Aug 19, 2009 7:42 pm US/Pacific
Comforting Foster Children in Sonoma
Jefferson Award Winners: Linda Lavery & Keith Travinsky
Valley of the Moon (CBS 5) ―
-
-
Linda Lavery & Keith Travinsky
CBS
T-shirts, new pants, handmade quilts -- just some of the items Linda Lavery and Keith Travinsky have collected for the Clothing Closet, a project they created ten years ago for kids in crisis in Sonoma County.
"We really want the kids to have the message that they deserve to have good things, that we want them to be treated with respect," Linda explains.
She and Keith have been foster parents to sixteen children. They adopted daughter Erica eight years ago when she came to stay with them. They learned first-hand that kids entering emergency foster care often come with nothing.
"When we got our first child, we received just a plastic bag with some clothes and a blanket in it," Linda remembers. "The clothes were not in very good shape."
So they began collecting gently used and new clothes, folding and storing them in their home, and soliciting donations from the community.
Linda says, "Different groups started donating and now it's just grown incredibly, so that we have all kinds of new clothes. Almost everything is new that goes in the bag.
Everything that a child will need for three days, is what we try to have in a bag. It's a lot of things that you just take for granted, that you just never think to miss until you don't have it."
Alfredo Perez is manager of Foster Care Shelter Services for Sonoma County. He says Linda and Keith's idea has made a profound difference for both kids and foster parents
"It's just important that both the foster parents know that somebody out there is supporting them through this gift, and the children also appreciate and understand that it is a gift for them," Alfredo says. "I think that's what makes it so special at the very beginning of the relationship."
Donations have long since outgrown Linda and Keith's home, and are now organized and stored at the new Valley of the Moon Children's Center in Sonoma County. Staff and volunteers make sure every child who enters the emergency foster care system in Sonoma receives their very own duffle bag, a simple idea, filled with love.
"It's an idea, an unselfish idea, and I think the community picked up on that," Alfredo adds.
For Linda and Keith it's the stories of children who years later still treasure the handmade quilts and stuffed animals they received in their little blue bag. Their daughter Erica still has hers.
"It's really special to me," she says simply.
So for creating a program that continues to make all children feel special, even in crisis, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Linda Lavery and Keith Travinsky.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
New BART Police Incident Caught On Video 5 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments