"It’s that time of year again, the hustle and bustle of the Holiday’s is all around us. In this frenzied time it’s easy to lose sight of the true meaning of the Holiday Season.

 Several years ago Kidz-Biz planted a seed that has grown to fulfill the Christmas dreams of some very special children.

 In Los Angeles we are surrounded by those less fortunate, they live in our neighborhoods, work in the businesses we frequent and struggle daily in silence and often in anonymity.

 Heartlight began as an opportunity to fulfill the Christmas wishes of some of the younger members of this struggling community. Every year we visit the Central Los Angeles post office and collect "Santa Letters" so that we can help to make the dreams of these hopeful children come true. After hours of shopping, organizing, wrapping and sorting we set out on Christmas Eve maneuvering our "sleigh" through the streets of South Central Los Angeles and beyond to deliver the "dreams."

Our yearly adventure of gathering Santa letters from the South Central Los Angeles post office has begun!!!! We are taking on more kids this year than ever as one of our "families" has 8 children!!!! Yikes! And, being that it’s so difficult to refrain from taking nearly every letter that makes it’s way into our hands, we are seeking help from our friends and our friends friends and "strangers" the friends we have yet to meet!!!! In order to reach as many kids as possible, we need the resources to help us do so!

In addition to our Holiday efforts for Heartlight, we have taken on other year round projects as these kids need us all year, not just during the holidays!

One of the projects we worked with this year was a camp called "Tools for Peace" where we met a number of kid’s from South Central Los Angeles and have become quite involved with several of the families. It’s truly astounding the conditions these kids are living in. And, frankly, it’s been heart wrenching to only be able to "help" a few. While taking one of the kid’s "Erwin" home one day, he pointed across the street and told us that one of his best friends had been shot and killed the month before in broad daylight. He witnessed the shooting and saw his friend die, he spoke of it as casually as you and I might speak of something that happened in the office, it was chilling! On another occasion, we were delivering "Claudio" home and as we came down the street we were greeted by numerous emergency vehicles. We decided it best to wait in his one room apartment until things settled down outside. With helicopters buzzing overhead, Claudio mentioned that most likely someone had been shot and they were probably looking for the shooter, minutes later a 9 year old boy came and banged on the door and asked if we had heard about the 8 year old girl who had been shot 3 times in the back, a half a block away, again in broad daylight. The most enlightening part of this whole experience has been the realization that we are surrounded by kids and families like this and while we have certainly been exposed to it during our "Santa" project, we are now seeing it year round. These kids are in the neighborhoods where we work and not far from where we live and it’s so easy for all of this to become "invisible" because honestly, it’s easier to deal with if you don’t "see" it. Caesar, Claudio’s 10 year old brother told us when we delivered groceries to his home that "now, for once, my refrigerator isn’t blank." Caesar and Claudio’s Mom was working on the street selling flan to put food on the table. She now has a job working in a local factory owned by a friend, and hopefully, the refrigerator won’t be "blank" as often anymore. The notion that there are children in this Country who are hungry is overwhelming and that they are within reach is even harder to accept! We don’t want to see any hungry kids!!!

We are hoping that you may be able to help "Santa" make Christmas more of a reality for the kids this year. Anything you can spare would be wonderful!!!! If you prefer to send a toy, that’s great! We often have a Santa letter from one child and when we show up to their home on Christmas Eve, another 6 kid’s come to the door! We always have bags of extra gifts on hand so that none of the kid’s are "forgotten." If you can send a financial donation, please make it payable to "Kidz-Biz" and send it to:

Kidz-Biz

P.O. Box 250400

Glendale, CA 91225

And, if you’re strapped this year…….just send us happy thoughts on Christmas Eve as we maneuver our "sleigh" through the streets and traffic of downtown Los Angeles!

Thanks so much for being good friends and may your holiday season be filled with much laughter, joy and love!

Peace in our time,