Maryland-Based Legal Aid Bureau Adopts Disadvantaged Families For The Holidays

Staffers at the Legal Aid Bureau Inc. are used to spending long hours working for the most impoverished, disadvantaged and sympathetic children. But at the holidays, they spend a little of their paychecks as well.

Starting about five years ago, they began selecting some clients from their child custody unit to receive gifts and food for a holiday meal.

"People in the unit became unwilling to just sit by with something they noticed during the holidays," said staff attorney Mark Stave. "They noticed many children were living in group homes or with some relative, and those people or organizations didn't have the wherewithal to make a Christmas for these kids."

Staff members have "adopted" children for the season, as have friends or family of Legal Aid Bureau employees. They are either purchasing gifts the children asked for or are donating money for food.