How a 90’s Best Seller is Helping Kids in Honduras Today

A pilot reflects on nearly twenty wears of sponsorship

In 1997, Southwest Airlines distributed thousands of copies of Dr. Richard Carlson’s bestseller, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, to its employees — including pilot Don Wyatt of Palm Coast, Florida. Inspired by the sentiment of the book, Wyatt wanted to give back. And since the late author was a strong supporter of Children Incorporated, Wyatt began to research the organization. “There are many fine agencies to choose from, but my personal favorite is Children Incorporated… The experience […]

Volunteers Restore School Playground Destroyed by Arson

Children Incorporated staff members help in the restoration project

Someone set fire to the playground matting at G.H. Reid Elementary School last summer. The fire spread around the equipment, melting and disfiguring most of it, and leaving the 750 Richmond, Virginia public school children with few options for outdoor play. But when bad things happen, good people often start showing up to help. Hundreds of volunteers from various Richmond organizations, including Children Incorporated, stepped up to help out last November. Together, they rebuilt the playground in […]

“I Won’t Let Him Down”

Counting on friendships from across miles

On our site visit to Guadalajara last year, we met young Renaldo*. The five-year-old is the youngest of three children in his family, and he attends the La Luz (in English, “The Light”) Children’s Home, a home for children who have one or both parents serving time in prison. When we met Renaldo, he was making a special picture for his sponsor, Stephen Suelzle, a printer who lives 2,469 miles away from him in Portland, […]

Fruits and Vegetables Blossom in the Middle of a Food Desert

In Washington, D.C., schools are stepping up to provide fresh produce to students

It’s hard to imagine a lack of food in the nation’s capital — but there is one. A “food desert” is a place where fresh fruit and vegetables can’t be purchased, and Washington, D.C. is just such a place. Large parts of the city — specifically the poorer — don’t have grocery stores. Instead, they have corner markets where one can purchase snacks and some canned goods, but not nutritious whole foods. “If families have […]

A Fully-Baked Idea Brings Economic Stability to Brazilian Moms

Mothers of the CARITAS-Novo Milenio Center are learn baking skills

When the mothers of the CARITAS-Novo Milenio Center presented the community’s children with their signature jumbo-sized birthday cake, they had a lot to celebrate. This year marked the fifth anniversary of the Grupo Art’Mulher, a group of women who formed a community bakery which sells cookies, breads, handmade pasta — and, of course, cakes! Freshly baked cakes by mothers of our sponsored children Novo Milenio is a poor district outside of […]

Spreading Warmth as Temperatures Drop

Our Warm Clothing Fund provides coats to children in need

For most children, winter is a time of joy as they wait hopefully for snowfall and deep freezes. For those without warm clothes, however, winter is a season of cold and hardship. That’s a problem volunteers and donors at Children Incorporated have been working to fix for almost 25 years. Children Incorporated’s Warm Clothing Fund raised $35,000 this year to provide coats, gloves, boots, and other warm clothes to children in need. More than 3,500 children around […]