Diane Burch is the owner of a small business in Montgomery County. She cares deeply about its residents, particularly the four-legged ones. While Diane has been a consistent donor to 4Montgomery’s Kids, she has also been a major supporter. Diane has trumpeted the cause to her clients and friends who have gone on to become supporters in their own right. She has truly shown how members of a community can come together to become a greater force. Thank you Diane, for increasing the size of your contributions by personal advocacy.
The peewee football team that Jeff, a nine year old boy played on, was going to the national championships in Florida. Jeff’s foster parent was unable to afford the cost of this trip and he would have been unable to accompany his team,Due to your generous contributions, 4Montgomery’s Kids was able to pay for his trip and they won the national championship. In his words, “Thank you 4Montgomery’s Kids!!! We could not have done this without you!!!”
As always, we thank you our supporters for making our work possible. All the money you contribute goes directly towards helping the children as all administrative costs of 4Montgomery’s Kids are absorbed by our board members. We look forward to telling you about additionalexciting ways your money has helped and to doubling our efforts in the upcoming year. Please, spread the word about our work and encourage others to support us with donations and house parties where we can bring youth to talk to you about their experiences and how 4Montgomery’s Kids has helped them.
As a Montgomery County mother and a Montgomery County employer, Gail Maidenbaum feels a dual obligation to the foster kids in our county. Her belief is that “we have to take care of our own” and these kids are the responsibility of all county residents and companies. She realizes that these kids are at school with the rest of the county children, but they lack what many of the other students take for granted. The ability to have a laptop, a Metro card to go to work, to take a ballet class, to go to summer camp – these opportunities should be available to all “our kids”. That’s why she has chosen to give back to her county by generously supporting 4Montgomery’s Kids.
Spring is here and with it comes our new name, 4Montgomery’s Kids. All your generous support goes for the children and youth in our county who have been abused and neglected.
Spring also brings news of our efforts during the past few months. We do this though our wonderful partnership with the amazing County’s Child Protective Services (CWS) social workers who have been passionate advocates for the children with whom they work, and of course you our wonderful donors.
Summer Camp We are particularly excited to be sending more than 35 children to summer camp this year. Summer camp can change a child’s life in so many ways. As a social worker told us: “this young lady had a number of issues, including an inability to make friends. She went to camp, gained confidence, tried new activities, made friends and her mother reported that she came home a completely different kid and, subsequently did extremely well in school in the fall, had a group of friends, and the family has not been involved with CWS again.”
If camp can do this for one child, imagine what if can do for thirty-five. With your help we can sponsor even more.
New Projects In addition to our ongoing efforts such as funding transportation for a parent living out of state to visit her children, books for college classes, a costume for dance class and gift cards for food for a youth living on his own who was going hungry, we are pleased to announce our new ventures.
• Together with the Jewish Council for Aging and other community partners we are exploring housing in Montgomery County for young people transitioning out of foster care at age 21. The high cost of rent in the county makes it extremely hard for these youth to find local housing. Our dream is to establish intergenerational housing where young people and seniors can live side by side and assist each other.
• We are partnering with Interfaith Works to provide mentors to youth transitioning out of foster care. Mentors work with these youth to provide guidance and to help them develop the skills they need to live on their own. If you would like to be a mentor please contact us at [email protected].
Many children in Montgomery County need help – as of the beginning of March there were over 500 children eligible to be served by Montgomery’s Kids. The key to Montgomery’s Kids success is our desire and ability to help these children who have been abused and neglected and have different experiences than their friends and classmates. We want these children to have “normal” experiences. Through our efforts we are enhancing the quality of life for many of these children. Your dollars can help us do this.
How does your donation make a difference in the our community: $100 helps provide transportation for a child going to summer camp $150 helps provide tutoring for youth who has not done well in school this semester $150 helps provide community pool membership $200 helps provide books and new clothes for children at the beginning of the school year
We need to grow and we need your help to do it. Please share this newsletter with friends who might help us support these children and youth. Encourage them to check our website and send us their emails to [email protected] so we can share more of our needs and our great success stories.
