Presents wrapped for foster children
HARRISVILLE — A group of 25 volunteers gathered Saturday morning in the Harrisville Volunteer Fire Company hall, 313 E. Mercer St., to bring some Christmas cheer to otherwise forgotten teens.
The children and adults were wrapping presents for older foster children as part of Operation Foster Smiles.
Operation Foster Smiles founder and organizer Michelle Marlowe, of Boyers, said this was the sixth year of the operation which sends boxes of individually wrapped gifts to 20 boys and 20 girls via the Mercer County Children's Aid Society.
The operation of gathering, wrapping and delivering the boxes has been going on for six years but had outgrown Marlowe's garage and moved into the donated space at the fire hall last year.
The volunteers, brought together through the Operation Foster Smiles Facebook page and word of mouth, started at 9 a.m. to wrap hygiene packs, bedding and personal items and place them in boxes which were then wrapped with color-coded bows: red for boys and gold for girls.
“Well, it all came to fruition when my husband and I adopted two children of our own through the agency,” said Marlowe. “We learned of the need of teenagers.”Marlowe started a Facebook page which grew to 337 members. People donate either money or items to fill the gift boxes. All the gift wrap and bows were donated.“I thought if people knew of the need, they would participate. People love to buy for children they don't know,” she said.“Our motto is 'Don't let these kids become victims of being forgotten,'” Marlowe said.The recipients are teens who are on the verge of aging out of the foster system rather than being adopted.“We try to make Christmas as normal as possible. There won't be anything else for them,” said Marlowe.After the gift boxes are wrapped, they will be delivered to the Mercer County Children's Aid Society for distribution.
Harrisville Mayor Gary Hughes was among the volunteers.“I think this is a happy event. It got too big for her garage,” Hughes said, adding the fire department has donated the space free of charge the past two years.He said a minister, the Rev. Ed Saxman of Grace Methodist Church in Grove City, would come to bless the gifts before they are taken to the aid society.“She (Marlowe) works on this all year round. It's nice stuff, too,” said Hughes.Mary Ann Hughes, of Harrisville, got into the spirit by dressing as an elf complete with bells on her shoes.“I'm the festive one here,” she said.Cathy Dyer, of Stoneboro in Mercer County, was wrapping presents to go the girls including jewelry and pink book bags. She figured she was wrapping 25 presents to go into each of the 20 gift boxes.Kathy Dillaman, Marlowe's mother, was working bow detail.She estimated she spent six hours the night before making the color-coded bows and another four or five hours Saturday attaching them to the gift boxes.“This makes Christmas for me,” she said.
