For the past 10 years, Southern Ute tribal elder Ramona Eagle has been creating Christmas stockings for the Southern Ute foster youth. With the help of her family and the community, Eagle has been able to bring a Christmas miracle to the children in the foster care system. Each year, Eagle gathers the materials and sews the stockings with the help of her family members, then asks for help from different departments or community groups to decorate the stockings.
This year, the seniors at the Ignacio Senior Center came together to decorate the stockings. “I have had Sunshine Smith Youth Council, and then I’ve had some others, like the multipurpose group decorate,” Eagle said. “I’m just really thankful that people in different groups … were excited about making doing the decorations because they come with a lot of different ideas. I buy all the decorations, so I’m always appreciative of what they can step up and do themselves. But I think some of the people that I’ve asked, they were in a foster program too when they were really young and so I think it means a lot to them when I ask them [to help.]”
Along with the creation of the stockings, the Division of Social Services assists Eagle by providing the items that are stuffed into the stockings. Kellie Yazzie, Foster Care Coordinator for the Division of Social Services, works with Eagle to ensure the correct amount of stocking are made for the current youth in the foster care system. “We fill the stockings for our youth who we are serving here,” said Augusta Torres, Division of Social Services Data Manager, Torres made sure to fill each stocking to max capacity.
Eagle has fostered nine children over the years from not only the Southern Ute foster system, but children from the state of Colorado. “I worked with WhimSpire [Foster Care] before the Tribe really got active [with] foster kids. Most of the kids that I foster came from not only here, but also from Ute Mountain.”
“I know that when I see them, they introduced me to the person they’re with and they tell them, ‘this is the lady that fostered’ me and that person says, ‘I hear good things about what you did with them.’”
“I just hope I had a good impact in their life, you know … at some point in their time, and I’m pretty sure I did,” she said.
Eagle plans to foster more children and teens in the future to continue helping the local youth. “I want to foster more kids in the future … I have only fostered teens, but never the younger kids. Once I have things in order I want to continue helping these kids.”