After returning from winter break, members of the Foster Care Connection Club organized their first supply drive. From the 25th to the 28th of January, the club collected baby supplies here on campus. Juniors Elizabeth Driscoll and Jack Gregg founded the club this school year hoping to help foster kids.
The items will be donated to the Foundation for Foster Children in Central Florida which mainly focuses on foster care children in the nearby area.
“We wanted to do something to help because that’s what our club is all about, helping foster care kids and we saw [the drive] as something that needed to happen,” Driscoll said.
Originally, the club had planned on asking for school supplies donations, but realized there might be a better way to put their donations to use. The school year had already started and so they began to look for other types of donations to accept.
Jack Gregg’s mom, who helps with the Foundation for Foster Children in Central Florida, told them that baby supplies were the most needed types of items that they were looking for.
With that, the club founders decided it was best to keep donations to baby supplies as they run out so quickly.
There is a rising number of children in the foster care system and the increasing need for baby supplies can cause foundations to lack items.
The club put bins all around campus including at the car loop during school pickup in order to collect all of the donations from Trinity students.
There was also an effort to spread the word about the drive to others outside the Trinity family. Members of the club reached out to friends, family members, or anyone they felt would be interested in donating. This helped get more donations for the drive and even raise awareness about the foster care system. According to Driscoll, this was a great way to get more people involved and be able to give back even more to the Foundation for Foster Children.
Although the club does not plan on doing any other drives this year, they still plan on spreading awareness about the foster care system in assembly and chapel.
“We have been talking about doing something later on in the year to just inform people about what it’s like to be in the foster care system and inspire others to help the cause also,” Driscoll said.
The foster care system is something very important to Driscoll, as she has two adopted siblings of her own. Her experience with her siblings has been very important in her decision to start this club and make a difference in her community.
Growing up, Driscoll said she saw how much her parents did to provide her siblings with a loving family and she recognizes how difficult it can be on other adopted children who don’t have that.
“My parents worked so hard with them and it really opened my eyes to how important adoption can be,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll spoke about how much children in the foster care system can be without. Whether that be babies needing baby supplies, or the need for school supplies, Driscoll knows of the lack of goods for certain kids and how hard it can be in the foster care system.
“There are so many things like baby supplies that people take for granted that a lot of these foster care kids are at a loss of,” Driscoll said.
