Shortly after receiving placement of a child, many Adoption STAR adoptive parents find themselves feeling incredibly fortunate and grateful to have achieved their dreams of parenthood. Often times, these clients find themselves wanting to say “thank you” to a staff member here at Adoption STAR that worked closely with them, as their hearts are filled with gratitude and they want to do something to acknowledge the efforts that an employee made on their behalf.
This acknowledgment and gratitude comes in many forms, and sometimes it takes the form of a gift for an Adoption STAR staff member that has been purchased by the adoptive parents. Over the years gifts have included (but are not limited to) jewelry, picture frames, and gift cards. While the generosity of the act is undeniable, staff has returned these gifts to the well-meaning clients, as the agency feels for many reasons that it is not appropriate for employees to accept such gifts.
Having that said, we do appreciate the thought behind the gifts, and we’d like to encourage our generous clients to consider the following as alternatives to sending gifts directly to Adoption STAR staff:
- Donate an item to the agency for use at a fund raising event (like Shining STAR), as we can place items in gift baskets that are used for raffles at our events.
- Purchase a leaf on the Adoption STAR Family Tree! By purchasing an item for posting on the tree, you’ll be making a financial gift to the agency as well as inscribing a message in honor of, in celebration of, or in memory of someone (and the message itself will be up on our tree for everyone to see). You can even thank a staff member by putting a message specifically to them up on our tree. We offer a variety of payment plans for Family Tree donations, and more than one family can go in together on a purchase. To learn more about our Adoption STAR Family Tree, please check out the following link.
We certainly appreciate the generosity that is so characteristic of our adoptive families and we encourage you to consider expressing it one of the aforementioned ways.
Read More on What is Happening at Adoption STAR: Our Calendar of Events for 2013