Volunteers wrapping gifts to deliver to Oregon families ahead of Christmas. (Courtesy of Christmas Family Adoption Foundation)

Mike Burright was a Portland-area real estate agent in 2002 when a family he’d previously sold a house to told him they were going to lose everything.

The father had been injured at work, lost his job and was about to lose their home to foreclosure, so they relisted their house for sale to save some of their equity. The most difficult part, the mother told Burright, was that they couldn’t get their kids anything for Christmas.

“Christmas has always been a big part of our family, and so I decided I just wasn’t going to let that happen,” he said.

Burright took a photo of the children and compiled a wish list that included toys, their clothing sizes and some items their parents needed or would like. He mailed them as a flyer to his clients, friends and family and was overwhelmed by the number of gifts they returned, which he wrapped and brought to the family in a Santa suit.

It took three cars to deliver the gifts, capped off with a Christmas dinner provided by a local grocery store.

That same year, he founded the Christmas Family Adoption Foundation, a nonprofit that has since “adopted” around 5,800 families. The process allows people to buy and deliver gifts to families during the Christmas season based on their wish lists posted online. Having started in the Portland area, it recently expanded to Marion County.

The foundation is now getting a $1,500 donation from the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter, the alliance of the AFL-CIO-affiliated unions. It’s one of four regional programs to receive a donation from the labor chapter for its work during the holidays. Ahead of the chapter’s Monday meeting, spokesperson Bob Rossi said its members would also discuss ways to get their constituent unions and allies to donate to the programs.

For nearly 80 years, the labor chapter held a holiday party at Salem’s Elsinore Theatre. “But with the pandemic and just things changing in the community, that’s no longer available to us,” Rossi said. “We’re looking around for ways to fit into the community and still serve the community absent what we did traditionally, and this seems like a good fit for us.”

Christmas Family Adoption Foundation’s Board of Directors. From left: Diana Ferguson, Sharon Gaffney, Mike Burright, Jan Robinson and Jessica Worthington (Courtesy of Christmas Family Adoption Foundation)

The Christmas foundation serves low-income families who have trouble meeting their daily needs, including stable housing and food on their table.

“Often, it’s a family with one or two disabled children, and so at least one of the parents spends most of their time just taking care of the children’s needs and don’t have time to work. Sometimes it’s a single mother who maybe has had some difficulty in her past, gone through rehab and is trying to reestablish herself,” Burright said. “Sometimes it’s single parent who came from an abusive situation and is currently living in a shelter with her children. And we have some veteran families that are really struggling, so they just come from all over.”

It partners with the Oregon Department of Human Services and other social agencies with caseworks who nominate families they expect will not be able to get their children Christmas gifts. It serves the Portland metropolitan area and Vancouver, and started opening nominations in Marion County around three years ago.

Last year, it adopted 1,080 families. “Not always necessarily buying them everything on their wait list, but making sure that they had a great holiday,” Burright said.

The foundation starts taking nominations on Sept. 15 each year and lists around 100 families on its website at a time, replacing them as they get adopted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“This year, we were swamped right away with nominations,” he said. With 1,260 families already nominated – 411 adopted and the rest on a wait list – the foundation had to stop accepting additional nominations on Oct. 22. “We would love to take care of all of them, but that will take quite a miracle,” he said.

The adopters, dubbed “angels,” are often families or groups of employees. People who can’t afford to adopt a family but want to contribute can donate to the foundation through its website. For several years, Burright said Nike has adopted about 40 families and donated about $3,000 annually.

The foundation’s board of directors every December uses donations to buy gifts for families who haven’t been adopted yet and delivers them before Christmas. Burright said they’d like to spend the $1,500 donation on families in the Salem area, and how many families it serves will depend on the number of people, with about $200 being spent on each family member.

Burright said he did not know the foundation was getting the donation until he was contacted by Salem Reporter, but was thrilled to learn of it.

“Fantastic,” he said. “That’s just great.

People buying gifts to deliver to Oregon families as part of the foundation’s adoption process. (Courtesy of Christmas Family Adoption Foundation)

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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By Salem Reporter