Needs from the Heart

The requests run the gamut from a potty chair to senior pictures. They represent such basics as furniture and bedding for a child moving into a new foster home, to the fervent wish of a 15 year old to be able to take drivers ed. These are items or activities that foster parents and social workers are unable to provide, but that Needs from the Heart can fulfill.

The practical needs are often essential in order for a family to be able to take in a child in need of a safe home. Equally important are the requests from the children for a skateboard, ASB card, a wagon, or bicycle. Being allowed to “just be a kid” is an important part of life and especially needed by children in the foster care system who have lost much of the innocence and joy of childhood through no fault of their own.

Over the years, Needs from the Heart has shopped for and provided athletic equipment, musical instruments, a week at summer camp, Y memberships for swimming lessons, strollers, cribs, school clothing, music lessons, beds dressers, mattresses, tricycles, toys, yearbooks . . . all to let a child experience the good parts of being a child and to help those who are helping the children.