Orphan Train and The Orphan Trains

Children in need of foster care is not a recent phenomenon. Parents, no matter how deeply they may love their children, cannot always provide them with shelter and care.

From 1853-1929, Orphan Trains ran from eastern cities to more rural areas. Babies and young children stood the best chance of being adopted. Older children were taken as well. In an era where child labor was legal and the norm, it was acceptable practice to take a child or young teenager and put them to work in the house or the fields.

Although the our image of the orphan trains is that they took homeless waifs off the streets of New York and deposited them in Nebraska or Minnesota, the reality is many of the children remained in contact with their families and the state that received the greatest number of children was New York.

The New York Times best selling novel Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline examines the lives of two girls, one an Orphan Train child, now an elderly woman, the other a contemporary teen living in foster care. Their lives intersect as the novel goes back and forth between them, revealing the hardships they endure, the aching loneliness they fight to overcome, and finally the affection, even love, they struggle to accept.

If you want to feel what it is like to be in foster care, both in the 1920s and today, take Orphan Train out of your library. It shouldn't be hard to find. The Ramapo-Catskill system has close to 100 copies!













                                 

Reflections From Children's Enrichment Committee President Judy Vaillancourt

Reflections from the President

It is hard to believe that more than a year has passed since the present officers were elected to serve the Children's Enrichment Committee of Orange County. In addition we continue to benefit from the chairpersons of various committees in our organization who contribute each year to make the Children's Enrichment Committee a viable means of helping children who are most in need. 

These remarkable people are:

Sandra Strohsahl our Vice President

Madalyn Diana our Treasurer

Paula Wells our Corresponding Secretary

Susan Pfeffer our Recording Secretary

Jean Rimbach our Scholarship Chairperson

Ann VanHaaster our Holiday Gifts Chairperson

Sari Cornell our Annual Fundraising Chairperson

Ann Falkenberry and Jeanette Crane our Communications Coordinators

Jeanette Crane our Historian

They have all worked so successfully to fulfill our mission of helping good children through bad times.

Here is what you, the members of CEC, have done this year:

You have provided scholarships of $1500 each/ per year/ for 4 years to 5 students this year. 

You have organized our holiday project for foster children with Social Services.

You have knitted dozens of beautiful items for foster children.  

You have shopped for, purchased and wrapped gifts for more than 200 foster children in the county during the holidays.

You have involved the Boy Scouts in Goshen to assist us in providing for more than 30 of these children's gifts.

You have provided the organization with its own Post Office Box. 

You have given us a face on Twitter.

You have organized luncheons for us.

You have attended fundraisers at John's Harvest Inn.

You have rewritten our organization's flyers and updated them.

You have prepared materials for our annual fund drive.

You have addressed and stuffed envelopes to request donations.

You have created an exciting and ingenious blog for us.

You have kept a record of the events of this organization.

You have written articles for the newspaper.

You have taken pictures for those newspaper articles.

You have created spreadsheets of information.

You have spoken to the residents at Glen Arden to introduce them to a worthy and safe organization to which they can contribute.

You have untiringly kept track of monies-received and paid our bills. 

You have made a connection with HONOR (Helping Others Needing Our Resources) to help homeless children.

You have written dozens of thank you letters and presented awards to those who have supported us.

 These are the things done by people who are passionate about supporting children.

None of these accomplishments could have happened without  the people who have gone before us in this organization – those who have had the wisdom and foresight to encourage new membership, to create committees and to engage benefactors.  You have created a long-standing relationship with our county foster care supervisor, Brian McNamara, and you have made us known in all of the high schools in the area who work hand in hand with us in our efforts to provide college scholarships to students who are eligible.

We have all heard:  It takes a village to raise a child. And we are a big part of that village.

Gratefully,

Judy Vaillancourt

Children's Enrichment Committee President

We Do What We Can. Please Help Us Do More.

When the Children's Enrichment Committee first began, over a hundred years ago, its members knitted mittens for orphans.

While we've never put down our knitting needles, the requests we receive through Orange County Department of Social Services and HONOR have gotten more complex over time.

Like many small non-profits, the CEC would love to have the assets of the Ford Foundation. But like many small non-profits, we're more of a What Can We Afford Foundation.

Some of our donation decisions are made by committee. The Emily Akers Scholarship Fund committee pours over dozens of applications before making its difficult decision as to which students will receive our assistance.

Some decisions are made at the store. Many CEC members donate their time to do holiday gift shopping. A little girl in foster care might request a doll for Christmas, but it's up to our member to decide which doll will make that girl the happiest.

Some of the decisions are made rapidly. HONOR might tell us of a child who needs something as basic as socks. One of our members will go out right away and buy the socks, so the child doesn't have to wait and wait and wait.

And some decisions are debated at our meetings. A request will be brought up and after discussion, we decide by vote if it's the sort of thing the CEC should, and can afford to, help with. Our hearts might say yes, but our heads might say, let's think about it just a little longer. We keep in mind our four year commitments to the Emily Akers Scholarship winners and our need to have money on hand for holiday presents. But since our goal is to say yes to children in need, we usually vote to honor the request.

