- Jennifer Deleeuw and her husband became foster parents more than 10 years ago
Suitcases4kids has been helping kids in foster care for a decade
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"My husband and I became foster parents unexpectedly,"
Suitcases4kids has been helping kids in foster care for a decade. Today I found out why this has made such a powerful impact in the community.
Jennifer Deleeuw and her husband became foster parents more than 10 years ago and she wanted to start an organization that would give foster kids love, as well as cover their basic needs.
"We realized that the foster families, didn't have a ton of support in our area, that's kinda how our vision for suitcases for kids evolved, we knew it was a need that needed to met,"
They say money can't buy you happiness, but the reactions Jennifer receives from the the kids who benefit from her program are priceless.
"Best thing is when a kid comes in, and they get to find things they didn't have with their past families,"
Suitcases4kids reached a milestone last year that they hope will become the standard moving forward.
"We helped out about 600 kids last year that came through our doors, and were able to pick out items to take home with them to their new foster homes,"
Suitcases4kids has a made a huge impact in the community, however it's had it's fair share of challenges.
"We are a non-profit, we don't have any employees here, so a challenge we face often is just donations and funding, everything that comes in is donation based,"
Suitcases4kids excepts all donations and Jennifer tells me they hope to keep changing lives into the future.
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