While many of us are celebrating the holiday season, there are many children in Southeast Wisconsin who face challenges that most of us can't even imagine. The holidays and Christmas should be a time when children are happy and can just be kids again. One organization in Racine, called Faith Hope and Love, is helping ensure that every child feels cherished and supported during the most magical time of the year.For Heather and her husband, Mark Lojeski, together they started the nonprofit Faith Hope and Love about 10 years ago. It's an organization that helps children in foster care and kids in crisis. For them, this is a personal mission."My husband and I had been foster parents previously. I grew up in a really abusive home, so for me, it became a personal mission to help children that are in crisis situations," said Heather.The organization has helped bring comfort to thousands of kids across Southeast Wisconsin, and the gifts they packed on Thursday are for law enforcement officers to take and give to kids who may be going through a difficult time.Watch: This Racine-based group is delivering holiday cheer to local kids in crisis: Racine-based Faith Hope and Love delivers holiday cheer to kids in crisis"We let the departments know that they have access to those gifts throughout the holidays, so if they come across a child in need of some extra Christmas cheer, they can come directly to our facility. They have a code they can punch and come in and grab those gifts," said Heather.This is one of the many ways Faith Hope and Love takes care of children in our area.Over the years, they have also provided duffel bags filled with comfort items and essentials for kids transitioning into foster care. Since 2013, they have provided more than 6,500 duffel bags to different agencies."Its an emergency duffel bag filled with personal care items and comfort items for kids, so we put in a fleece blanket, stuffed animals, storybooks, coloring books, crayons, and hygiene kits," said Heather.And as Christmas is this week, their biggest mission yet is Operation Christmas Cheer. This year they have given away more than 1,000 gifts to kids in Southeast Wisconsin."Its just a time where the kids get to be kids, just have fun," said Heather."We want to have gifts for families, for kids who don't have," said Mark.Heather and Mark said that they couldn't have done any of this without the support of the community, and their hope is that with each gift and each small act, every child knows that they are supported and loved."I wanted to make sure that no other child felt that they didn't matter, and that they knew there were people there who were willing to help them," said Heather.In 2025, Faith Hope and Love will be launching an improved mentoring program for at-risk youth ages 11-17 years old who are either in foster care, kinship care, have been adopted, or have an incarcerated parent. Applications will be available for new sign-ups in September.To learn more about Faith, Hope & Love, click here.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error