Aug 23, 2004

Extra Care
When you were in college, did your family ever send you a box filled with cookies, socks, maybe a roll of quarters for the dorm washing machines? It’s one of the small, great things about having a caring family, and one of the many things that former foster youth don’t often experience.

That’s why the Orphan Foundation of America is organizing volunteers to cook some 12,000 (a dozen times 1,000) chocolate chip cookies, and accepting donations from companies and community groups, in advance of National Care Package Day on September 25, 2004.

In addition, OFA recruits groups to send three care packages each school year to five different students.

The foundation was established in 1981 to help former foster youth stay on their feet and move forward with their lives and goals. For many young people who “age out” of foster care at 18 or 21, the loss of supports from the child welfare system can make for a difficult transition to college or paid work and an independent life.

OFA offers scholarships for college, vocational or technical school and provides virtual mentors (vMentors) to former foster youth. The care package program reflects the organization’s belief that in addition to knowledge and advice, these young people need to feel loved.

The Care Package program started informally in 1993 as a part of the “Mentor by Mail” program and has gone through several transformations since then. In the past, individuals sent packages to OFA, and OFA in turn sent them to the students.

OFA, which is funded in part by Casey Family Programs and individual donors, has sent over 10,000 care packages. The packages typically consist of food, instant cameras, dorm accessories, school supplies and toiletries. One student mentioned getting a gift certificate for gas, and a t-shirt that said “Be Good, I Know Santa.” OFA's Annalisa Assaadi emphasizes that quality counts -- many former foster kids are used to receiving hand-me-downs and off-brand items, and really appreciate things that are new and thoughtfully chosen.

Groups usually find out about the Care Package program during the holidays when they are looking for ways to help others. Assaadi says people learn about the program from the OFA website and email her to get involved. OFA is working to reach more groups through flyers and word of mouth. The number of foster youth that are making it to college is increasing and the demand for care packages is greater than ever. And it really does make a difference. As Kadia Edwards, a former foster student at Howard University puts it, “I don’t think anyone would not want to receive a gift.”

To find out how you can donate or have your group be care package senders, contact Annalisa Assaadi at aja4OFA@aol.com or (703) 821-8669 or visit the OFA website: www.orphan.org.

 

Having Fun and Doing Good

A young patient receiving a stuffed animal at Soroka Hospital in Israel

After the birth of her youngest daughter, Stacy Scheinberg decided she wanted to teach her three children about “giving back.” She came up with the idea of organizing a party for medically fragile children in a nearby New York City hospital. With a group of friends, Scheinberg sewed stuffed animals and threw a party for the children.

The project turned out to be so fun and successful that she founded Partners in Giving, a small organization devoted to organizing parties for children in hospitals.

Six years later, Partners in Giving is still cheering up sick children – while teaching healthy children important lessons in the value of giving. By having school children help with the assembling of the gifts, she increases their awareness of the challenges faced by other children. The parties themselves, which include live entertainment, bring joy to hospital-bound children.

Scheinberg says one of the great things she has learned from her experience creating this organization is how generous people can be. Partners in Giving, which has a budget of under $25,000, relies on donations from fabric stores, volunteer workers and discounted or free performances by entertainers, such as Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter Yarrow and Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath.

Every other week, a core group of volunteers meet to cut out fabric for the stuffed animals, which are based on folk art patterns from the 1940s. One of the volunteers brings the pieces home and sews them into the form of the stuffed animal. The empty fabric shells are then brought to schools and community centers where the kids stuff them and write cards to the recipients. To make it easier for the children to give up their creations, medals or certificates are awarded to them for their help. Parties are thrown about eight times a year at various hospitals in New York.

Thousands of children have been served through Partners in Giving, and it has even reached an international scope. Last year, Scheinberg spent a week in Israel bringing parties and a famous Israeli musician to hospitals throughout the country. Scheinberg has nothing but words of encouragement for others interested in starting a similar project. “It is very easy to do,” she assures and it is indeed a great way to “give back.”

You can contact Sheinberg at Partnersg@aol.com

Diana Strumbos is a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, interning at Connect for Kids for the summer of 2004.