Every November, the CEC sends out a letter to ask for donations. But there's no law against giving a donation in the summertime. Remember, your donation is tax deductible and will be used to help the children of Orange County. Their needs are twelve months a year, and the CEC is always there to assist them.

Please send your donations to:

Children's Enrichment Committee
PO Box 297
Middletown, NY 10940

A Fine Time Was Had By All

The annual luncheon meeting of the Children's Enrichment Committee was a great success.

We were fortunate enough to have one of our scholarship winners in attendance. Loren Lozano is a rising sophomore at New York University, majoring in economics. She graciously thanked the CEC for the help we're providing.

Our guest speaker was Roxanne Mendoza Johnson, Director of Shelters at HONOR. She mentioned the great need for toiletries and clothing, and inspired our members to go through their closets when they got home and see what they could offer to help.

The raffle prizes were much coveted. Hannaford Supermarkets gave items for a spa basket. One of our most talented members donated beautiful hand knit items, and another a tower of paper and pens. The raffle raised over $170.00 for the CEC.

As always, the food at John's Harvest Inn was delicious and the setting warm and inviting.

All meetings should be so nice!

Gift Basket Raffles

For many years, the Children's Enrichment Committee has benefited from the generosity of John and Deb Botti, owners of John's Harvest Inn, in Middletown, NY.

The Bottis have a program called Dining To Make A Difference. Local non-profit organizations select a Sunday and the Bottis donate 10% of that day's proceeds as well as the proceeds from a gift basket raffle.

On May 13, the Bottis donated $400.00 to the CEC from Dining To Make A Difference. Their donation will go to help Orange County children in need.

The Children's Enrichment Committee Annual Luncheon will be held at John's Harvest Inn  at noon, on Tuesday, June 2. Hannaford Supermarket will be donating gifts for a Spa Basket to be raffled at the luncheon.

We hope to see you at the luncheon. There will be great food, great company, and a great chance to win a luxurious gift basket raffle!

May Is National Foster Care Month

On a beautiful spring day in May, it's hard to imagine the difficulties of being a child in the foster care system or the challenges of being a foster parents.

So perhaps it's especially appropriate that May is National Foster Care Month:

May is National Foster Care Month, a month set aside to acknowledge foster parents, family members, volunteers, mentors, policymakers, child welfare professionals, and other members of the community who help children and youth in foster care find permanent homes and connections. During National Foster Care Month, we renew our commitment to ensuring a bright future for the nearly 400,000 children and youth in foster care, and we celebrate all those who make a meaningful difference in their lives.

The Children's Enrichment Committee takes special pride in our commitment to helping Orange County children in foster care. For over 100 years, the CEC has worked to brighten the lives of children in foster care, through holiday presents, financing summer camp stays, school trips, music lessons, college scholarships, and even emergency purchases of clothing.

We salute the foster parents, the family members, the child welfare professionals, and every one else who works to make the lives of these children and teenagers better and more promising.

And we thank you for your continuing support of the CEC in this most important work.

The CEC and Stewart's Shops = A Perfect Match

The members of the Children's Enrichment Committee are always looking for ways to help and to be of help. One day one of our members heard on TV about the Stewart's Shops program for helping non-profit organizations. She informed the CEC officers, who set about applying for a Stewart's Shops grant.

The first year, Stewart's Shops donated $750.00 from their annual Holiday Match program to the CEC. This past year, their donation was $1000.00, a substantial gift to our annual fundraiser.

Holiday Match is a program that started over 25 years ago to specifically benefit organizations/programs for kids under the age of 18 in the areas of social services, health, education, recreations, and the arts. To date, with the help of our customers, we have allocated nearly $19 million to our local communities. We collect in our shops from Thanksgiving Day through Christmas Day. We match our customers’ donations dollar for dollar, with no administrative fees. In 2013, together we raised more than $1.34 million for over 1,440 organizations.  

Here's a bit more from Stewart's Shops about the organizations they support. The CEC fits perfectly into their criteria:

Our selection of organizations is based on the following considerations: We support organizations within our market area that focus on meeting the changing needs of their recipients rather than perpetuating the status quo. We have an interest in the area of kids, their recreation and education.. We value extensive volunteer support and minimum fund raising costs, avoiding organizations which are already tax supported or have a large amount of overhead... Our communities have more than enough specific needs, so we give to those providing a service, as opposed to those supporting a cause, and we save our contribution dollars for people versus animals. We support local organizations which may not have as broad a base of funding, or have the wide spread emotional appeal of national health organizations. 

The Children's Enrichment Committee exists to help Orange County children in need. We are a great example of a "We Live Here, We Give Here," organization.

It's wonderful to receive the recognition and support of Stewart's Shops, and the recognition and support of everyone else, whose donation of time or money, helps us make the lives of Orange County children just a little brighter.