Tag Archives: kentucky

Shelley Callahan | March 7, 2017En Español

Aimee learned a lot of things too early in life as she watched her father nearly succumb to leukemia, his resulting painkiller addiction, and the financial and psychological quicksand her family struggled in as a result.

Growing up in a small town in Eastern Kentucky, Aimee was surprised to find herself and her family staying with neighbors while her dad suffered in a nearby hospital. It seemed so sudden, the onset of his illness, and she remembers an earlier childhood of warmth and togetherness.

Aimee’s senior photo

That wouldn’t be Aimee’s lot in life for several more years, unfortunately. She was in the sixth grade when her father was diagnosed, and her memories of his painful experience with a bone marrow transplant are still very acute. It was a troubling time for both Aimee and her younger sister, and she had a lot on her mind when the volunteer coordinator at her school told her she now had a Children Incorporated sponsor.

“I didn’t think much about it at the time,” she remembers. “Except that it was nice to get money at Christmastime, and it was nice having someone to write thank-you notes to. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I really recognized the importance of giving, and the importance of helping others in need.”

With her dad’s recovery came OxyContin, a newer drug that Aimee’s family didn’t know much about. They certainly didn’t expect it to take over their lives with addiction. Money got even tighter, and relationships were even more strained. Aimee’s gifts from her sponsor became some of the only things she looked forward to, and one of the only constants she had in her life.

“I have been through more than most people would want to go through in a lifetime,” states Aimee, matter-of-factly. “Having people who showed me that they believed in me when my family seemed to be crumbling apart… It encouraged me to do better and to strive to be more and do more for the world around me.”

“It wasn’t until I was in high school that I really recognized the importance of giving, and the importance of helping others in need.”

Buoyed by Support, With Eyes Still on the Prize

As she grew, the young woman with so much on her mind dedicated herself quietly to her studies, keeping a low profile in high school and making straight As. It wasn’t difficult for her to decide that her next step was college.

Alesha graduated from Morehead State University in 2011 with a major in Education and a growing desire to give back.

Thinking back on the calmer years before the turbulence began in her teens, she describes a certain scene. Aimee and her friend, both three years old, sit under a tree. Her friend, who is deaf, has been learning sign language, and she’s teaching Alesha words, while Aimee, in turn, helps her articulate those same words.

This scene stayed with Aimee as she tried to decide how to combine her educational know-how and her considerable service-oriented energy. The feeling of sharing in her friend’s triumphs was so powerful — she realized that to her, communication is the key to really helping children improve their lives.

Aimee with her family

The memories hit home in a different way many years later, when Alesha had begun her career in education. A little boy with autism struggled to tell Aimee what he wanted. The frustration he felt was so palpable, and his tears were so real, that Aimee had to step outside of the classroom and cry herself.

Now, she’s realigned her professional ambitions and is currently studying speech and language pathology. “I’m finding that the kids I most connect with are the ones psychologists shy away from because of their communication problems,” she explains. It’s a difficult job, but it satisfies a need in Aimee that began under that tree.

Opening Doors for Future Generations

At 28, Aimee is now the mother of two children and the partner of a man who shares her desire to lift other people up. She never met her Children Incorporated sponsor, who passed away before she graduated high school, and left her the money she needed to get through college. But she thinks about him and his family often.

“I know they are going to overcome and be strong individuals – but sometimes, in the grand scheme of things, people forget the importance of kindness to all.”

Their contributions to her life helped her put many of the important things in life into focus: I matter, and people care about me. As is often the case, life hasn’t always been easy for Aimee, but a memory of that support has helped her steer her personal life toward those who are similarly-minded, and her professional life toward helping as many children as she can.

For her own kids, Aimee wants them to know the drive she feels each day to make someone else’s life better. “Whatever life hands to them,” she says, “I know they are going to overcome and be strong individuals – but sometimes, in the grand scheme of things, people forget the importance of kindness to all.”

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENTUCKY?

You can sponsor a child in Kentucky by calling our office and speaking with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381 or by emailing us at sponsorship@childrenincorporated.org.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | December 13, 2016En Español

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 the United States received items this year, each specifically selected for their own individual needs.

They include children who don’t have sponsors and children whose needs exceed their sponsorship.

“In most cases, we’ve found that the sponsorship funds are stretched to the limit,” said Steve Mitchell, Children Incorporated’s Sponsorship Manager. “Clothes, food, school supplies, and hygiene items – even for our sponsored children, sometimes it’s just not enough. And unfortunately, there aren’t enough sponsors for every child who needs help.”

So where sponsorship leaves off, the Warm Clothing Fund picks up. Any child in need, whether sponsored or not, can get brand-new winter clothing, purchased specifically for them, through the fund.

The fund focuses primarily on the Appalachian Region of Kentucky and West Virginia, the Navajo Reservation in the Midwest, and inner-city areas of urban centers like Detroit, but it includes other communities around the country as well. Children Incorporated also spreads the warmth in its own backyard, providing winter clothing for students in Richmond City Public Schools in Virginia.

“Clothes, food, schools supplies, and hygiene items – even for our sponsored children, sometimes it’s just not enough. And unfortunately, there aren’t enough sponsors for every child who needs help.”

Coming in from the cold

The children’s parents sometimes request help – but usually teachers see the need before anyone even asks. When that happens, the teacher talks to our volunteer coordinator at the school. Volunteer coordinators are school employees, such as guidance counselors or resource coordinators, who work with nonprofits like Children Incorporated to get help for individual children.

“In many cases, the coordinator may meet with the family to talk about the child’s clothing needs,” Mitchell said. “Sometimes the coordinator gets to take the child out shopping to pick out their own items. It’s not always possible, but when they can – talk about making a child’s day!”

In other cases, the coordinator selects and purchases shoes, gloves, a coat or a scarf – sometimes all of them – and gives them to the child. The items are always new, and are individually selected for each child, based on their needs.

New shoes – for the first time

Jefferey Jackson, the coordinator at Blackwell Elementary School in Richmond, told the story of a child who was sent to his office with shoes a size-and-a-half too small. He called Mitchell at Children Incorporated, and Mitchell told him to use Warm Clothing Fund money to buy the boy a new pair of shoes in his size.

“This young man was extremely pleased when presented with his new shoes. He accepted them with a pledge to always keep them tied properly,” Jackson said. “Not long after our exchange, he returned to my office with a letter of gratitude. In this letter, spotted with tears, he confessed that this was the first time that he has had a brand new pair of shoes that were not handed down from another source.”

Zero degrees at the bus stop

In the colder parts of the country, the need becomes even more acute.

Debbie Fluty, assistant coordinator at Sheldon Clark High School in Kentucky, said the Warm Clothing Fund provides boots, coats, and socks for students in life-threatening cold.

“Some have to walk out of mountain hollows to catch the bus because buses cannot get to them. They have to stand in zero degree weather at the bus stops,” she said.

And many parents won’t send their children out into the cold without proper clothes, so when the temperature drops, students don’t come to school at all, said Mary Valenza, coordinator at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School in Richmond.

Children Incorporated works to help as many children as we can by providing warm clothing during cold winter months.

“We know that chronic absences lead to poor grades, and poor grades often result in a student being retained,” she said, noting that having a reliable source for coats, hats, gloves, and scarves has made a difference in attendance.

Problem solvers

“The Warm Clothing Fund has been successfully solving that problem for more than two decades, because it’s the kind of situation that really resonates with Children Incorporated donors,” said Mitchell.

“There’s an immediate remedy,” he said, explaining why the fund has been so successful for so long. “A child is cold – they need a coat. It’s something they can wrap their minds around. They think, ‘I can do this.’”

