There’s a part of my life I don’t talk about nearly enough around here.

I spend a lot of time talking about photographs, families, growing babies, businesses, art, and whatever other adventure I’ve gotten myself into lately. But behind the scenes, I also spend a pretty significant amount of time volunteering.

And I think it’s time I brag on that work just a little.  Not because I do it for the recognition. Honestly, quite the opposite. I do it because I have been incredibly blessed in my own life, and one way I know how to say thank you is to turn around and be a blessing to someone else.

For me, one of those places is Fostering Hope.

I May Not Be a Foster Parent Anymore…

…but I never stopped caring about the foster care community.

As a former foster parent, I understand just how much work, strength, patience, and resources it can take to walk alongside a child during an incredibly difficult time in their life. Foster families can find themselves welcoming a child with very little notice, sometimes without much more than what that child is wearing when they arrive.

Suddenly someone needs pajamas.

And shoes.

And underwear and socks and a toothbrush and diapers and a crib and clothes that actually fit and a million other little things that don’t feel little at all when you need them right now.

That’s where Fostering Hope comes in.

Fostering Hope provides free resources to foster families, kinship care families, pre- and post-adoptive families, and biological families working through safety plans. From clothing and hygiene essentials to baby gear and other everyday needs, the goal is to make sure the families caring for these children have somewhere to turn when they need a little extra support.

I specifically volunteer with our Philly-NE chapter. I originally found my way there because I had friends volunteering in the closet, and I quickly fell in love with both the organization and the community this particular chapter serves.

And somewhere along the way, I became a little bit of a fairy godmother.  At least that’s how I like to think about it.

Someone needs something. We start asking questions. We check the closet. We send messages. We put out a call to the community. We raise some money. We shop. We find a donor. We figure it out.

There are absolutely men who give their time and energy to Fostering Hope too, but when I think about the heart of what I see happening every day, I picture this incredible group of women who see a need and simply refuse to leave the gap unfilled.

Okay. What do they need? How can we help?

And then everyone gets to work.

What I Actually Do

This year I’m serving in a dual role between fundraising and social media for Fostering Hope Philly-NE, although honestly, the two jobs go hand in hand.

Social media is one of our biggest tools for fundraising, collecting donations, finding volunteers and letting our community know exactly what is needed.  So on any given week, I might be creating posts, helping organize a clothing or supply drive, planning a fundraiser, working on a raffle, coordinating a community collection, reaching out to local businesses or figuring out how we’re going to fund the next need that comes through the door.

We’ve done Bingo. We’ve done raffles. We’ve collected clothing, pajamas, underwear, socks, diapers, hygiene products, and gift cards. We’ve asked our community to step up, and over and over again, I’ve watched them do exactly that.

One of my favorite parts of this role is getting to bring you along with me.  Over the years, this little Appletini community has become so much more than the people I photograph. My Pals show up.  When I share that the shelves at Fostering Hope need something, you help me fill them.  This summer, we held an incredibly successful clothing drive, and I watched bags and bags of clothes come in from this community and head straight to the closet. Clothes your kids had outgrown became clothes another child could walk in and choose from when they needed them.

And for the past three Christmases, my Pals have helped me make sure the kids at our closet weren’t forgotten during the holidays. So much of what we’ve been able to give them has come directly from this community, through donations and fundraising from people who know me first as their photographer.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop being amazed by that.  Appletini started as a photography business. But somewhere along the way, it also became this community of people I can turn to and say, “Hey Pals, there’s a need. Can we help?”

And you do.

Every single time, you remind me just how generous this community is.

Watching It Go to Work

That’s another part of this work I love.  When you donate to a giant organization, sometimes it can be hard to picture where your $20 or your bag of clothes actually ends up.

Here, I get to watch it go to work.

I get to see the clothing hanging in the closet.

I get to see the hygiene products stocked on the shelves.

I get to see a need come through for something bigger, like a crib or another essential item, and watch this group start working the problem until somehow we find a way to make it happen.

And sometimes, I get to shop with the families we serve.

That’s probably the part that fills my heart the most.

There is something incredibly special about watching someone walk through the closet and fill a bag with the things their family needs. Maybe it’s a foster parent who welcomed a child into their home with very little notice. Maybe it’s a grandparent or relative stepping into a kinship care role. Maybe it’s an adoptive family, or a biological parent working through a safety plan.

The circumstances may look different, but you can often see the relief when they realize that, for this one thing, in this one moment, someone is going to help carry the load.

And then we get to add the extras.  Maybe they came because they needed clothes, but there’s a cute pair of pajamas too. Or a coat. Or the perfect pair of shoes. Something that isn’t simply about getting by, but feels a little more like being cared for.

I LOVE that part.

Because yes, we’re giving someone clothing or diapers or a crib.  But I hope we’re also giving them a tiny glimmer of hope.

A place they can come back to. A place where they know someone will ask, “What do you need?” and then genuinely try to help.

Blessed to Be a Blessing

I don’t volunteer because I think I can fix foster care.

I can’t.

There are enormous, complicated problems surrounding foster care and the systems that serve children and families, and none of us are going to solve all of them with a clothing drive or a fundraiser.

But there are gaps right here in our community that we can fill.

A child needs clothes.

A foster parent needs a crib.

A teenager needs hygiene products.

Those are problems we can put our hands on.

And I think that’s why this work continues to mean so much to me.

I have been blessed. Truly.  So whenever I have the opportunity to turn some of that blessing around and hand it to somebody else, I want to take it.

I may not be fostering anymore, but I still get to serve this community. I still get to understand a tiny piece of what a family might be walking through. I still get to use the skills and connections I have to help make something happen.

And every once in a while, I get to play fairy godmother.

That’s pretty darn cool.