Area Foster Kids Receive Gifts from Optimist Club

(Originally posted Dec. 21, 2016) ST. CLAIR SHORES, MI — Area foster children will be warmer and more comfortable after the Optimist Club of St. Clair Shores collected blankets, pillows, clothes, mittens, gloves, suitcases and other items in a month-long collection drive. The new and used items that filled a U-Haul truck, the St. Clair Shores Sentinel reported.

The items give foster children something of their own as they move from place to place, Theresa Toia, president and founder of Friends of Foster Kids in Macomb Township, told the newspaper. Her group was one of two that received the items.

“They don’t have many belongings. Everything they have fits in a Kroger bag, so they need electronics to be able to compete in the world,” she said. “They don’t want anyone to know that they’re a foster child. They want to look and feel like they’re just like anyone else."

There are more than 900 children in foster care throughout Macomb County.

This is the third project the Optimist Club has hosted for Friends of Foster Kids.

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