Want to know exactly how your old suitcase can affect the life of a foster kid?

Finders Keepers Consignment stores are currently collecting suitcases for foster children through the Women’s Council of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. Want to know exactly how your suitcase will affect the life of a foster kid? Assistant manager Cassandra Rayburn can tell you from personal experience. She’s lived these moves, and she knows just how much these suitcases mean to kids whose lives change in the blink of any eye. Learn more about Cassandra and how much the suitcases donated to this cause will help:

Cassandra: What strikes me most about my experience bouncing my way through foster care in the late 1990’s is the infrastructure of the system.   It is a sprawling, multi-faceted system.  For example:

·         Each home may have preferences about the types of children they are willing to accept. 

·         They may have more preferences about what types of children they will accept on an emergency basis. 

·         Each group home has a maximum capacity.

·          The families housing foster kids still go on vacation.  (The new foster children mostly do not- they cannot be transported across state boundaries, and probably have a court date to attend soon anyways- if they were welcome in the first place.)

These are all examples of why I called my experience “bouncing.”  The system is placing children sometimes on a day-to-day basis.  The problem is so big and so time consuming, sometimes all the system is hoping for is each child in a bed by bedtime.

Cassandra Rayburn

Now my story is compiled of a mish-mash of problems, odd situations, and oversights from county health offices, which were just doing what they needed to do to get through their workload.  My story is not the run-of –the-mill kid in foster care story.  The thing about my story is that I understood it. 

On one occasion when I was being transported from home, I kindly told the worker to wait 30 minutes so I could properly gather my belongings.  I had a travel bag full of outfits; I grabbed my popular-brands of perfume and other not-so essentials, and tossed a couple of my wrapped Christmas presents in there for good measure.  I had it all figured out, and had been dealing with these kinds of moves for many years.  My story didn’t happen out of nowhere.  Or in the middle of the night.   But so many children’s stories do.

Imagine being swooped up from wherever you are, doing whatever children do, having your belongings stuffed in a store brand, garbage bag, and sent to a place where nothing is familiar, and that bag will probably tear before you get there.  (That is, if you are lucky enough to have someone be able to gather some of your belongings.  If not, you may have a small allowance that can buy a few outfits at a discount merchant, outfits that you will still stuff in a garbage bag). Now, not only is your situation unfamiliar, but remember, you’re a child. You probably have no idea why you are there anyways. 

So what’s the big deal about the garbage bag? It’s cheap, it’s sort-of efficient, and it’s the best they can do in that chaos of displacement.

But it comes at a high cost for the foster kid, whose life is about to change. Again. The garbage bag signifies that nothing is normal.  Do you ever take a garbage bag full of clothes to Grandma’s?  What about on summer vacation, or a sleepover?  It’s shocking enough to be transplanted, sometimes several times in a month, to foster homes or group homes.  A suitcase is symbolic of family trips and holidays.  A suitcase brings faith to a child that his or her unfamiliar situation is just temporary.  It is not as scary and open-ended as a torn, stuffed trash bag.

A suitcase will be less likely to get mixed up with someone else’s black trash bag.  It is definitely less likely to be mistaken for trash.  If the only reminders a child can carry with them can be mistaken for trash, isn’t that heartbreaking?

Please consider contributing suitcases and duffel bags to this very personal drive. We have currently collected 80 suitcases - that's 80 kids who no longer have to feel like everything they own is little better than trash. And that's amazing.

All of our stores are accepting donations at this time.

Building relationships in Eastman - A Kanu Update!

Betsy and I ventured to Eastman today to check in on Kanu and you will all be glad to hear that he is doing very well. We swung by, picked him up and headed to the Cochran Campus before the financial aid office closed. It had been suggested to me by someone who cares about Kanu that it would be wise to meet with the financial aid office and explain Kanu’s special situation. This was great advice. We learned a lot from our visit and I believe his aid advisor learned a little more about Kanu. It was time well spent and he got some dates and deadlines that he needed to know. They found out he has support in the form of 2 “moms”, Betsy and me.

