OKEECHOBEE — The Okeechobee Healthy Start Coalition has been working tirelessly connecting businesses, partnering agencies and community members with local high-risk children in need of a little extra Christmas spirit this holiday season. Healthy Start developed the Giving Tree program back in 2020 to provide high-risk clients in their program with Christmas gifts. This program is fully funded and executed by our local community support and contributions.

Each year this community program has steadily grown and has allowed Healthy Start to provide Christmas to even more in-need children. The first year, Healthy Start was able to provide 85 children enrolled in their program with Christmas gifts. This year, the Healthy Start Giving Tree Christmas Program had over 60 participating sponsors that provided Christmas to 426 children. These high-risk children were enrolled or connected via Healthy Start, Parents As Teachers, Helping People Succeed, Martha’s House, Real Life Children’s Ranch, the Okeechobee County Library and the Angel Tree at Pat’s Floral. The number of children served this Christmas is a new record for this phenomenal program!

The Healthy Start Giving Tree Program allows for one stressor to be lifted from these in-need parents and families living in our community. Not only did each of the 426 children receive a toy, they also received the specific items requested from their personalized wish-list. Each child will wake up to find clothes, shoes, and numerous toys with their name on it this coming Christmas morning. Our donors also provided 65 of our clients struggling with food insufficiency with a family meal for the holiday.

We are so grateful and appreciative of our community’s dedication and generosity in serving our local children. It makes our hearts so full to see all the sponsors shop for and deliver such thoughtful and unique gifts to the office. Our clients, our Healthy Start team and our community have so much to be thankful for this year. One of our biggest blessings is being located in such a giving, caring and compassionate community that helps us impact the most in-need families. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank our donors for your generous support. We can not put into words how grateful we are for this wonderful community. It’s been a tough year for most individuals but our sponsors, partnering agencies and local businesses made it their personal mission to put a smile on a child’s face this Christmas morning and we will forever be grateful for that. We want to thank everyone who helped us accomplish so much good this holiday season! Thank you for helping Santa provide Christmas to an astronomical number of the Okeechobee children this year.

As Okeechobee’s Maternal and Child Health Advocate, the main goal of Healthy Start is to lower risk factors associated with preterm birth, low birth weight, infant mortality, and poor developmental outcomes. If you are pregnant or have a child up to the age of one, call our Connect program at 772-577-1441 for support. We will help you navigate motherhood whether it’s your first or fifth... because we all know every baby is different. A call can connect you to free education and support unique to you and your family’s needs, such as: prenatal nutrition and childbirth education, breastfeeding and car seat safety, in-person support, developmental milestone information and so much more.