Foster Care Closet

My family loves roller coasters. One year while watching Travel Channel, we saw a program that highlighted 4 AMAZING roller coasters all located in one amusement park. Seriously, this park had 4 of the top 10 coasters in the United States, so this had to be a vacation destination.  We traveled 900 miles to Sandusky, Ohio and Cedar Point, Roller Coaster Capital of the World!  We had a blast.  

Most of our trips were uneventful. They were joyous times of celebrating family time, laughing and flying through the air. But there was one year that it wasn't quite so uneventful. Dragging our tired bodies out of the park, we noticed that things were eerily quiet. We made our way to our vehicle and turned on the radio to learn that the power was out in Sandusky.  We learned something else during this time, the power grid that controls the ENTIRE EAST COAST is located right there on Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio. That power grid decided that it wanted to flip it's switch and in doing so, there was an entire blackout on the East coast from New York to Detroit to Sandusky, Ohio and all the places in between. This stopped being an adventure the moment we realized that we had $11.00 cash and no gas and no way to know where electricity began again.

Now at this point you are probably wondering how in the world our family vacation could relate to abused and neglected children in foster care. Well, just like we had to rely completely on strangers to help us meet our most basic needs, food and shelter, frightened children entering into foster care MUST rely on complete strangers to meet their most basic needs of clothing, shelter and food. I most certainly felt scared and completely helpless as we were 900 miles from home and I can assure you that the children who come into foster care most certainly feel abused and neglected.  Often times, dare I say most of the time, children are brought to a home with only the clothes they are wearing.  

BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

The Foster CARE Closet is designed and equipped to introduce children to foster care in a compassionate and loving way. We are solely focused on meeting the immediate needs of a child as they walk through our doors. It is our mission to lavish love on them through providing a comfortable place to wait as a case manager works on finding a foster family or relative for safe housing. We lavish love on them by providing a meal during their wait and then helping them shop from NEW clothing to take with them as they go into their new temporary home. All of our attention is on them and their needs and it sets the tone for how a child should be cherished during their time in foster care. 

Please help us continue to serve Nebraska's foster care community with your gift of $240.00 for an ENTIRE YEAR of support for a child in foster care.  This gift will allow us to provide 10 NEW outfits a year to a youth in care.