Hope and a Future -- Holiday Fun for Foster Kids & Families on December 13th

Wednesday evening, December 13th from 6 to 9, Fosters ICT presents "Hope and a Future," at Wichita Sports Forum. This is a Christmas celebration for all foster, adopted, and kinship kids and their families. All are invited to enjoy an evening of fun including gifts and pajamas, plus food, games, and more. To receive gifts, you must register at fosterict.com/hope. Jill Ayers and Nathan Paulus from Fosters ICT tell us all about it! www.fosterict.com/hope

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Wichita Weekend, the weeklypublic affairs program from iHeartRadio Wichita ninety seven,
ninety ninety eight one O two one, The Bowl Channel nine six three
and AULT one O seven three.Got a special event coming up December thirteenth,
the evening of December thirteenth. It'sfrom six to nine pm. The
name of the event is Hope andof Future. This is the third year

(00:25):
for Hope in the Future and it'sbrought to you by Foster ICT. And
our two guests in the studio withus today are Jill Airs and Nathan Pollis
from Foster's IC. Foster ICT.Welcome to Wichita Weekend, And we were
here last year about this same timetalking about Hope in the Future. How

(00:45):
did it go last year? Itwent amazing. So we had over five
hundred and thirty five kids at itsplus all their families, so about two
thousand attendance and it was just ablessed time for sure, awesome. So
we're looking to build on that andmaybe have a bigger and better time this
year. Right. Oh, yes, we got some new things added,

(01:06):
but also we've already got four hundredkids registered currently and counting, so hopefully
we can get even more if we'reaiming for hopefully seven hundred and fifty this
year. Wow, Okay, let'sbuild it up. Let's get them all
there. Jill, who are especiallywho is intended for this celebration. Well,
you know we have in Kansas,we have over seven thousand kids in

(01:26):
care. Oh wow. In SedgwickCounty alone, we have about thirteen hundred
kids in care. Okay, Andso this event is our vision is to
have all the foster kids and allthe foster parents come and it's just a
great evening for you know, wewant foster parents to feel loved and supported

(01:47):
and seen and to just be ableto have a relaxing, nice time with
their families, great evening of fun. And we want foster kids to just
be able to be kids for anevening and just have fun. Yeah,
make new memories. Christmas time itcan be really difficult as they're battling with
being separated from their families, andso this is a neutral place outside the

(02:10):
home that is geared towards kids havinga blast. And there's so many fun
things this year. We even havereindeer again from Fulton Farms gonna be out
there. There's going to be differentinteractive games for the kids in the trampoline
park, So it's going to bea whole lot of fun, plenty of
fun activities. We're going to havesome food and some snacks and things like

(02:32):
that as well that as well,and I know one church is even doing
bake Shop as their booths, sokids will get to decorate cookies and frost
them and sprinkle them and have someactivities with the food as well. Oh,
this is great and it's happening Decemberthirteenth, Saturday. It's a Wednesday.
It's a Wednesday, pardon me,Wednesday night, December thirteenth, six

(02:53):
to nine pm at Wichita Sports forthem. Great location if you've never been
out there, there's plenty of roomfor anything you want to do. Yes,
and we have the whole location,so all the basketball fields, we
have, the turf is going tobe a glow in the dark interactive game
area this year, and then thetrampoline park of course, which they've just

(03:13):
updated and done some cool modifications too. So it's going to be a whole
lot of fun. I'll tell youwhat. If you can't have a good
time at Hope in the future,there might be something wrong. With you.
Yes, yes, yes, Andit's awesome because one cool element we're
adding this year. We've been wantingto for the past three years, but
we're actually being able to give awaya car to a teenager between the ages

(03:37):
of seventeen and nineteen. And sothis is a kid who's going to age
out of the system, most likelyabout to hit life on their own,
and we get the opportunity, thanksto Maze Motors, to really give them
a leg up. And so wehave people taking applications and referrals for that
right now. But it is goingto be amazing to see the look on

