts in the world.”

“We are very blessed to be able to do this,” Cannon continued. “We never get to see the children we help.”

Anyone interested in sponsoring a child or making a monetary donation to the program can do so by contacting Joni Cannon at 423-767-6355 or by e-mail to capthegap@outlook.com. Donations can also be made through the organization’s website www.capthegaptn.org.