A ding-dong on the bell and a child stands at the door with nothing but the pyjamas they are wearing. They’re ushered in by their new foster family who quickly tries to make them as comfortable and at home as possible but it’s so hard when they have nothing. The next morning is even harder as they try to prepare the child for school – an early morning rush to a local store to get something they can wear, and any other basic supplies the child needs to be comfortable.
After fostering 13 children, one of the members of the MOMS Club of Jackson County, GA, knew exactly how things went when a new foster child arrived. She had told her chapter about the process and they were so touched they decided they had to take action. They wanted to lessen the financial burden on foster parents when a new child arrived. But how? They decided they would create the Fostering Hope Clothes Closet so that foster parents could get access to clothing for their foster children.
The chapter sprung into action calling around to local businesses and churches to try to find a place to store the clothes. They got lucky when they found a local church that was housed in an old elementary school — they had a hallway that wasn’t being used and they offered it to the chapter to store the clothes. With a place to store things, the clothes closet had a huge step forward! The chapter cleaned and painted the hallway so it looked welcoming, and went to local businesses to get donations of shelves and bins to store the clothes.
With all their storage needs met, the next challenge was to get the clothing. As before, the chapter turned to their community for help. Three local business stepped up to be drop off locations for clothing collection. The donations started to pour in! Local churches and other community organizations have hosted drives for socks and underwear. In fact, there were so many donations that the chapter decided to open up their closet to anyone in need, not just foster families. They also carry adult clothing in addition to children’s. Now, anyone in need can contact the clothes closet and either have items collected and brought to them, or set up a time to come select items themselves.
The clothes closet has been so successful that the church just recently donated an entire room because of the volume of the donations. Now they have one area for in-season clothes and the other for storing off-season items.
Congratulations moms! This is an amazing project!!
