SARASOTA – It’s an effort to raise awareness about children in the foster care system.
Children are superheroes. Bridge of Life coordinators say, they overcome adversity every single day.
“Kids are resilient and if we can surround them with a community that feeds into them in a positive way, we can help kids to have better outcomes,” Bridge a Life President and Founder, Danny Jones, said.
Bridge a Life hosts their 9th annual 5k to create awareness about the local foster needs on the Suncoast.
President, Danny Jones, says there are about 13-hundred kids in foster care. Part of the event includes a chalking of the names of those children. But, Friday night’s rain shower washed the names away.
“It’s only fitting that their names would have been washed away because in some ways their the invisible kids in our community and what we have been charged with is to be a voice for the kids,” Jones, said.
And the Chavers family heard the message loud and clear. This event became the turning point of their lives. Last year, the names of their, now, adopted children, were on the sidewalk.
“This is actually the door opened for me when I realized my call was to foster, not, did we know we were going to adopt,” adoptive parent of foster children, Tara Chavers, said. “And now we have two beautiful children that are now our own.”
The Chavers adopted Trevor at 14 months and Harleigh as a new born.
The Superhero 5k offered networking opportunities with local agencies for parents ready to take the next step in offering a home for a child in need.
“There’s a huge need in the community right now and we’re just hoping to reach people that are interested in being foster parents,” Safe Children Coalition representative, Jeremy Gorzynski, said.
For more information, you can visit Bridge a Life’s website.
