Sacred Heart Junior/Senior High School basketball players, Great Plains Manufacturing, Saint Francis Ministries collaborate to deliver appreciation gifts
Young men on the Sacred Heart Junior/Senior High School basketball teams took their hard work off the court to support foster care and kinship families.
Saint Francis Ministries wasn’t sure how to manage the unloading of a large number of blankets – a gift of appreciation for foster care and kinship families – when the community stepped up to help. Great Plains Manufacturing offered to let the semi-truck delivery be made at their loading dock at the Great Plains Parts Center, 1411 East North Street, which saved Saint Francis significant dollars, said Vicki Cain, director of Foster Care Homes Recruitment and Retention.
"Then the boys on the Sacred Heart basketball team volunteered to help us unload," Cain said. "It's this kind of wrap-around support that makes us so grateful to be part of the Salina community. These blankets are appreciation gifts for our foster care and kinship families."
The team members also helped to sort the blankets into groups and then load them for distribution to a number of Saint Francis locations.
This appreciation campaign, to recognize all the foster and kinship families across Kansas, was created in order to raise them up when plans for other appreciation events were canceled due to the pandemic.
"The gifts are wonderful by themselves, and they’re only made better when families know that businesses like Great Plains and youth in our community are offering their support too," Cain said.
