Page 6 - Palm City Spotlight - September '20

Page 6, Palm City Spotlight DOUBLE SPACE

in Your coMMunitY

Albert Wilson Foundation impact of COVID-19

Makes Back-To-School on our back-to-school
collections this year,”
Donation To Foster Youth said Christina Kaiser,
CCKids community
Heading To College relations director.
“But our partners in
Like so many students in the graduating class of 2020, the community found
Tonia and Roda missed a lot of their senior year due to a way to get it done.
the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school closures. They didn’t forget us.”
But Miami Dolphins wide receiver Albert Wilson wanted In fact, some new
to give them something back from their last semester of partners and volunteers
high school. Through his St. Lucie County-based Albert have come on board
Wilson Foundation, he purchased travel trunks for the since the pandemic
young women and filled them with all the essentials – and Roda is heading to Tallahassee this month to attend began last spring –
a few fun things – they might need for the next chapter Florida State University and Tonia will begin her college groups like the Culture Committee of the Keller Williams
in their lives. adventure closer to home, at Indian River State College. Realty Group in St. Lucie West, which collected and
Each trunk contained about $1,000 worth of items, Their names were altered for privacy. donated duffel bags and backpacks for children who have
including linens and towels, storage units and decorative Wilson, who graduated Port St. Lucie High School in to move from one home to another. “Every child deserves
items, printers and gift cards to local restaurants. 2010, has been giving back to the local community since to know and feel love and know that someone cares about
On Friday, foundation representatives met them at early in his NFL career when he played for the Kansas them,” said Hanoy Carinha, of Keller Williams Realty.
Communities Connected for Kids, the organization that City Chiefs. He hosts an annual football clinic for children “That’s why we hosted a duffel bag/backpack drive.”
oversees foster care and the local child-welfare system, in the community and regularly meets the needs of local The Culture Committee is a group of like-minded
and helped them load their cars with the trunks – a foster families through his foundation. individuals with one goal in mind: Give where you live,
sort of preview of move-in day when the two head to He spent the majority of his childhood years in and said Carinha, adding that she hopes the travel bags will
college. A third graduate who could not attend the event out of group care and foster homes before finally finding give some comfort to children during one of the most
also received a trunk. “I always think back to when I stability in the 10th grade. Prior to his sophomore year traumatic times of their lives.
was growing up and the things I wish I had, or certain of high school, he spent time at the Hibiscus Children’s Still other groups are pooling volunteers to make
situations that made me uncomfortable,” said Wilson, who Center, in Vero Beach, and at Boys Town in Oviedo. He sure that children and families – as well as the case
attended Port St. Lucie High School while also living in later found a home with Brian and Rose Bailey in Port managers who work with them – have enough masks to
foster care. “When I went off to school I didn’t know what St. Lucie before eventually moving back to family and safely weather the pandemic. The Ocean Village Sewing
to take with me and didn’t have the means to do so.” heading to play ball for the Georgia State Panthers. Circle has sewn more than 1,000 masks since they began
The Albert Wilson Foundation, he said, looks for the project last spring, donating nearly 400 of them to
opportunities and ways it can help set youth in foster care Summer Swelter Can’t Stop CCKids. “We’ve given them out to foster families, to case
up for success. “That’s why the foundation was more than managers and our clients,” Kaiser said. “And the group’s
happy to donate trunks filled with school supplies to three Service most recent donation will allow us to add masks to the
seniors graduating high school who came up through the backpacks of school supplies we’ve received.”
foster-care system, Wilson said. “We hope those supplies High temperatures, brutal humidity and the ongoing
will be a positive start and provide the basic needs for COVID-19 pandemic are no match for the passion and
those students as they start college.” commitment of local volunteers. These volunteers are
spending their summer collecting school supplies, filling
back packs and getting duffel bags, care packages, masks
and other valuable resources to children and families
served by Communities Connected for Kids (CCKids).
They include United Way of St. Lucie County volunteers
who spent days in a warehouse assembling school
supplies for children in foster care, and local business
owner Wendy Zuniga. Her family donated enough
backpacks and pencils, paper and pocket folders to send
50 Martin County students back to school fully supplied.
And longtime CCKids partner Sunshine Health didn’t
miss its opportunity to help, shipping an order of supplies
to eager volunteers ready to assemble and distribute to
children in need. “We were a little worried about the

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