HAPPY VALLEY, Ore. — More than 11,000 kids move through Oregon’s foster care system every year. A trash bag filled with a few belongings is often all they bring with them. A local foster mom, who’s seen this in her own home, wanted to help.
She turned her passion into action during the pandemic to create Foster Love Oregon. She hoped to raise a couple hundred dollars to provide duffel bags filled with essentials for kids in the child welfare system, but it has taken off faster than she could have ever imagined.
"That small amount of love that you can give that child is that little glimpse of light that you can give them to take wherever they go," Cheryl Cabrera said.
Cheryl and her wife Adrianna are foster parents. It’s a job they know isn't easy, but worth every high and low.
"Whether or not they've experienced trauma, violence, and that's all they've seen - to give them something different to see; even if it's just for a short amount of time, it's worth all the while," Cheryl said.
Cheryl realized she had a deep passion for fostering around the time the couple adopted their first child, about eight years ago.
At the time, she was working as a respiratory therapist when a child in the system came into her care.
"Nobody came to visit him, and we took turns as respiratory therapists to go and spend our breaks to hug him and cuddle him and be there for him," she said.
Since then, she and Adrianna have adopted two children, their son and their daughter, through fostering. On top of their children, the couple has fostered about six children.
"Just imagine the faith and the support that you can give that child to know there is hope," Cheryl said. "And there are people out there that actually love you no matter who you are or where you’re from, what your culture is, what your experience is."
When a child enters foster care or is moved from a home, they have little time to grab belongings. What they can take often ends up in a trash bag.
"We had a child come in with ramen and Kool-Aid. That was the first thing that a child grabbed because that was the most important thing that they knew was food and drink," she said.
Cheryl and her wife started Foster Love Oregon to change that. Their goal: raise money to provide duffel bags filled with essentials, like toiletries, for kids entering a new home.
It’s a grassroots effort. So she thought it might take a while to gain momentum, but the community stepped up.
"Let's just collect a few hundred dollars for duffel bags, because those are the most expensive, and then it just took off from there," Cheryl said. "So, by day two, we had collected $1,400 and we were like, 'Oh my gosh! This is such amazing feedback from the community.'"
Foster Love Oregon is in the process of filing to become an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Cheryl wants to keep filling the gap, especially for teens in the system who can learn from the love they'll find in a simple duffel bag.
"If you just constantly show these kids love and attention – that's the constant you want them to take with them so that they can learn to give it to other people, learn to give it to themselves," Cheryl said.
Learn more and donate to Foster Love Oregon on its Facebook page.
Thinking of becoming a foster parent? Here are some resources to help: