4MK Excellence Awards for Graduating Seniors
This year 4MK gave $500 and $1000 grants to deserving graduating seniors in foster care to help launch the next phase of their lives. We have been awed by the creative ways these young adults have used the funds to help fulfill their dreams. Here are a few examples:
- L is taking both college and study skills courses as prerequisites to a nursing degree. Public transportation is limited near her, so she is putting the money toward a first car as an easier way to get to multiple classes.
- J was accepted into an out-of-state university known for its College of Education. She is now a freshman majoring in Early Childhood and is using her funds to lower out of pocket school expenses.
- S is taking a break from school but is now in the process of applying for a technical degree. In the interim she has used her award to invest in her own business.
Spotlight: Marie Schwartz
Marie Schwartz retired from Child Welfare Services after 37 years of providing much needed services to the most vulnerable groups in Montgomery County. You would think that kind of dedication over a lifetime would have been enough for anyone. Not for Marie. Marie now lives at Ingleside, a retirement community in Rockville, and for the past two years she has reached out to Ingleside residents for donations to 4MK for Project Turkey. Marie not only made Project Turkey happen but she partnered with 4Montgomery’s Kids to expand the reach of her good deeds.
Project Turkey
Thanks to the generous support of 51 residents of Ingleside Retirement Community in Rockville, Md, 4MK is providing $100 gift certificates to 72 families to help them create a special Thanksgiving dinner. These are families where the children are being kept in the their homes with intensive support from child and family services, a program designed to help prevent these children from being placed into foster care.
We wish these families a joyous and bountiful Thanksgiving. Thank you residents of Ingleside and Marie Schwartz for your care and compassion
Who doesn’t love a birthday party, right? Or at least a present on the big day? But too often for children in foster care the special nature of the day is forgotten. We at 4MK cannot let that happen. No one deserves to be forgotten.
Among the many ways we celebrated our kids this year, we provided funds for a birthday party for a child in a hospital, a birthday party and reunion at Dave and Busters for a family’s first big event after the child went into foster care, a birthday trip to the movies for a youth and her younger sister, and a party at Sky Zone for a family moving toward reunification.
We also gave gifts to help a teen turning 15 feel accepted and appreciated at her quinceanera, Legos and beach toys for a child moving to a new placement near the ocean, a gift card for a teen who did not receive a gift from her mother or her group home, a basketball jersey and more for a budding athlete, a Spiderman outfit for a huge Spidey fan, and hair extensions to make a young woman feel special on her special day. We even gave a gift card to a youth in foster care to buy a birthday present for a friend.
After all, who doesn’t love a good birthday!!
Please help us celebrate more children in foster care!!!