 

I realized Kanu needs an advocate to help him navigate all the dates, deadlines and fees so he doesn’t miss something. I did not helicopter parent my kids and I certainly won’t be doing this with him but I realized today that without someone asking essential questions, he could make expensive mistakes. Too many assumptions are made on the part of the college concerning new students. They need a mentor for these kids, especially new students. Thank you to Bobby King for suggesting that I get involved with the financial aid office. It will make a difference.

 

We stopped by his bank and deposited $750 in contributions from Finders Keepers customers and consignors. Kanu couldn’t believe money was still coming in. We brought him copies of the Champion article written about his journey. I hope you all saw it! Betsy made his favorite cookies and brought some of his favorite foods. We stopped by the grocery store stocked him up on a few things, including a can opener. Don’t ask how he has been getting by without one!

 

Then we headed to the Aviation Campus and met Chad who co-ordinates and manages the flight instructors. He was both helpful and encouraging to Kanu as he gave us multiple sites to visit for scholarships. Chad did a bit of mentoring on the spot, giving Kanu advice on the best way to approach each segment of flight school and training.

 

As we were leaving the campus, a guy pulled up beside us and jumped out of his SUV. He stopped us and asked if he had heard correctly that Kanu was from Liberia. Kanu got out and spoke with him and it turns out that this young man was raised in Kenya and Nigeria by his missionary parents. He offered encouragement and advice on loans, classes, flying and instructors and it turns out they are in a class together! His name is Jordan and he shared that one of the main instructors is a Christian and really cares about the students. He and Kanu exchanged phone numbers. Jordan didn’t have to stop us or even notice Kanu but he went out of his way to meet him and I am convinced that was divine.

 

 

So we made progress building relationships today: Kathy in Financial Aid, Chad, the flight instructor coordinator and Jordan, a fellow student. Mustafa has been invaluable with his knowledge of campus life…and his car. Kanu is surrounded by support in Eastman and he knows that he has support at his Finders Keepers home, too. He has been a little homesick but he is building a life in Eastman, as he should, one relationship at a time.

A first step for Kanu and a walk down Mom-Mode memory lane for me

On a recent rainy Monday, Kanu and I loaded up my minivan with as much of his furniture that would fit and headed off to find a place for him to live in Eastman, Ga. Always upbeat, Kanu had given me no indication that his housing situation for college was dire. Several roommate options had materialized and then vanished over the past few months and Kanu was super stressed out but not letting on. Finally, before our fundraiser, he told me that he had no place to stay and was a bit worried. Well that’s all it took for me to go into Mom-Mode and make a plan. We would drive to Eastman the next day we both had off and find a place for him to live.

 

So that day arrived and we headed down south to accomplish 2 goals: one was to open a bank account with all of the money customers, consignors and fellow employees contributed during our fundraising (over $4000!) and two was to find housing. I had 2.5 hours in the car with Kanu to “discuss” what I thought was important, how to manage money, how to stay focused, how to write thank you notes and more. Okay, maybe it was a bit of a lecture but hopefully some of it sank in. And remember, I was in Mom-Mode…..

 

Mustafa, Kanu’s friend who attends the Aviation School, met us and rode with us to various housing possibilities he had already scoped out, saving us a world of time. We saw a trailer in a really remote area but fairly close to the school, public housing and all of that paperwork, unaffordable apartments and condo rentals and finally a one bedroom duplex unit. We decided on the duplex unit because it is close to Mustafa and the shopping district and not a bad bicycle ride to school. The trailer was fine but it was far from everything and Kanu will be traveling by bicycle so this could be problematic. Also, I think he will be more comfortable closer to a friend.

 

We opened his account at the main bank in town where they graciously welcomed him as a customer and offered their own words of wisdom. Mustafa was with us and many of the pretty girls working there stopped by to give him a hug. Somehow, I think these guys are pretty popular in town!

 

We stopped by the campus where Kanu will be spending most of his time and saw the hanger with all of the planes he will be flying including the old Air Tran Plane that serves as a landmark for the left turn to the school.

