Tag Archives: foster children

Foster Your Dream meets Gloria Steinem!

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Thanks to the Hope-a-holics we were able to send 38 young people to see GLORIA: A life!

As usual, these are not our foster kids (we can not show their faces due to legal reasons) but we are joining 4 different audiences and they all look somewhat similar to this.  I promise!  🙂 It’s an amazing fast paced play about Gloria Steinem and it wowed everyone to see how far we’ve come in such a short time and how little we’ve come in such a short time!

Every show invites a celebrity or two and Gloria herself has been known to show up!  One of our matinee groups got to see Karlie Klaus the super-model.  She’s super tall and was super kind in talking to everyone in the audience who wanted to!  She even allowed some selfies.  Obviously those two women below are not foster kids!  But you get the picture!  🙂

Toy Drive

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TOY DRIVE was huge success!  We collected 3 times as many toys as 2017!

In December we said:  TOY DRIVE 2018 is in full swing!

You can donate new toys for any ages at the lobby of 36 west 44th Street, between 6th Ave and 5th Ave….or the Signature Theatre on 42nd street between 10th Avenue and 9th Avenue.

New and unwrapped.  Any age group.  Let’s make this the biggest one yet!  Last year we got a letter from the commissioner:

We bring the toys to the ACS Children’s Center where all ages go when they get pulled out of their homes.  The Center houses them until a proper foster family can be found.  This can be days or weeks or months.  Our mission with the toys is to give them a few minutes of happiness while they chose a toy to bring with them to their new foster home.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Master Harold and a Little Girl

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Master Harold and The Boys at The Signature Theatre provided an amazing opportunity for one of our clients to bring her foster family and some of her extended church group ‘village’ to see a play which provided a long post-show discussion about race and feelings about race.

Wow, right?  Some in the group had never been to a play like this but our little client set a shining example of how to absorb a heavy theme like this and then express “sad feelings” about racism during a discussion in the lobby afterwards.

Then we got lucky and Sahr Ngaujah stopped to take pictures with all!

Once again, Colleen Hughes and The Signature Theatre has our deepest gratitude!

Surprise Gift From a Celebrity

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When you least expect it, a friend of Foster Your Dream and a celebrity to boot, thinks of us and reaches out by sending a surprise gift of books to one of our clients. This is what Mavis Leno did!  As usual, we can not show you the face of our super happy recipient but the books displayed above came to the home of our client all the way from a bookstore in England!  What a delight.

Included in the package was a handwritten note from Ms. Leno explaining that these were her favorite books when she was a child and she wanted our special girl to enjoy them as well.

This generous kindness, with a special personal touch from someone who has a very public profile, made a great memory for one of our children.

It may seem like a small detail but by making a foster child feel special and worthy, a donor like Ms. Leno can boost the pride of a young person in being a foster child. I have seen over and over again how an opportunity like theatre or books that can be shared with an entire foster family, can increase the confidence of a child that their placement in the home is welcome and secure.

Bravo and our deepest thanks to the kindest of benefactors, Ms. Mavis Leno!

Foster Your Dream to be a Writer

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Robert reading poetry at 13th Floor Storytellers Event

When Foster Your Dream saw Robert Williams perform at a 13th Floor Storytellers event, we were blown away with his talent and what he had to say about being in the foster system.  So when Ben Brandstein had a writing class that we thought might be a good match for Robert, we reached out to offer him a scholarship.

Robert has dreams of becoming a screen writer and his voice is very powerful. We continue to try to foster his dream to become a writer.

Thank you to Ben for sharing your expertise.

Ben Brandstein at Poetry In Motion Event

Thank you to Molly Miles for introducing us to Robert!

Robert Williams Molly Miles courtesy of !3th Floor Storytellers