(Atlanta News First) – Families from across metro Atlanta woke up bright and early Saturday morning for some important retail therapy.
They visited Famous Footwear in McDonough, one of five locations nationwide providing a shopping spree for foster youth to get essentials for the upcoming school year. The event was made possible through a partnership with the Ticket to Dream Foundation, which has helped millions of children across the country.
About 65 kids picked up a bag full of school supplies, socks and any shoes of their choosing — all free of charge.
“If children do not feel comfortable, if they don’t have the supplies that they need, they’re focused on that inefficiency [and] they’re not focused on learning,” Mark Philips with the Fayetteville child-placing agency Bloom Our Youth said.
Philips says the event’s goal is to alleviate the financial burden many foster families face and make sure foster youth are set up for success.
“Foster youth are at a disadvantage in that they have been displaced and they lose a lot of things along the way,” he said. “They don’t sometimes get the support they really need.”
Foster parents like Wanda Burton are thankful for the extra hand. Burton is fostering three young kids who are now so excited to go to school wearing their brand-new sneakers.
“The kids have been through a lot, you know, this whole system,” Burton said. “And just having them so young being able to say, ‘Hey, I’m coming to the store, I’m going to shop for myself.’ It means a lot to the kids, and they’re really happy about that.”
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