 

So as a Mom, I now feel that Kanu is going to be okay. He has a home, money in the bank, a few old friends and a few new ones. He has people “at home” who care about him and to come home to.  He has Betsy and me planning random visits to Eastman to check on him and folks who want to send him “care packages”.

It was on the way home from Eastman that Kanu let on just how worried he had been about it all as he thanked me for taking my day off to drive to Eastman with him. He explained how he had hardly been able to focus because the fear of the unknown was taking over and weighing him down. This trip to Eastman, Finders Keepers, his job, his co-workers and customers had blessed him. Now his spirits were lifted, he could be a college kid, be excited about his future.

 

That was my blessing and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Angels on Earth

We just wanted to share an awesome thing that happened to one of our staff members, Karnu. Karnu works at Finders Keepers Furnishings. He drove his car to Maryland to give to his younger sister during the holidays because he thought she needed it more than he did. He spent the rest of his money to fly home. He was using his bicycle for sole transportation to work and school.
The day he arrived back to work his bike was stolen from beside our store.
We set up a jar fund for donations to replace his bike. On this past Monday a lady inquired about the jar fund and we related Karnu's story. She informed us that she was part of a not for profit organization called "Annandale Village" which is a community that serves adults with developmental disabilities. They have formed a cycling group in their community and Fuji Bikes made a generous donation of 60 or more bicycles to their organization. They were unable to use them all but were instructed to share with those in need as they saw the need. She asked permission to gift a new bike to Karnu.

Yesterday she arrived with a brand new Fuji bike and helmet for Karnu proving once again that good things come to good people and that angels do walk among us.

Q+A with our fearless leader, Bonnie Kallenberg

Bonnie Kallenberg, owner of Finders Keepers Consignment Stores, gets asked a lot of questions. She was recently asked: "What's the most unusual thing anyone has ever purchased in one of your stores?" Here's her answer:

Tyler Perry, a movie producer, lives and films movies and television shows all around Atlanta so we have his set designers in the stores often. The most memorable purchase of theirs was a large amount of dressy and designer clothing, shoes and accessories to use in the closet scene of “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”. The YouTube link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJKkCkNjTZQ where you can see the actors trash a closet full of clothing from Finders Keepers about 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the clip!

p.s. winter clearance starts TODAY at the Boutique! All of our winter merchandise has been marked down, so come stock up on designer goodies at even lower prices.

Spring Cleaning

Boutique Girl Ivana is also a student at SCAD. I love it when she brings her sketches into work with her. It gives me a new appreciation for the creative process that goes behind every single item of clothing. Her professor's notes are scrawled all over her designs (well, in a piece of wax paper so that the professor can correct the design without actually making a mark on it.) And when I first see Ivana's designs I am always simply blown away, and out of sheer defense of her I proclaim I can see nothing wrong and how dare her professor tell her anything differently and doesn't she understand that creativity is subjective?! And then I see the corrections and marvel at the difference the tiniest tweak here or there makes to the whole design.

Ivana is also in a merchandising class right now, so her job at Boutique suits her well, since she's often assigned projects involving displays and marketing. She had such an assignment last week. The store is in its hardest phase to display: the dreaded in-between-seasons: bulky winter stuff still puffs out between the lighter linens and silks of spring... a wool coat and a sundress sit side-by-side on the rack. (Side note: winter clearance begins NEXT WEEK!!) So she had her work cut out for her when she got an assignment to build a display portfolio. Here are a few of her pictures:

It's beginning to look a lot like...

I'm not much for the annual holiday-music domination of radio stations, or for the fact that Macy's usually has its halls decked while it's still hot enough to don a swimsuit. But there's something about decorating our stores that dusts off my Christmas spirit each November. The ornaments, presents, wrapping paper, ribbon, tinsel, and lights create a hustle and bustle in the air: a new kind of anticipation even if the store is quiet at the time. If you decorate it, they will come... :)

Something about the festivity also brings the staff together like a second family as we string up lights and spray paint plastic Christmas trees from Big-Lots. Simply: it's a lot of fun and we're a group of grown ups that really digs being silly.