(03:59):
a kid's face when you hand themthe keys to a car. There's no
better gift for a seventeen to nineteenyear old. Yeah, there really isn't.
Yeah, that's that's their ticket tofreedom and their their ticket to go
to a job or school or whathave you and get around. That's a
great prize. How do we areSo are we raffling this off? How's
that work? No, it's througha referral an application process. So okay,

(04:23):
at fosterict dot com slash car,either a student can fill out an
application for themselves or there's a referralbut in that a parent or a teacher
or just a friend in the communitycan nominate a teen. Oh excellent,
yes, And so it'll ask aseries of questions and then we'll follow up
with each of those teens. AndI think we've currently got about twenty five

(04:44):
of them in right now. Andit's just amazing to see that there are
some awesome teenagers out there in thefoster care system who are working their tailoff
right. They're in school, they'reworking jobs, they're having foster parents who
are amazing running them around everywhere.And so to hear the difference and impact
that a set of keys and fourwheels would make in their life is going

(05:08):
to be pretty unforgettable Christmas for onespecial team. So uh, to investigate
that a little more, just goto Hope in a future dot com dot
com slash car for the car specifically, or slash hope to register for the
entire event. Excellent, excellent,Jill. We have some other awesome things
happening too. We have like SantuchiOrthodonics is donating an entire braces case to

(05:34):
a foster or a lot of timesfoster kids don't get braces because state insurance
doesn't pay for that. Yeah,so this is amazing. And we've got
Martin Pringle Law Firm. They aredonating a board game, a family board
game to every family, and wejust have some really awesome people doing some

(05:57):
really awesome things Shure. Yeah.It's one of the cool things I love
about this event is it's not oneperson, it's the whole community. Right.
So we have over thirteen churches frommultiple denominations all coming together. We
have over thirty businesses. We haveindividuals and they're either sponsoring kids and picking

(06:19):
up the gifts and doing that,or they're donating to the family gift bags
because every family that comes gets agift bag for their family that is activities
for them to do as a family, blessings for their family so that they
can create memories there with their newfoster siblings and their new foster parents and
all of those things. And sosome businesses are sponsoring those. Some are

(06:45):
coming and just showing up as teamsto serve at the event, which is
really cool to serve food and toplay with kids and to just be crowd
control and pass out gifts and carrythem to people's cars. And so there
is something if there are people listeningto this who want to get involved,
want to serve we have, theneed is there and we will put you
to work. Okay, So youcan get in touch through the website YEP.

(07:06):
At the registration you can either registerto attend the event or you can
register to serve at the event.And also if there are people out there
that have thought about being a fosterparent or thought about how they could help
foster kids. We have several agenciesof the licensing agencies here in which TA
will be there. They'll have peoplethere so people can come in and just

(07:27):
mingle. They can come volunteer andjust mingle and talk to these agencies and
get their answer their questions answered,or you know, just kind of meet
the kids, meet foster parents,talk to the foster parents and kind of
maybe get a better idea if theythink that's something they would want to and
even ways just to support and wraparound them, because if they're at the

(07:47):
event and find out that you know, I couldn't do this full time,
or I don't have a big enoughhome or something like that, that there
are ways and resources at our Fosteri CT booth. There'll be a resource
thing that just tells people here's waysthat you can serve foster kids and parents
without even licensing your own home.And so that's a really cool element for
people to come and see kids,and it's just a normal everyday environment.

(08:13):
But also our goal is to bea blessing to the foster agencies because agencies
have so many kids, they haveso few workers who are working long and
hard hours, high case loads.And so by us saying we're coming in,
we'll do Christmas, that takes somethingoff of their plate. And then
we also get to invite those workersand those agencies to come and just like

(08:35):
see your kids in a positive light. You're not moving them from a house
to a house, You're not doinghaving some negative experience with them. You
get to come and see them smile, You get to come and see them
receive a gift, you get tocome and see them get their picture taken
with Santa Claus. Like it justcreates an all around positive environment for everyone

