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Once a foster kid himself, he's launched a drive to show every separated border child someone cares
The Facebook messages, emails and calls began flooding Kim Stokes’s phone soon after images and audio of immigrant children forcibly separated from their parents did.
Strangers across the country and beyond were reaching out to ask how they could help Comfort Cases — a small charity based in Rockville, Md., that delivers care packages to foster children — send backpacks stuffed with basic necessities to the thousands of children parted from their mothers and fathers. Stokes, the charity’s director of operations, was stunned by one of the largest “outpourings of support” she had ever seen.
One woman in Arizona emailed asking if she could put together toiletry kits for the children. Another woman in Canada wrote to say she wanted to fly to the United States to volunteer. Still another woman, a teacher based in California, emailed a list of bilingual books she thought the immigrant children could read.
Flipping between the messages and news reports, Stokes knew that Comfort Cases had to act. She texted the charity’s executive director, Tony Bonetti, and its founder, Rob Scheer, and learned that they had independently arrived at the same conclusion. Thus began a mobilization effort that over the past two weeks has led to an emergency fundraiser, a massive outreach campaign to government officials and a new mission for the charity.
Strangers across the country and beyond were reaching out to ask how they could help Comfort Cases — a small charity based in Rockville, Md., that delivers care packages to foster children — send backpacks stuffed with basic necessities to the thousands of children parted from their mothers and fathers. Stokes, the charity’s director of operations, was stunned by one of the largest “outpourings of support” she had ever seen.
One woman in Arizona emailed asking if she could put together toiletry kits for the children. Another woman in Canada wrote to say she wanted to fly to the United States to volunteer. Still another woman, a teacher based in California, emailed a list of bilingual books she thought the immigrant children could read.
Flipping between the messages and news reports, Stokes knew that Comfort Cases had to act. She texted the charity’s executive director, Tony Bonetti, and its founder, Rob Scheer, and learned that they had independently arrived at the same conclusion. Thus began a mobilization effort that over the past two weeks has led to an emergency fundraiser, a massive outreach campaign to government officials and a new mission for the charity.
Rest of the story by Washington Post's Hannah Natanson here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/07/02/once-a-foster-child-himself-hes-launched-a-drive-to-show-every-separated-border-child-someone-cares/?utm_term=.2dcd5a2cb6bb&wpisrc=nl_optimist&wpmm=1