“They can also see the results for themselves”, he said,” since volunteer coordinators send pictures of children showing off their new winter clothing. And since a child’s coat is affordable for most donors, it’s a clear, easy, commitment-free way they can solve a problem quickly.”

“The volunteer coordinators are the ones who know the children best, and who know what each one needs the most- what we provide just depends on the needs of the children,” Mitchell said. “We’re just here to help as best as we can.”

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How can I donate to the Warm Clothing Fund?

You can donate by calling our office and speaking with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381 or by emailing us at sponsorship@children-inc.org. Also, you can make a donation through our donation portal online.

Ron Carter | December 7, 2016En Español

It’s not every day that a small nonprofit—even one that’s been around as long as Children Incorporated—finds out that they’re receiving a donation of $1.75 million.

Thousands of children will benefit from Mr. Foy’s donation.

I suppose that’s why I remember the day so well. We had been saddened in 2015 to hear of the death of Mr. Glenn Foy, an engineering innovator and adventurous spirit who had passed away at such a young age — just 59 years old — in a private plane accident. I had spoken to him only once, a few months before his death, and remembered him as a kind soul, committed to what we do, and a regular sponsor over the last decade. It wasn’t unusual for Children Incorporated to receive a bequest, although most tend to come from sponsors who have a much longer history with our organization.

Mr. Foy’s law firm informed us that we’d be receiving 28 percent of his estate to help children however we saw fit, which certainly made my eyes widen. It seemed like a large percentage for such a relatively recent donor.

The magnitude of Mr. Foy’s generosity has allowed us to go to new places, accomplish much, and impact the lives of not just children in need, but their families, their communities, and in some cases, generations to come.

But on the day we learned how that 28 percent translated into real dollars — 1.75 million of them to be exact— I was struck truly speechless.

Glenn Foy was an adventure-seeker, a cycling enthusiast, an aviator, a lover of life. His annual contributions impacted the lives of eight children over several years, but he was quietly generous, preferring not to receive attention for his philanthropy. His supportive family, I hope, will indulge me the attention I want to give to him now.

The magnitude of Mr. Foy’s generosity has allowed us to go to new places, accomplish much, and impact the lives of not just children in need, but also their families, their communities, and in some cases, generations to come.

Our Hope In Action Fund is, essentially, money set aside to use in tackling an ever-growing list of programs to support, centers to build or improve, and projects to get off the ground. We chip away at it, sometimes even making great strides; but this year, we turned so much of that hope into impactful, measurable action.

Glenn Foy’s Legacy in Action

Pinagpala Center, Philippines

Because of Mr. Foy’s gift, we were able to construct a two-classroom daycare center in Tagaytay City, Philippines. Mothers in this struggling area now have a safe place to leave their children as they seek employment or go to work. Every day, you can find children learning and playing at Pinagpala Center, which also provides a nourishing feeding program to improve the health of each child.

Marching Band and Classrooms at Juan Apostol, Guatemala

Children in Guatemala will benefit from new musical instruments.

School and community leaders in Guatemala City have come up with a unique way to encourage student participation in school—the Juan Apostol Marching Band. This band’s talents have become known throughout the country, and playing in the band has become the goal for so many students, which, in turn, encourages students to apply themselves academically (you have to show an “A” grade average before you are eligible to participate; Mr. Foy’s gift allowed us to purchase instruments for the band). At the same school, we also built two new classrooms.

Fruit and Vegetable Garden Program, Ethiopia

Multiple generations will benefit from the produce-bearing garden at Kids Hope–Ethiopia. The community surrounding the center is desperate for agricultural knowledge and supplies. Not only will this garden provide food for the children who attend Kids Hope, but it will also serve as a learning experience for the community.

Biofuel Plant, Kenya

This year, we were able to build a biofuel plant at Maria Immaculata school in Nairobi. Biofuel means energy taken from burning the gases emitted from organic matter – in this case, cow manure. It sounds unpalatable, but these enterprising Sisters figured out a way to keep their costs lowered and introduce more sustainable solutions. And we were there to help.

