DIXON — Shining Star Children’s Advocacy Center recently wrapped up its holiday season pajama drive that saw an overwhelming response from the community. 

The Dixon-based nonprofit organization serves Ogle and Lee counties and works with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and law enforcement when there are issues of physical and sexual abuse of children. Shining Star has its own location where children can be interviewed in a warm environment by trained staff. It also provides counseling, court advocacy, community resources and more. 

The pajama drive ran from September through early December and the community helped Shining Star to provide new, cozy pajamas to local child abuse survivors. Shining Star Executive Director Jessica Cash said her organization saw the need through the work it does with kids and families.

“We hear from a lot of families that regular clothes are so expensive that they can't afford pajamas,” Cash said. “We thought this would be a fun way to be able to get kids pajamas and give them something comfortable to sleep in. We received about seven times as many donations as we expected. We're going to give them out when kids come for forensic interviews. We're going to give them to kids we've seen over the past few months and kids that come in over the next year. We have plenty of pajamas to share with all of them. One thing we always stress to parents is the importance of sleep to kids' mental health. If they're not sleeping and there's trauma, there can be impacts at school and the rest of life. We thought this was another way to help them get a good night's sleep.”

As of Dec. 4, Shining Star received 793 pairs of pajamas. It expected to receive about 100, Cash said. The pajama drive is in its first year and was the first time the nonprofit requested a specific item over the holidays. The drive saw response from both counties, including donations from churches, dozens of individuals, law enforcement and prosecutors, banks and other community organizations. 

Cash said she believes about 70 percent of the children Shining Star services deal with clothing issues. 

“They don't have appropriate clothing for the weather or clothes that fit and parents have to make do with what they can find with secondhand or thrifting,” Cash said. “We are fortunate Serenity Hospice & Home helps us with their Angel Treasures stores they have in both counties. If we have a family with an immediate need they get us clothes. We thought this was an excellent way to help families out. Pajamas are expensive. And you have to meet the other needs of your kids and kids grow and change sizes.”

Cash called the community’s support of the drive “amazingly overwhelming”, especially amid tough economic times and high prices in stores. She said Shining Star is fortunate to service two counties locally that support it so well. 

“I think the biggest thing is, it shows how much the community does care about kids,” Cash said. “That's part of what we've really been working on over the past year, is awareness of adults needing to look out for kids and be their voice. Every agency always wants money, but this is people being able to give something tangible that they know will go directly to a child and help them. It just makes a difference. This is probably the most support we've gotten on any event or drive we've done in the past few years. It's been amazing.”

After so much response was seen to the pajama drive in recent months, Shining Star decided to give out pajamas early to children who came for interviews and counseling. 

“Kids would see the box and the pajamas and their eyes would light up,” Cash said. “They come out of that room and most of them are feeling a little bit lighter because they've been able to get all of that out and tell somebody. And then you hand them something as simple as a pair of pajamas and their whole face just lights up and they're excited. It just makes you realize even though they're simple things, they can really brighten a day when a child just had to talk about something traumatic.”

Shining Star CAC’s current wish list also includes bottled water, juice boxes, individual snack care packages (crackers, chips, fruit snacks, etc.), card games, art supplies (crayons, sketch pads, coloring books, markers, canvas, paint), Play Dough, forever stamps, fleece blankets, new stuffed animals and board games. Monetary donations are always accepted at www.shiningstarcac.org. 

Holiday safety

Amid the holiday season, Cash also discussed safety with children in the coming weeks during  family gatherings, a busy time with events, and children out of school spending extra time with family and friends.

Parents are advised to review body safety rules with children before gatherings and tell kids it’s OK to not physically greet visiting family and friends if they don’t want to. Parents should ask children if anyone they’ll be seeing makes them uncomfortable for any reason. Kids can establish a safe word with parents so they can get their attention in situations where they feel unsafe.

Other holiday safety tips include supervising children while playing around the house and keeping doors open, reviewing the gatherings afterwards with children to make sure they felt safe, taking time to step away when losing patience with children amid stressful times, and monitoring children’s time on electronics for online predators while they have more time out of school to use them.