23 holiday adoption cases still unclaimed

Fifteen Cole County families and eight children from the state's Division of Family Services remain on The Redeem Project's Hope for Christmas adoption list.

In November, the list consisted of 847 families across 25 Missouri counties.

The Redeem Project is a faith-based nonprofit that offers information for community resources and collaborates with other community agencies to serve project participants.

The Hope for Christmas program allows families, community members and groups to adopt families for Christmas.

"These families are all suffering some kind of loss or medical issue," said Vicki Bullock, executive director of The Redeem Project. "Several have actually been volunteers or donors in previous years."

She said The Redeem Project is looking for people to adopt the families within the next week and buy them gifts for Christmas, or to make a monetary donation to meet their needs.

An anonymous donor is matching all donations and if that money is spent at two local retailers, those stores are matching the money spent.

Bullock said the agency is also looking for volunteers to help wrap the gifts this week and to help deliver them next week.

If you would like to adopt a family or volunteer with The Redeem Project, contact Bullock at 635-2083.