Sleep Country’s familiar refrain “Not everyone can be a foster parent, but everyone can help a foster child” has once again been sounding on the local airwaves, but have you ever stopped to wonder just where do all these solicited donations go? Sleep Country has recently wrapped up their school supply drive with their clarion call for donations bringing in thousands of items intended for local foster children.
With schools requiring more and more supplies from their students, there is an ever increasing financial cost to equipping children for school. Gone are the days when all a child needed for school was glue, pencils, paper and a ruler. Now it is not uncommon for school supply lists for children as young as Kindergarten to include requests for such items as reams of copy paper, Ziploc storage bags, tissue, hand sanitizer and dry erase markers.In fact, this year the average household will spend over $50 on school supplies for elementary aged children with that figure going up for middle and high school students. For some foster families this could total well up into the hundreds of dollars and the nominal compensation that they receive for the children in their care does not increase at this time of year to cover these extra costs.
This is where Sleep County steps in. Well known in the Pacific Northwest for their wide selection of mattresses, they are equally as passionate in their desire to make sure that foster children receive warm coats, shoes, pajamas, toys and school supplies. Sleep Country understands that foster parenting is not something that everyone can do, but that supporting foster children is something that everyone should do.
So five times a year, Sleep Country uses media resources and their stores to advertise their current donation drive. Donations are brought to their Kent based warehouse and local groups who work with foster care and have been approved by Sleep County are able to pick up their share of the donations.
One such group who regularly benefits from Sleep Country’s donation drives is Fostering Together, a program of Olive Crest. In King County, Fostering Together promotes foster care, recruits foster parents, assists them through the licensing process and acts as a support for licensed foster parents by offering liaison services and support groups in their communities. When Fostering Together receives the call from Sleep Country, volunteers pick-up the donations which come in large plastic bags and helps organizes them in a local storage unit.
This summer Fostering Together provided school supplies to local foster children at their support groups and will continue to make supplies available to foster children throughout the school year. For those children who come into foster care during the school year, it is not uncommon for them to arrive not only with very few personal possessions, but also without anything for school. To these children, a gift of a backpack and school supplies can help make the transition to a new school a little less scary. It is also a great relief to a foster parent to not have to do school supply shopping at a time when back to school deals are no longer available.
A local foster family who receives some of these donations is the Hutsons. Carol Hutson has been a foster parent for the past 15 years and in that time she has had many foster children come through the doors of her home in Burien. When asked what she thought about Sleep Country’s donation drives she responded, “I am grateful that so many people in our community open their hearts and wallets to reach out to children that they don't even know.” She feels that in doing so, they are helping to foster these children.
Carol also wanted people who donate to know that “through your donations you bring smiles, excitement, acceptance and joy to all of the foster children who are then able to attend school with the same supplies as their peers.” Having a new backpack can do a lot to help these children fit in at a time when they are struggling with feelings of fear, anxiety and isolation.
Since Carol has had older foster children in her care, she also wanted people to know that more mature backpacks and supplies required by upper grade levels would be greatly appreciated. She notes that sometimes this age group gets overlooked in that donations tend to be geared towards younger age groups.
All over King County, foster children are heading back to school with backpacks and school supplies donated by their community. Thanks to these donations, these children are heading back well equipped and ready for another year of learning.
For more information on Sleep Country’s Donations Program, please visit www.sleepcountry.com. For more information on Fostering Together, please visit www.fosteringtogether.org.
