I founded Stockings from Karen (SFK) in 2014 in honor of my foster mom Karen Schwartzkopf. The Christmas stockings she made for us teen girls contained things we needed like toiletries and cosmetics, but they also contained love, confidence and self-esteem. For the last eight years SFK has been paying it forward by delivering Christmas stockings to D.C. area teen foster youths. We focus on teens because holiday toy drives tend to serve younger children and teens are often overlooked. Additionally, teens have specific grooming needs that don't get met through traditional gift giving programs.

Normally at this time we would be organizing supply drives, shopping for toiletries and scheduling stocking stuffing parties in preparation for delivering 400 stockings to Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) programs from Baltimore, MD to Winchester, VA. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is simply not safe to do the stockings this year.

Instead, we are planning to donate CVS or Walgreens gift cards to the girls so they can purchase the toiletries and/or school supplies they need. These items are expensive, so we want to give each youth a $30 gift card. Feel free to donate in $30 increments but any amount helps. Because we work through the regional CASA offices we know the gift cards will get safely to the intended recipients.

If you would prefer to purchase CVS or Walgreens gift cards and mail them to us instead of donating cash please let me know and I will furnish a mailing address. We sold our home in Potomac, MD so that is no longer a good mailing address or drop off location.

We will miss seeing all of you in person this year but we hope to return to delivering the stockings in 2022. We know what a joy it is to shop for these teens and come together as a group for stuffing parties at our homes, offices and schools. Until then, thank you for your support and have a wonderful holiday season and prosperous New Year!