Dandora Medical Clinic, Kenya

The Dandora Community Center holds a special place in our hearts, and renovating their medical clinic helped the center make huge gains in Nairobi. Attendance is booming, which means healthier children and healthier families. Healthy kids spend more time in school, which leads to better-educated generations, which leads to a brighter future for the whole community.

Water Purification Plant, Kenya

At St. Nicholas School in Msamaria, Mr. Foy’s gift allowed us to move forward with plans to repair a water purification plant. The school’s commitment to self-sustainability keeps costs low while teaching children valuable life skills.

Student Attendance Program, Kentucky

Students in Kentucky will benefit from Mr. Foy’s donation.

At Martha Jane Potter Elementary School, one volunteer coordinator hit upon an idea for a motivational program that would help encourage attendance. Until that point, attendance had been sporadic at best, particularly during standardized testing. We funded the program, the experiment worked, and we expect the school to try it again next year.

College/Career Awareness Program, Kentucky

Rural Kentucky has a tough time in their struggle with poverty, and we find a lot of the same problems in our country’s rural poor areas as we do abroad. Children without resources, struggling their best to survive, when just orienting them towards other futures often makes a lasting impact. We helped a coordinator at Carr Creek Elementary School establish a program that exposes children to various careers, takes them on tours of community colleges, and even helps their parents with career readiness.

After-School Program, New Orleans

The Encore Academy wanted a way to increase its students’ academic success and social and emotional well-being, and they found it through homework assistance and enrichment activities including computer coding and expressive writing. We proudly funded this program, which also includes gifts of clothing-and now thirty participants are benefiting from it. Gifts of books for the school library extend the program’s impact to the entire student body.

Disaster Relief, Baton Rouge

We’d planned to work on a project at Friendship Capitol Academy, but when the floods struck this summer, we shifted our focus to disaster relief. Approximately forty children in grades nine through twelve received practical assistance (clothing, food, cleaning supplies, and hygiene items), as well as support, comfort, and motivation to attend school, despite the upheaval of the world that surrounds them.

Kindergarten “Boys Club,” Washington, D.C.

At Lucy Ellen Moten School, a coordinator noticed that kindergarten-aged boys were having trouble adjusting to the routine and the structure of a school day. What’s more, they tended to take their overwhelming feelings out by pushing, hitting, or biting. Early intervention was identified as the key to helping these boys express themselves more healthily.

Making your Own Legacy

Glenn Foy had never seen our Hope In Action Fund list, yet he chose to leave such a substantial amount to an organization he believed in. Why? How could he have known what an impact his gift would make?

We may never know the answer, but I’d guess that it’s because Mr. Foy witnessed the power of much smaller sums. And I’d guess this because I hear it from our sponsors all the time. They love how connected they feel with their sponsored children, and they know they can trust us to address specific and individualized needs for each and every child. It’s that relationship that keeps our donors engaged for lifetimes (there really is a rather extraordinary number of sponsors who have been with us since Children Incorporated began in 1964!).

They love how connected they feel with a child, and they know they can trust us to address specific and individualized needs for that child.

This year, we’ve launched our On the Road series to show the impact of your contributions to the lives of the children we serve around the world. The dispatches are often inspiring; other times, they convey the honest exhaustion and discouragement that come from the burden of poverty. But time and time again, they always find hope.

In this season of gratitude, we urge you to take a few minutes to think about your legacy. Do you have a plan to make what you’ve earned throughout your life count long after you’re gone?

Whether you make arrangements to have the children you sponsor supported until adulthood or whether you’re more interested in donating a lump sum to support our chosen programs the way Glenn Foy did—no gesture goes unnoticed and no effort goes unused.

