Background Information

  When Karen Brown's daughter Kristi was killed in an accident 11 years ago, the Springfield woman decided she wanted to memorialize her daughter's spirit of giving and love of helping those less fortunate.

    Kristi, 19, had just completed her first year at the University of Virginia when she was killed in a car accident on the Capital Beltway in June 1987. As a student at West Springfield High School,  Kristi had been a member of DECA (Distributive Education Club of America). One year she participated in a club-sponsored Christmas shopping party for some economically disadvantaged youngsters, and it made an impression on her.

    Her family decided a program modeled after that project would be the perfect way to memorialize her. And so was born "Kristi's Christmas."