Foster the Love hosted a Family Fun Day today, celebrating one year of existence.
This non-profit organization that helps foster parents with the things they need to help their foster children. Every child entering a foster home gets an overnight bag for their first night. It’s gender and age specific, and will contain things needed to care for that child, and make the child comfortable.
Today’s event was held at Poche’s RV Park in Breaux Bridge. It was filled with food and fun family activities, but the main purpose was to celebrate the creation of a Foster the Love chapter here in Acadiana.
Nearly 900 children enter the foster system in Acadiana every year. One of those children was a 20-day-old baby who was sent to Heather Duhon received to foster. The baby arrived with a diaper bag, but it didn’t contain much, sending Duhon out into the night to find a story to pick up things she needed to care for the child. That experience led her to found the local chapter.
Many other foster families encounter the same situation, because so many kids come into the system with nothing. Foster the Love helps make the transition a little better on everyone, in Acadiana’s eight parishes.
If you’d like to help, you can do so by donating items for the overnight bags, volunteering and in other ways.
The overnight bags provide pajamas and hygiene essentials for for first nights in care. In each bag, the group also provides a blanket, book and comfort item.
To fill the bags, Foster the Love needs pajamas, socks, diapers, underwear, wipes, diaper cream, baby bottles, pacifiers, baby/toddle body wash, shampoo, soap/body wash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair brushes, hair accessories, washcloths/loofahs, feminine pads, deodorant, small blankets, small stuffed animals, coloring books and crayons, journals and pens/pencils.
The group also has a community closet, offering clothes, shoes and underwear for foster kids.
And, they hold regular meetings to offer information if you’d like to find out about becoming a foster parent.
For more info on the group, visit their Facebook page here.
If you are interested in helping, contact the group at connect@fosterthelovela.or
Financial gifts can be made at www.fosterthelovela.org