We approach each new year with hope. In 2016, we were able to turn an unprecedented amount of hope into action. One man’s decision made that possible for children in so many countries around the world. At every level, we’re counting on the continuing generosity of all of our sponsors and donors to keep that momentum going in the years ahead.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD THROUGH CHILDREN INCORPORATED?

You can sponsor a child with Children Incorporated in one of three ways – call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our staff members, email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org, or go online to our donation portal, create an account, and search for a child that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | November 22, 2016En Español

In the eight months since we first launched our On the Road series, Luis and I have traveled some 20,000 miles around the globe visiting the families and communities your contributions support.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we thought we’d share some of our favorite food samplings from around the world.

We are so grateful for the opportunity to report on the impact sponsorship has on the children we serve. We’ve met some pretty amazing people along the way, many of whom have welcomed us into their homes to break bread.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we thought we’d share some of our favorite food samplings from around the world.

Salteñas (Bolivia)

If you travel to Bolivia, save room for lunch! Luis and I ate so well with the Sisters while we were there that most days we skipped dinner altogether.

We got to try some of the children’s favorites: majadito (rice cooked with onions, tomatoes, and spices, and served with fried eggs and yucca or plantains), mondongo (marinated pork, served with boiled corn and potatoes), and pique macho (cubed beef, sliced hot dogs, and stir-fried vegetables cooked in local spices and served over French-fried potatoes).

And of course, Salteñas!

A Salteña is the Bolivian version of an empanada. Filled with meat, potatoes, peas and more, this delicious pastry is a great mid-morning snack. Deliciosa!

Injera (Ethiopia)

Ethiopian food means injera, a spongy pancake-like flatbread made from teff, wheat, barley, corn, and/or rice flour. A fundamental part of every Ethiopian meal, it is often eaten with meat stews and cooked greens. Luis and I make a habit of trying out the traditional cuisine on each of our trips — and, in Ethiopia, that included visiting a restaurant that offered traditional dancing as well as dinner.

Dishes come served on large platters to share, brimming with lentils, kale, and spicy tomato stew. The flavors are delicious, and better yet, Ethiopians use the injera to scoop up the food — no utensils required!

Tortillas (Mexico)

Luis and I mainly ate tacos while in Mexico. The variety of fresh and flavorful ingredients is astounding. My favorite part of Mexican dishes: they all seem to come with fresh limes for extra flavor, although dishes are usually already full of flavor. Rice, beans, guacamole, and salsa are served with every meal, and tortillas are plentiful, brought to you in a round tortilla warmer that looks like an oven mitt to keep your tortillas warm as you eat your meal.

Sorghum (Kentucky)

Driving through Kentucky, it’s easy to find mainstays like pizza, fried chicken, spaghetti, biscuits and gravy, and chicken and dumplings. Last summer, we had the opportunity to stop by a local farm with one of our volunteer coordinators and meet a farmer who makes sorghum, a sweet syrup akin to molasses. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried sorghum on your biscuits. Yum!

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD THROUGH CHILDREN INCORPORATED?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | September 6, 2016En Español

Most parents are familiar with the ubiquitous school-supply shopping list: two boxes of crayons, nine jumbo pink erasers, 47 glue sticks, one box of tissues, three boxes of markers.

But when your children run out of pencils halfway through the year, you just buy more. When the backpack inevitably falls apart by January, you buy a new one.

One of our sponsored children creates a thank-you card for his sponsor.

In Eastern Kentucky, few have that luxury. As we hand out school supplies for Children Incorporated’s back-to-school program, we’re faced with a distressing reality — these are the only school supplies most of these children will get this year.

If the backpack breaks, there won’t be another one. If they outgrow the shoes, they’ll wear too-tight shoes until (hopefully) they get another pair next September. If they run out of tampons, deodorant, toothpaste.

All of those hygiene items are necessary too for middle-schoolers and teenagers. For the youngest school children, it’s pants, leggings, and underwear for when they come to school lacking those items or in need of new ones.

