Our Founders Story
I received a call at 1:00 am and accepted the placement. By 2:00 am there stood a hungry little boy in the kitchen.  His pants were torn, mismatch socks with holes, no underwear, and a dirty white shirt. Thankfully, I had totes filled with clothes, pajamas, toys, blankets, and toiletries. A week later, the child was going to be moved to another home. The night before I sat with my placement and pulled out all his favorite clothes, pajamas, slippers, and toys and packed them into a suitcase for him. His face lit up to know that he had things that belong to him.  He was excited that he had a toothbrush, toothpaste, notebook, toys, a nice warm soft blanket; he even got excited about having his own sippy cup. 

Not every foster parent has the space or availability to keep all the essential necessities when they take in a placement at any time of day.  The next placement came to my home and was not within the age range or gender I was ready for.  With the generous donations from family, friends, other foster parents, and the community I was able to accept the placement and had received enough donations to hold me over until things settled down and was able to go to the store.  Several months later I was told that the placement would potentially remain in my care for a few years. Knowing the condition and number of kids who come into care I could not let the clothes sit there unused.  Teaming up with another foster family we created the IL Foster Closet on Facebook which has quickly grown.  Each year more than 4,000 children ranging from newborn to 18 years old will enter the Illinois foster care system. In Illinois alone, there are currently over 21,000 children in the foster care.  The reality is that majority of the children who come into care arrive with little to nothing.