*A little girl beams standing with her gifts from Family-to-Family. December 2024.*

Family-to-Family for the Holidays is one of ECS’ most beloved traditions. Each year, people sign up to sponsor ECS families and help provide gifts for the holiday season. The holidays are a special time of year, and no child deserves to go without. In 2025, Family-to-Family provided gifts for 383 neighbors from 88 families.

Family-to-Family requires the work of many ECS staff members, including Family Engagement Specialist Heidi Avent.

Since the Family-to-Family program first started, Heidi has been involved as a coordinator, working with family service technicians (FSTs), site supervisors, and home visitors to select families that would benefit from the program.

This year, the process has shifted so that staff who interact more closely with the families are leading the selection process, but Heidi is thrilled to continue to watch the program grow and bring Christmas magic to dozens of families. “It’s been a blessing,” she said.

Heidi shared that Family-to-Family is “one of the main resources for our families for the holidays.” Without it, the holidays would be a far more difficult time.

Family-to-Family would not be possible without the sponsors who volunteer to provide gifts for ECS families. Heidi expressed her appreciation for the sponsors. “The donations that the donors give to the families – it’s amazing, my mouth drops. They take the time to get what the families requested and make the families feel special this time of year,” she said. “I’m so thankful to know there are actually people out there who care and take the time to care for our families.”

Carly Montagne, CFO at Torrey Pines Landscape Company, has been a Family-to-Family sponsor for three years. The first year, she signed up as an individual, and after that she sponsored with her colleagues at Torrey Pines Landscape Company. “Everyone gets so excited, it makes everybody feel super in the Christmas spirit since they’re doing something for someone,” she said.

*A mother and child smile with their gifts. December 2024.*

An Episcopalian and member of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Carly has volunteered with her parish in many ways over the years. When she saw the sign up for Family-to-Family in the Diocese newsletter, she decided to try a new way of giving back and sponsor a family.

Carly recalled her first trip delivering gifts to her sponsored family. “The mom was crying the entire time, ‘this is all for us? I can’t believe it.’ I was in tears the whole drive home,” she said.

Carly showcases neighborly love and holiday spirit by going above and beyond with her sponsor duties. The first year she sponsored, she volunteered to take on an additional family who had no sponsor match. This year, she asked ECS again about any unmatched families, and through her family, friends, and colleagues, Carly found matches for six additional families.

“Anything we can do to support and give back is one of the most important things we can do,” she said. “That’s what Jesus would want, he said ‘give them the shirt off your back,’ so how can I do less?”

This year, ECS is inviting all of its community members to reflect on how they light the season with love. Carly shared that “to me, it means there is no Christmas without love... love should light our lives and our decisions; the world would be a much better place.”

Family-to-Family sponsors are touching hearts and lives through their generosity, lighting up the season for children excited to receive gifts, and even more for parents who get to see joy on their children’s faces.

“You just see the joy and appreciation in their faces, that ECS is able to help them. It’s helped so many families in our community,” Heidi shared. “It’s a season of hope; they’re giving hope to our families.”

To learn more ways you can give hope to ECS families, students, and clients, visit https://www.ecscalifornia.org/ways-to-give.