photo credit: Ella Kirk
The 2023 December cover story for The Courier featured different family types at the holidays. One of those was foster families. The article discusses what winter celebrations are like when you are a part of a foster family. This story inspired The Courier to host a holiday donation drive, by partnering with the Bair Foundation.
Bair Foundation is centered around child and family ministries. They were founded in 1967 and have locations in Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Ohio has five locations, including Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Kent and the Ohio clinical services office.
According to Child Welfare Information Gateway, in the United States, there are over 391,000 youth in foster care. In the 2022-2023 school year, there were 16,519 students in foster care as specified by the Ohio Department of Education website. Because these numbers are so large, more foster parents are always needed. But fostering isn’t the only way to support kids in foster care, you can also help by donating to local organizations, like the Bair Foundation.
After reaching out to a team member at Bair, the Courier chose to host a sweatshirt drive. Hoodies, Jackets and sweatshirts of all teen sizes were all acceptable and donations were collected for several weeks, leading up to the Courier sell day on December 14th, when the article previously mentioned would be sold. Students and Orange community members were invited to bring donations to the journalism lab at Orange.
The drive started off slow at first, and we learned quickly more advertising would be necessary to make it successful. After designing and hanging up flyers, posting on social media, and creating a segment for the school news, donations started to pour in. Within days we had filled bins full of sweatshirts. With a week to go before the drive ended, 26 sweatshirts were collected to donate to teens in our area in need of a warm jacket.
We are grateful that we have the opportunity to collect donations for our community, and support those around us. If you are interested in donating a sweatshirt, or connecting with the Bair Foundation, please contact The Courier at {insert courier email here}.
