2022 Recap

Thank you for financially and prayerfully partnering with us in 2021 as we worked through the year, providing support for children, youth and families in our community and beyond.  Despite the circumstances that took over 2021, your generosity was evident! Here is a recap of 2021:

• Baby Expos: 79 families attended to select items they needed for their baby’s first years. Clothing, shoes, blankets, car seats, toys, diapers and more were all offered free of charge.

 

• Easter: Our 2nd Annual Easter Eggstravaganza was quite impressive with 10,000 candy filled eggs, games, bounce houses, a petting zoo, food and craft vendors and, of course, a visit from the Easter Bunny! Over 750 people attended this event!   

 

• Burgers, Braids and Bows: Our inaugural Father / Daughter date night brought girls of all ages for a fun night of teaching their dads how to do hair! Yep – dads were equipped with the skills to put in ponytails, pigtails, simple braids, and even the daunting french braid. Each family went home with a gift basket of supplies to re-create these styles at home. It was a unique opportunity for dads and daughters to connect on this level.

   

• Back-to-School Event: Our 5th Annual Back-to-School Event was our biggest one yet! At our local event, 487 children were all were provided new backpacks filled with school supplies, dental kits, new socks and undergarments, new tennis shoes and gently worn clothing. Our outdoor fun area had free dental kits, scholastic books, balloon animals, parent resources, kite flying and a whole lot of fun!  For the very first time, we were also provided with an opportunity to hold a Back-to-School Event outside of our area. We traveled to Manassas, Virginia and had a drive-thru style event at a local fire station, with coordination and support from a business – Finlay Fire. There, 487 children received backpacks full of school supplies and an additional 50 backpacks were donated to surrounding area schools. In total, 1,056 children benefited from our 2022 Back-to-School Events!   
  

 

• Thanksgiving Meals: We were able to support families in three school districts, providing them with everything they needed to cook their own Thanksgiving meal. 372 children and 252 adults in 120 families were served, for a total of 624 Thanksgiving meals! This was an 60% increase over 2021.  

 

• Pegasus Christmas Store / Family Day: A Christmas ‘store’ was set up at the Pegasus campus and all 160 young men in the program were able to ‘shop’ for a gift for a special adult in their life. Some picked out gifts for a parent, some for their caseworker or Pegasus staff. After they picked their gift, we helped them wrap it up – some presents got uniquely wrapped and a lot of tape was used, but we had a great time! Those that picked a gift for a family member were able to present it to them the very next day, which was Family Day. About half of the residents did not have family there to visit, but we were able to bring in former NFL player and Chaplain of the San Antonio Spurs, Richard Garza for a surprise visit. He gave a great motivational presentation, signed autographs, interacted, and participated in activities with those who would’ve otherwise been watching movies all day while their peers had family visits.

 

• Santa Letters: Approximately 100 children wrote letters to Santa and dropped them off in our special North Pole Santa Mailbox! Santa wrote back every child that sent in a letter!

 

• Christmas Gifts: As with Thanksgiving, we saw an increase in families needing assistance with Christmas gifts for their children. 325 children in 102 families were placed on our Elf Tree, up from 198 children the prior year. All children were sponsored by the local community and our facility had so many gifts in it you could barely walk through!

 

• Walk-Ins: 4:12 Kids accepts walk-in appointments all year round. In 2021, we had approximately 46 families come to us for support for items such as shoes, clothing, hygiene items, etc., up from 30 families in 2020.

 

• Awards: In February, we received the 2022 Best of Caldwell County Non-Profit Award, presented by the Lockhart Post Register, for the 2nd year in a row! Last week, we were presented with the 2022 Non-Profit Spirit Award by the Lockhart Chamber of Commerce; we previously received this award in 2020. We were truly honored to receive both awards and know that we could not accomplish anything without the support of donors and volunteers like you.  

Our Volunteers Amassed Over 2,000
​Volunteer Work Hours in 2022!

Instead of adding new programs in 2023, we are going to take what we have and grow these programs to be more effective and of greater impact. One huge area of impact will be the expansion of clothing closets in all of our area schools!

We are merely the hands and feet of these programs; we could not have accomplished all we have done without your support. It is truly amazing to see what God is doing in and through 4:12 Kids and we are excited to see what 2023 has in store for us.  

For ways in which you can support this ministry, click on the Get Involved tab.