AJ’s Seafood & Oyster Bar along with Kid’s on the Coast Foundation bring Christmas Cheer to local students at high school.

FORT WALTON BEACH, FL, December 23, 2020 /Neptune100/ — On Monday, December 14th , many students at Fort Walton Beach High School received a special Holiday delivery for Christmas this year, thanks to the generous donations from the Kids on the Coast Foundation and AJ’s Seafood & Oyster Bar.

After discovering a few years ago, that many teenagers in our local community have significant needs, during the Christmas season, Kids on the Coast Foundation and Fort Walton Beach High School teamed up to make sure their students have a very special Christmas, regardless of their life circumstance. Both school administrators and the Foundation work together to assure that each of these teens, have their own special needs met, during the Christmas season.”Students are in need of the basics, things that many of us might take for granted, and we try meet each of those needs, with shoes, jackets, socks, laptops for school, and gift cards for food”, and often a little something extra,” says Elaine Aldis, spokesperson for the Foundation. “These gifts were the culmination of a year-round fundraising effort by the Kids on the Coast Foundation.”

“These presents given by Kids on the Coast Foundation and AJ’s, will make these students holidays and probably year,” says Peter Pinkert with Fort Walton Beach High School. “I have seen so many tears of joy as I delivered each student their presents, and it’s because of the Foundation’s huge heart.”

The Kids on the Coast Foundation is a 501 (c)3 Non Profit organization that partners with the AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar family of restaurants. Their mission is to provide assistance to local children and youth in need. “The Foundation like many non-profits has been hit hard with 2020 not being able to host many of their many fundraising events,” said Dan Collins, Entertainment Director for AJ’s, “we hope for 2021 to be able to start hosting some fundraisers again. This year we were only able to host our Annual Thanksgiving Feast at AJ’s on the Bayou and AJ’s Grayton Beach.” Between the two stores we fed 683 meals, with the majority of meals served to go. Donations received from Thanksgiving were used to purchase gifts for the students at FWB High School as well as donation to FWB High School Christmas Connections.

There is nothing more gratifying than helping our local youth, and we hope to continue for many years to come!