Hand-me-downs

The extra clothes aren’t always new, of course. Almost nothing here is new except for what comes from Children Incorporated. School resource coordinators and guidance counselors collect hand-me-downs from the community — but in most of the schools here, Children Incorporated is the only major benefactor.

Over the last 15 years, we’ve put between $125,000 and $150,000 into each school in Kentucky that we affiliate with, and tough reality is that it’s never enough. For every child we give a bag of brand new school supplies, there’s another in the same classroom who gets nothing.

Back-to-school season is somewhat like Christmas here. It’s the time of year when donors shower kids with new shoes, clothes, notebooks, backpacks, pens, pencils, and markers. But for children not enrolled in our program, there won’t be much left and the school resource coordinators will be scrounging in their supply closets for a hand-me-down pair of shoes to trade for the too-small ones they’re wearing.

Middle school is the age when they start to realize the truth about why they don’t get new clothes or school supplies when other kids do.

The luckiest children have ongoing sponsors who keep them supplied. James, a fifth-grader at one of our affiliate schools, gets clothes, school supplies and stuffed animals from his sponsor, Vicki. He told us that Vicki sends him letters asking for what he wants and then sends him gifts. He’s a happy kid who wants to be a farmer and who loves his animals — especially his pig, which he mimics for us.

Fortunately, James and the other sponsored children have received funds from Children Incorporated through the years, and they need it badly. Of the 350 or so children enrolled here now, many more would qualify to receive help from Children Incorporated.

Bad times at home

One of the kids who is getting help is Brian, who lives with his five siblings. His stepfather is in jail and his mother is in rehab, so their grandmother takes care of them. Brian knows where his parents are but doesn’t seem to get yet that the reason he’s in worn-out clothes and never has quite enough to eat is because his parents didn’t come through for him.

Over at Morgan County Middle School, resource coordinator Donna told us that the elementary children generally don’t understand that yet.

“Middle school is the age when they start to realize the truth about why they don’t get new clothes or school supplies when other kids do — because the reality is their family doesn’t have the money, maybe because their mom and dad bought alcohol or something else,” she said.

Two of the kids that Donna helps are Billy and Dennis. The two boys had been living in a small trailer with six adults, but then their parents divorced, and their father was killed in a car crash. Now, they live in a trailer with their mom. The family is living on food stamps, which keeps them fed but doesn’t cover the bills or clothes, hygiene items or school supplies.

What they and most of these kids need, Donna said, isn’t just physical help but emotional support. They need to be told that they’re doing well and trying hard and that they can succeed — it’s not something they often hear at home.

For many of these kids, school is the safest place to be and the place where they are ensured a full meal and attentive adults who are devoted to their wellbeing.

“I am always ready for school to start back after the summer because I worry about these children when they are not in school,” Donna said. “A lot of them don’t have a safe place to be.”

For the holidays and weekends, Children Incorporated students get food packs to take home with them — cans of SpaghettiOs, chicken noodle soup and other easy-to-make foods to ensure they’re getting fed something.

A BRIGHTER FUTURE

And yet even here, there is a way out.

At Morgan County High School, as many as 70 percent of the 600 students may go on to some type of higher education.

“I am always ready for school to start back after the summer because I worry about these children when they are not in school,” Donna said. “A lot of them don’t have a safe place to be.”

Caroline is one of them. A junior at Morgan County High, she’s already getting nursing certifications and is planning to finish her nursing education at Pikesville University after she graduates. Caroline’s coordinator said her home situation is bad but that Caroline’s determination and the Children Incorporated clothes and supplies she’s been receiving over the years have enabled her to always look good and walk with confidence.

Another one is Barrett, who’s had the same Children Incorporated sponsor since he was in kindergarten. He’s a senior now, and he’s hoping to go to college to study computers or engineering and to one day move to Lexington and buy a house and a truck. It could very well happen — his older sister is already in college at nearby Morehead State.

