We’re just connecting the dots.
VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 12 • January 4, 2023
hello FROM KRISTI
Foster Angels: Bridging the Gap
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H
appy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are rested and ready for what is certain to be an amazing season. There are so many things to do while you are down here! Aside from the food, the fun, and the fellowship, there’s one thing I know our Winter Texans do, and that’s give back. The stories of generosity I hear from so many of our park activity directors never cease to amaze me. I have a strong sense of giving back myself, having worked for and with a number of nonprofit organizations over the years, some near and dear to my heart. I’m a firm believer that charity begins at home, and the need in the Rio Grande Valley can at times be overwhelming. There are so many organizations that fill a void in our community, many that you’ve never heard of. I hope to change that. Foster Angels of South Texas does incredible things for our foster children, and until Lucy Ann took the position of regional director, I had no idea the need was so great. Imagine, the ability to change the trajectory of these kids’ lives when they need it most. I hope you find it in your heart to send a little (or a lot) of love their way! ~We’re just connecting the dots. •
Kristi THANK YOU TO OUR 2022-2023 SEASON SPONSORS
Photos Courtesy of Foster Angels of South Texas Story by Eryn Reddell Wingert
Each year, the month of November
serves as National Adoption Month. Lucy Ann Wolthoff, regional director for Foster Angels of South Texas, attended her first in-person adoption hearing. Wolthoff witnessed nine children officially being adopted in Hidalgo County. Foster Angels was there offering support and providing H-E-B grocery gift cards and family membership passes to local attractions, bonding experiences for the officially formed families.
A 10-year-old boy, Wolthoff shared, kept a brave face until the judge formally announced his adoption was official. By the end, she was in tears, too. “Happy tears,” she says. Wolthoff was more prepared a week later when she witnessed the official adoptions of seven more children in Cameron County. All of these children had been in the foster system, a few of them for over 1,000 days. One child spent 1,898 days in the foster care system. It’s during those days that can span into years that Foster Angels steps up. When we first reported on the nonprofit program nearly three years
ago, Wolthoff was new to the parttime, work-from-home position. Today she is the full-time regional director with an office outside the home, and not a moment too soon. As of October 2022, there were 225 children in foster care in Hidalgo County and 268 in Cameron County. Requests come in daily, everything from prescription glasses to help obtaining a driver’s license. By the end of November 2022, Foster Angels had filled roughly 2,300 requests in the region. FOSTER ANGELS: BRIDGING THE GAP CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 >>