Holidays are special times at BFF and Halloween is no exception. We always try to ensure that our foster kids have every opportunity to experience the same life experiences, what we call “normalcy” in the child welfare world, as other children. We also love giving candy, treats and crafts to our kids, and will take any opportunity to decorate our office!
Lately, it seems that more and more elementary schools are switching from Halloween costume parades to dress-up-like-a-book- character parades and things of that sort. One of our schools had each student choose an adjective to dress up as (see the picture below). That’s a new way of doing it! We check with every teacher to make sure that our kids have whatever they need to participate!
This year we were lucky to partner with Avison Young for their annual Global Day of Giving, where their employees dedicate one day to volunteering with local community organizations.
They came to our office with costumes (requested by the kids) and tons of candy. They put together fun crafts and yummy candy bags for our kids, along with bags of homemade brownies and cookies baked by some volunteers!
Below you will find a few thank you notes from our students. Part of providing “normal” experiences as part of our program is asking our students to write thank you notes. We believe it is important. You’ll see one where our student talks about a million dollar joke journal. Well, there is a story behind that one. That is actually a double lesson- writing a thank you and working on improving behavior in class.
This young man was getting into trouble all the time. He was the class jokester, always shouting out in class and disrupting the lesson. The teacher was at her wits end with him. When our coach went to meet with him, they talked about his behavior. He told her that his best quality was being funny. He hoped to one day make a million dollars by being a comedian. He went on to say that when he thought of a joke and thought it was a good one, he wanted to shout it out right then and there in case he would forget it later. Together, they brainstormed on what he could do instead of shouting out, and our coach suggested a journal where he could write down the jokes. She came back to the office and looked in our treasure box, and sure enough we had a journal that had money all over the cover. How perfect- his million dollar journal! She brought it to him, he was thrilled, as was the teacher, and we are hoping for a big change in the classroom.
If you or your company would like to do a project for our kids, there are so many to choose from: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, July 4th, beginning of school, end of school…you can pick any of them! Contact Debbie at dellman@bestfoot.org for more information.