New nonprofit fills backpacks for foster children
Children in the foster system have lost more than their homes. Most arrive at a foster home with no possessions.
One newly formed nonprofit is trying to give foster children something of their own.
Blessings Foster Care Ministry delivered 50 “blessing bags” last week to Family Pathways, 100 Brugh Ave., to give to the children the agency oversees.
Started in June by foster parents Kayla Seyler of Worthington and Sheena Best of Cowansville in Armstrong County, the group’s volunteers fill backpacks with blankets, hygiene products and art materials.
“The bag is brand new filled with brand-new items. Nothing has been used. We felt it was important to give the kids something to make them feel special and let them know they are cared about,” said Seyler, who with her husband, Greg, has been a foster parent for three years.
The backpacks for the younger children may have a stuffed animal, while teens may receive makeup or a journal and pens.
Seyler said she and Best, who, with her husband Joe, is also a foster parent, started the ministry in June, and on July 1 had the paperwork declaring it as a nonprofit organization approved.
Seyler said the group, which is unaffiliated with any church, is based in the Worthington/Cowansville/Kittanning area of Armstrong County, but the agency is serving children throughout Western Pennsylvania.
Seyler said last week the ministry delivered 20 bags to Kittanning Children and Youth Services, 100 bags to Clarion Children and Youth Services and another 100 bags to Franklin Family Care.
Seyler said she and Best sought volunteers and donations on the group’s Facebook page and website.
She said church and school groups responded by buying the backpacks and their contents, and providing the 20 to 30 volunteers who packed the bags.
“The Facebook account, that’s been where most of our news has gotten out. We’ve had 5,000 views on the page. I can’t even believe it. I never really expected that,” Seyler said.
The ministry’s bags were certainly welcomed at Family Pathways, said its intake specialist Bethany Rhodaberger.
“We are really excited about it. I think it is an awesome ministry,” said Rhodaberger. “The children are grateful for them and we are grateful for them for sure.”
Rhodaberger said children are often placed in foster care without any possessions from their old home.
“That’s pretty typical; it depends on the circumstance,” said Rhodaberger, whose agency is contracted by Butler County to oversee the children placed in foster care.
“The bags can make them feel special and allow them to take ownership of a situation where they had no control,” Rhodaberger said.
“We felt it was important to give the kids something to make them feel special and let them know they are cared about,” Seyler said.
“We have about probably 150 bags left to give away, that we have not given to an agency,” said Seyler, adding she made contact with Butler County Children and Youth Services about taking the remaining backpacks.
For more information on Blessings Foster Care Ministry, visit www.blessingsfostercareministry.org or call 724-954-9676.
