Courtesy of CBS ENTERTAINMENT
The Peters family from Los Angeles, including dad Thomas, left, and mom Sharis (second from right), have three foster children — Miles (with ball), Jasmine and Jade (far right). The family will be profiled Sunday on “A Home for the Holidays” on CBS. The program was produced and written by Las Vegas native Karen Mack.
Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Karen Mack’s friends were attempting to adopt a child from overseas and running into logistical problems.
Mack, a Las Vegas native, remembered thinking to herself that “these children are available to adopt in America. You don’t have to go to another country.”
So, she decided to take action to bring awareness to the issue of foster care adoptions by helping create what has become “A Home for the Holidays,” an annual primetime network special, now in its 22nd year. This year’s edition airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on CBS (KLAS-TV, Channel 8).
“We needed to raise awareness for this important social issue,” said Mack, the show’s writer and executive producer.
This year’s show features uplifting performances from notable artists such as Josh Groban, Miranda Lambert, Leslie Odom Jr. and Andrea Bocelli. More important, the show spotlights the foster-care system in the United States, where there are 400,000 children who are hoping for that “forever home.”
The program will include three of those children being virtually adopted with a ceremony in front of a judge.
Karen Mack
“There are some uplifting stories to be told,” Mack said.
One of the stories being spotlighted this year involves the Peters family from Los Angeles, who turned to foster care adoption after experiencing infertility issues. In 2010, they adopted foster children 3-year-old Miles and his 4-month old sister, Jasmine. About 10 months later, the children’s infant sister was also placed in foster care.
Today, the Peters’ family includes all three children. Dad coaches their youth sports teams; mom is the leader in the Girl Scouts.
“Miles had the biggest smile, but it was difficult to communicate because no one had talked to him enough to learn language,” father Thomas Peters said in a CBS release. “He soon started coming out of his shell, and the words just started coming.”
The show, which is presented in association with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Children’s Action Network, has certainly made an impact.
It won the Television Academy Honors in 2008 from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which is reserved for “television with a conscience,” or programs that motivate and have the power to change lives. More significant: It has inspired “tens of thousands of adoptions,” according to CBS.
The adoption number is tough to track over two decades because the show could also plant the seed with a viewer to later open the hearts to adopting, Mack said.
The feedback each year is overwhelming.
The show, Mack said, “challenges the misconceptions about adoption.”
The pandemic has slightly altered the flow of this year’s show. Instead of the artists performing together at the same location, they are playing from the isolation of their home — Lambert in Nashville and Bocelli in Italy, for instance. And when filming of a foster family took place, it was done with a skeleton production crew.
But the end result will still be the same in plenty of heartwarming stories and motivational music. It’s become one of those can’t-miss holiday traditions.
“We love being on Sunday night,” Mack said. “CBS is very generous for picking this up year after year, and the entertainers for donating their time to perform.”
Mack, a Las Vegas High graduate, has deep roots in Southern Nevada. In fact, residents travel on a street named after her — Karen Avenue — on a daily basis. And many of us have been to an event at the Thomas & Mack Center, which was partially funded by her father, Jerome Mack, a banker and noted local philanthropist who was one of the founders of UNLV.
Karen Mack, who now resides in Los Angeles, has multiple degrees from UCLA, including a juris doctorate from the UCLA School of Law. She left a career as an entertainment lawyer to produce movies and television shows, and hasn’t looked back.
She was the executive producer of “One Against the Wind” with Judy Davis, which was based on a true story of a nurse with the French Red Cross in World War II who helped Allied soldiers who had been shot down escape to the unoccupied side of France. The film won three Golden Globe Awards in 1992, including for best motion picture made for television.
But Mack said her passion would always be the annual holiday special. When considering only 3% of foster children become college graduates and 25% wind up homeless, bringing attention to adoption opportunities has become a life’s calling.
And there’s nothing better than the adoptions that are the part of the show. They tug at the emotional heartstrings.
“I’m very proud of the show,” Mack said. “It’s a great night.”
