Imagine for a moment being told you can’t live with your family anymore. Imagine leaving your home, pets and belongings in an instant. Now imagine that you are a toddler, young child or teenager when this happens – driving away from all things familiar into the unknown. Imagine that you have also been abused or neglected by your family and you don’t trust that anyone will take care of you. This unfortunate scenario becomes reality for children placed into foster care because they are not safe in their own homes.
An average of two children from our community experience this every week, said Merri-Shannon Lunn of the Department of Social Services.
Lunn said, when a local group of ladies who call themselves Grandmas Who Care heard about this, they vowed to make a difference in the lives of those foster children. The small group of grandmas, Janet Hunter, Phyllis Cooper, Carol Begg-Martell, Dell Horner, Shirley Brown and Wilhelmina Leach, began a mission to provide comfort and care items to children and teens entering foster care.
The basic concept is simple, Lunn said. The group packs toiletries and personal care items into a compact bag that a child can carry. The items inside are tailored to meet the needs of the child based on age and gender. In addition, the women hand-made sacks from fun patterns and placed them into the kits for the children to carry things. They also provided onesies and receiving blankets for babies and socks for older children.
“The workers at the Department of Social Services call the kits’Blessing Bags’ because it is truly a blessing to have the essentials on hand when children enter foster care,” Lunn said. “It is also a blessing to foster parents.”
Lunn said often children come into care in the evenings or late at night.
“Since children are only placed into foster care on an emergency basis, there is no advance notice for the foster family to prepare for their arrival,” she said.
Having the Blessing Bag come with the child allows the foster parent to focus on the child’s emotional needs without last minute or late night shopping for hygiene items.
Members of Grandmas Who Care would like to thank the women’s circles at Tabernacle United Methodist Church and St. Mary’s Catholic Church along with the Hallie Byrd Circle at St. Luke United Methodist Church for their support. They are also grateful to Browns RV’s and Wal-Mart for financial support.
With donations from individual donors, groups and businesses, Grandmas Who Care delivered the first batch of Blessing Bags in October. Since children are placed into foster care every month, there is a continuous need for more bags. To make a contribution to the Blessing Bags project, contact Janet Hunter at (843) 917-4940 or jandjhunter@yahoo.com.
For information on fostering or sponsoring a child, contact Merri-Shannon Lunn at (843) 616-0778 or Merri.Lunn@dss.sc.gov.
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