Letters from the people who see it first

To whom it may concern,

A Place to Call Home is pleased to have the opportunity to write a recommendation for the Angel Heart Pajama Project to receive a grant from Social Capital. A Place to Call Home began working with The Angel Heart Pajama Project in 2013 as the very first organization that they served. A Place to Call Home is a foster care and adoption agency that licenses families to become foster and/or adoptive parents. Our foster families have one to five children placed in their homes between the ages of newborn and seventeen years old for whom they provide care. Annually, A Place to Call Home hosts a Christmas party for all our foster families, the children placed in their home and any of their biological or adopted children also residing in the home. The Angel Heart Pajama Project provides each child with a new pair of pajamas and a book that is appropriate for their age range.

Approximately 5 years ago, Maria and Marty contacted our office inquiring about what our organization does and how they could partner with us. They explained their mission and their passion that lead to the creation of The Angel Heart Pajama Project. In short, in 1963 their family fled from Cuba to Florida because of the Cuban Revolution. They initially settled in Chicago. All the Founders have the same memory – no matter their environment, every Christmas their mother would gift them with new warm pajamas. Fast forward more than fifty years later and the warm feeling their new pajamas gave them is one of the ways The Angel Heart Pajama Project founders want to influence children who are in foster care, shelters or in homeless shelters by providing them with new warm pajamas.

Their desire to have every child they impact have a pair of warm pajamas and an age appropriate book speaks volumes of their desire to not only help the less fortunate but to carry on the tradition of their loving mother. We can tell you the impact they have on our children from seeing the look on their faces when they receive the new pajamas. The children in foster care often have hand-me-down clothing; most do not own their own books. The collaboration that A Place to Call Home has been fortunate enough to have with The Angel Heart Pajama Project has been a blessing to our agency as well as a blessing to the families and children that we serve. A Place to Call Home was The Angel Heart Pajama Project’s first collaboration with a foster care Agency and we are extremely honored to be a part of their Legacy. The leadership, culture and commitment of The Angel Heart Pajama Project to children in organizations like A Place to Call Home throughout the Tucson community is an inspiration.

Please accept this letter as our heartfelt recommendation for the Angel Heart Pajama Project to receive a grant from the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation and help us spread the word about the good work The Angel Heart Pajama Project does for the less fortunate children of our community.

Thank you, Sam Dyer, MSW, Executive Director Maria Dominguez, Administrative Assistant

Whom It May Concern,

I am happy to support the submission of Angel Heart’s Pajama Project’s Grant to support needy children in Cochise County. I know that this organization is a very worthy non-profit impacting the lives of needy children. Angel Heart has been serving children in Cochise County for about 5 years. They have impacted the lives of many children who are either homeless, in foster care, abused, neglected, seriously ill, or living in poverty.

The mission of Angel Heart is to provide new pajamas and books to children living with these deplorable conditions. Upon arriving at one of our agencies the children receive a nicely wrapped package of new pajamas and a book. Angel Heart wants to provide each child who is in distress with a feeling of hope and to let them know that he or she is loved. No matter how difficult their current situation is each is special.

Angel Heart Pajama Project has assisted over 300 children with feeling warm and cared for through the year in Cochise and Santa Cruz Counties through the Catholic Community Services Domestic Violence Shelter and Foster Care Programs. The biggest support comes during the holidays, where great books and pajamas are always loved.

Please consider funding a grant to Angel Heart. They are a very worthy organization.

Sincerely, Lisa Davis, MS Associate Director, Catholic Community Services, Sierra Vista Region

Dear Angel Heart Pajama Project,

Over the past 3 years it has been my great pleasure to give our Ronald McDonald House Families the gift of your beautiful pajamas. In the last 3 weeks alone, I have given 7 children from 3 different families pajamas and I wish you could see the smile on their faces. One little girl who can crawl but not walk at 3 years old was so happy that she didn’t take them off for 3 days! She didn’t bring long pants with her, so it was a real joy for her to have her knees covered when she was scooting around the House! I must confess that she got 2 pairs.

Another little boy chose the Spiderman pajamas and was really excited to show me they would match his Spiderman shoes!

Thank you so much for keeping us supplied with pajamas all year long. We are so appreciative of what you all do.

Cheri L. Goldman Director of House Operations, Ronald McDonald House Tucson

I work with GAP Ministries in Tucson. We are a foster care agency and we serve an average 85 kids in our care and serve 45 foster families. We have been blessed for many years by the loving hearts and hands at Angel Heart. Each Christmas we receive a pair of pajamas and a new book for every kiddo in our care and foster families. Each one is bagged with the child's name on it and includes a pair of pajamas and a book. It is such a joy to see the happy faces of all the children and foster families when they receive the gift of pajamas and books. Thank you Angel Heart for all that you do for the foster kids in Tucson, AZ!

The impact the pajamas have on the children residing in the shelter and our housing programs have been a blessing. A family shows up after the driver vehicle incident and they come with the police with just the clothes they are wearing. When we give them a new pair of pajamas, it brings a smile to the kids. Some of the mothers and children have been neglected by their abuser and they don’t have pajamas. They sleep with shorts or a dress, but now they own a pair of pajamas. They get excited when I talk to them that a priest flew an airplane to Yuma to bring the pajamas, that makes them happy and some don’t believe me. On behalf of the Safe House families, thank you so much!

We want to thank you both and everyone at Angel Heart Pajamas for gifting our Prince Scholars with the gift of pajamas, books and pillows again this year. This year students in our afterschool ACHIEVE English class were so excited to receive their pajamas! They — along with their parents — have been working on learning English through literacy games and activities all semester. Our class includes students and families that have come to us from Afghanistan, Mexico, Syria and Guatemala. This was a great way to celebrate the end of the semester and all of their hard work!

Yemen Bernal, LCSW Certified School Social Worker, Prince Elementary School, Amphitheater School District