Count On Me Shops Help Kids In Hospitals Get Gifts For Loved Ones

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Six-year-old Evan got a special helper, an elf of sorts to help with his holiday shopping.

He was shopping for gifts for, as he put it, "my Mommy and Daddy."

A makeshift store is set up right at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, thanks to the Jim Mora Count On Me family foundation.

"It's been amazing," said Shannon Mora, wife of UCLA head football head coach Jim Mora. "I think it gives them a sense of normalcy, and I think for them, a lot of their days are predicated by their treatments and dialysis and therapy and medication time, and for them to have full control of their choice of gift for their loved ones is incredible."

The Moras started the foundation almost 11 years ago.

"We started it in the Atlanta just with the idea of helping children at-risk and in need," Jim Mora said.

About 40 children will pass through these aisles shopping for mom and dad and their siblings.

"The gift of giving is empowering," Shannon Mora said.

If the kids can't come to the store, a store goes to them.

The Moras know how empowering it is for the children but also how special it is for their loved ones to receive a gift.

"So much of their life probably is surrounded by taking care of their kid here," Jim Mora said of parents whose children are patients at the hospital. "It's probably hard for them to realize how important it is for their kids to be able to give them something."

The Count On Me holiday shops are in seven hospitals in six states, and they plan to expand.