(08:56):
involved in a system that doesn't alwayscelebrate the positives. Yeah, and like
this and said before, you know, Christmas time, holiday time can be
really really hard on kids from hardplaces, and they this we want to
create a really good memory for youknow when they are thirty years old and
think back on their time in fostercare, you know, they think about,

(09:18):
you know, good things. Yeah. And one cool element in this
is all the businesses that participate.They put their business cards in this thing
that every goes home with everything,so when foster parents leave and even foster
can see, they can see physicallyall of these businesses that are for them,
not just in that moment, thatsupport them throughout the years. And

(09:39):
then every church this is a reallycool element because foster parenting is successful.
Foster parenting is all about having communityaround you, and so many people.
If you don't have the right communityaround you, it makes it that much
more difficult. And the churches inour city want to champion foster parents and
say hey, we're here for you, and we're we love you, were

(10:01):
prepared, we want to help.And so every foster parent gets like a
Google map with pinged locations of allthe people who have said like, hey,
we're here to support you in allof those churches, so they can
find one closest to their zip code, closest to their neighborhood and know that
there is a church out there whowill be that community for them and be

(10:22):
a resource, not just on oneday week or one day year. Right,
that's brilliant. Yeah, that isbrilliant. Good thinking on your remark.
Well, in case you just joinedus. The event is Hope End
of Future, third annual. It'sgetting bigger and bigger every year and this
is going to be happening Wednesday evening, December thirteenth, six to nine pm
at the Wichita Sports Forum. Dowe need to pre register at all?

(10:46):
Yes, pre register at either ifyou're going to volunteer, or pre register
if you're in attendance, and that'sat fosterict dot com slash hope. Okay,
fosterict dot com slash hope. Andfor those who maybe haven't ever been
and we're wondering about coming, Jill, you were telling me that this kind
of open to actually three special categoriesof foster's. Right, we have a

(11:09):
foster's adopted and kinship and kinship Okay, So for foster children and the foster
parents and the bioparents the whole family, and then kinship are relative placements and
then adopted if they've been adopted outof foster care. The whole family is
invited to participate in everything all theevents everything. The foster children, kinship

(11:33):
children, and adopted children will getgifts and a pair of bajamas. Okay,
yeah, but bring the whole family, bring the hopefuls. We want
this to be a memory that thewhole family gets the share together. Yes,
I hope you guys are packed onthe third tenth. That's what we're
hoping for, beyond packed. Sofosterict dot com slash hope is where you
want to go to get signed up, whether you want to actually attend with

(11:56):
your foster or if you'd like todonate some time yep. And the website
is also a great resource for thecommunity, for businesses and for foster parents
if they want and have questions aboutfoster care, about licensing. If they're
a foster parents who's like I justneed resources, I don't know where to
find that resource, they can findthat on the website. And also if

(12:18):
it's a business or an organization,a school, a church who's like,
we want someone to come tell usmore like we want to hear more about
what's going on in our county,they can have a speaker. Request a
speaker right there on the website andmost likely Jill because She's the trained professional
in this and has stories that willmelt your heart and also show you the

(12:39):
need in a very real way.And not hearing about stories someone across the
country. You'll be hearing about what'shappening right here in our county and so
also practical ways that we can bea part of the solution. Wednesday,
December thirteenth, put it on yourcalendar six to nine pm, Wichita Sports
for them. Sign up now atfosterict dot com. Slash Hope, Jill

(13:00):
Airs, Nathan Paulus, thanks somuch for being with us again on Wichita
Weekend. Thanks for having us.I hope we have you back next year.
Can we talk about how huge twentytwenty three was. Our goal is
to have every kid in Sedgwick Countyat the event, so we're going to
get it up thetting there all right. Thanks for being with us, Yes,
thank you. Thank you for listeningto Wichita Weekend, a service of
Iyingheart Radio stations one O two wonthe Bowl, Channel nine six three,

(13:24):
ALT one O seven three and ninetyseven nine B ninety eight. Listen every
Sunday for Wichita Weekend.