Healing comes in many shapes and forms. For one nonprofit in Monroe County, it means acts of kindness. This month the group out of Cresco is putting together foster care totes.
Bags of Hope are being filled this morning to give to kids who are removed from their homes.
HK Mission Founder Dawn Rack says, "They don’t have to bring their belongings in a garbage bag. They will now have a tote filled with things they’re going to need for their first couple nights away. And our hope is that it will make some sort of difference in a hard time."
Rack originally started “HK Mission: Healing through Kindness” to supply activity pouches for sick children at local hospitals. The nonprofit was named after her children Hunter and Kendra who were both very sick when they were younger.
Rack says, "I saw first hand how much there is for children to do at a children’s hospital and much donations they get, but at your local hospitals pediatric floor, there’s nothing for these kids to do. They have white walls and they’re bored."
Now that her mission has grown to be located inside Innovation Church in Paradise Township, she was asked to make the foster care bags for Monroe County Children In Youth. Volunteer Shannon Fox was adopted and came with nothing. Her non-biological brother was also in six different foster homes before he was six.
Fox says, "These beautiful bags give them something that is their’s and their’s alone and just gives them something for them to have and be prideful in."
Each tote includes a cozy blanket, stuffed animal, a book about talking with God, everything they will need for their first night away, homemade cards created by children in the community and a kindness card.
Rack says, "Basically says that you’ve been touched by an act of kindness and one day pay it forward. It’s our hope that what we’re doing here creates a butterfly effect."
The Bags of Hope aren’t just spreading kindness to those they are given to. They’re also healing for the helpers, especially today’s volunteers.
Volunteer Debbie Ballew says, "My grandson was in foster care when he was about a year and a half old so I know a little bit about the system and how these kids feel so alone where they’re taken out of their homes. So I just decided that this was a great thing to do and I’m overwhelmed by the amount of support and love that the community shows for this."
If you’d like to help, items can be dropped off in the church lobby on Paradise Valley Road. The totes will be delivered to Monroe County Children In Youth next month in honor of Foster Care Awareness Month.