He’ll finish school in June and be off to college, leaving a spot open for another Children Incorporated child. For every child we send off successfully, there’s another one waiting for help.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENTUCKY?

You can sponsor a child in Kentucky in one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org.

DONATE TO OUR BACK TO SCHOOL FUND

Shelley Callahan | September 1, 2016En Español

Eastern Kentucky is a hotbed of hand-me-downs. We do a lot of work in the region, and this time, we’re here to drop off school supplies and check on the children as they begin the new school year. The thing I’ve noticed most is that children here have nothing new – unless it’s something we just handed them.

When you’re handing out school supplies to children whose parents couldn’t provide them, there are a lot of difficult moments, as well as poignant ones. As they come to the resource centers to collect their things, it’s the children’s clothing that jumps out from a distance. Pants are too short, shoes are too tight, hems are frayed and holes are apparent – they’re wearing clothes they’ve outgrown that have clearly been handed down one too many times already.

Finding style on a budget of $0

But they’re trying hard. Children with too-short jeans and missing buttons have obviously spent time and effort styling their hair just right, and they’ve got all the mannerisms and body language of their peers on TV. They’re doing their best to be normal, cool and style-conscious even when there’s no one at home to help them do it.

But all of that cool falls apart in the face of a new backpack.

The three sisters

At one of our affiliate elementary schools, volunteer coordinator, Kim, introduced us to three sisters who live with their father. Becky and Amber are 10-year-old twins, and Jordan is 8 years old. Their father hadn’t provided any school supplies, so Kim showed them to her supply closet, which she’s stocked with items from Children Incorporated and a few local donors.

Becky trying to decide which bookbag she wants to take

Inside the closet, the girls were overwhelmed. It’s not that there was so much — it’s that there was anything at all. The sisters had clearly never been given the chance to pick out something for themselves — ever.

Amber and Jordan managed it fairly well — they viewed the selection and honed in on the backpacks they wanted.

Becky, however, was a different matter. She kept staring, picking up one and then another, paralyzed by having any options at all. Eventually, we had to encourage her to choose so she could get back to class, and she finally walked out with her favorite.

For days, I’ve been picturing her face, staring in stupefaction and trying to comprehend the message: “You have a choice. You can pick the one you want. And it’s new – not someone else’s reject. You can pick out the brand-new backpack that you like the best.”

What an amazing and terrifying thought for a 10-year-old who’s never been told anything of the sort before. And what a heartbreaking and yet touching moment to witness – at the age of 10, she’s offered the chance to pick something and it’s a brand-new something. It’s taken 10 years for that to happen.

Something old, something new

That’s a moment we ended up witnessing over and over again on this trip, watching the faces of children being presented with new shoes, new backpacks, new magic markers – and often even a choice in which ones they wanted.

In many towns where we work, Children Incorporated isn’t the only major benefactor. But in eastern Kentucky, we are. Children Incorporated has donated $125,000 to 150,000 in supplies to each school here since we started, and for most of these children, the only new items they’ll ever see come from our sponsors.

“You have a choice. You can pick the one you want. And it’s new – not someone else’s reject. You can pick out the brand-new backpack that you like the best.”

And that doesn’t cover all of them. Our volunteer coordinators estimate that 80 to 90 percent of students at each school could qualify for help. But there isn’t enough help to go around, so every year we have children like Amber, Becky and Jordan who are getting support for the very first time.

We’ve seen a lot of moments when children first realized they were being gifted something brand new. But it’s Becky who stands out in my mind. She’s had that backpack for more than a week, and I have no doubt it’s the best thing she’s ever been given — not just the backpack, but also the freedom of choice.

What’s in your backpack?

It’s not the backpack – it’s the ownership, the agency and the knowledge that you’re good enough for something of your own and not just what no one else wants.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENTUCKY?

You can sponsor a child in Kentucky in one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at
1-800-538-5381, email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org.