Yatooma's Foundation Gives Grieving Family a Christmas Surprise

A West Bloomfield family grieving the loss of two fathers received a special visit Saturday from Yatooma’s Foundation For The Kids, to make their holiday season a little brighter.

After having been married with two children, the local mother lost her first husband in a horrific automobile accident. After having grieved that loss, she married again some time later and had four more children, only to lose her second husband while he was awaiting a heart transplant. The children from her first marriage have expressed their sadness in having lost two fathers for whom they cared deeply.  

Working in partnership with Art Van Furniture, Foundation volunteers, led by “Santa Claus” (also known as attorney and Foundation founder Norman Yatooma of Bloomfield), surprised the West Bloomfield family and three other families from metro Detroit who recently lost a parent, with an “Extreme Christmas Makeover.”

The families received furniture donated by Art Van, and each child opened up a refrigerator-sized box filled with toys, clothing and winter gear they had been asking for all year. In addition, families were given an Ed McMahon-sized check to help provide for food and assistance on other basic needs, such as living expenses and utilities, to get them through the winter months.

“We will never be able to bring back Mom or Dad, but we can give these kids a memory of Santa and dozens of elves showing up on their front porch with truck loads of support and holiday cheer rather than one of the empty hole left by their late parent at Christmas time,” said Norman Yatooma, founder & president of Yatooma’s Foundation For The Kids. 

In addition to families receiving the Foundation’s Extreme Christmas Makeover, each family currently receiving Foundation assistance has been provided with gift certificates for a holiday meal and gifts for each child. 

Yatooma’s Foundation For The Kids brings emotional, financial, educational, employment and social stability to families of children who have lost one or both parents to death. Norman Yatooma launched the Foundation after his father’s tragic murder in 1993 to help other children and families who are struggling with the death of a parent.

For more information, visit www.forthekidsfoundation.org.

Source: Press release