The Quiet Whisper of a Duffel Bag
On a random Wednesday morning we received a text from a friend about an Amazon Deal of the Day that was for duffel bags at a great price. I quickly made a Facebook post about these bags in the event that anyone wanted to purchase one for our organization. I literally thought we might have one or two people who would jump on board and send us a bag. Instead, one person at a time we climbed up and over 110 duffel bags donated all because of one simple post. This is such a small but impactful way to help eradicate the use of trash bags by young people in foster care. A step that quietly whispers to the child “even if the things in the bag are dirty or damaged, you are not. You are worth carrying your only belongings in a real bag, not a trash bag. And you are worth so, so much more”.
Today we received a message that was so meaningful to us. One of our Facebook followers who purchased a bag for us sent us the tracking information. After thanking her, this is the message she sent.
She went on to share some of her story.
I know a lot of people probably don't understand why the duffel bags are important, but like you said it's about providing these children a small piece of humanity especially when that is constantly being taken away from them. I grew up in NY and I was 9-10 years old when my mother became sick with HIV. This was in 1985-86 when it was basically a death sentence. After she died my father spiraled heavily into his drug addiction and that left me and my brother to fend for ourselves basically. We had no clothes, no food. Like I was literally those kids you see on the TV commercials where they talk about if a child doesn't eat at school they don't eat. That was me. My brother turned to the streets and I just pretty much turned inward. But I think my foster care experience is different from a lot of kids because after 2 years of living like that I was placed with family members who loved me and cared for me. And I think the reason why I am moved by not only Worthdays but any stories I hear of children in the foster care system is because I know that my situation could have been so different. I know that for everyone one of me that is lucky there probably are 100 more that aren't. My younger brother and I were both placed with my aunt and uncle but because of his behavior issues he was placed in a group home so I know that not all kids are as lucky as I was. I'm just hoping to get to a point in my life where I can start serving my purpose and foster children. In the mean time I try to do little things when I can.
We are so grateful for Saraan, who bravely shared a small part of her story and how a duffel bag truly is important. And we are grateful to each of you who, one by one, will help us be that quiet whisper of worth and dignity in the life of a young person in our local foster care system. During this week set aside for reflecting on gratitude, know that all of you who joined us in this quiet whisper of humanity are on our gratitude list!
Behind the scenes at the post office when we went to pick up all the amazing duffel bag donations!