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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Gwinnett Children’s Shelter offers new life and hope
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I recently took a visit to the Gwinnett Children’s Shelter up in Buford and met with Nancy Friauf, executive director, who gave me a tour of the facility and opened my eyes to the realities of just some of the heart breaking stories that have come through their doors.
She shared stories of children who were so brutally abused and neglected it would leave you in tears, furious, or if you are anything like me… both.
I could focus on all the abuse and neglect that led some of the kids to this facility. Kids who have come from every walk of life from living in tents in the woods to the more affluent, and some who don’t even know basic hygiene or how to use a knife or fork.
To me, that is not the purpose of the Gwinnett Children’s Shelter. Among its many roles, the shelter is providing these kids a sense of what a real true loving and supportive home should feel like. Things many of us take for granted.
I am not here to talk about their devastating situations, but rather about how you can help 12 boys and 14 girls heal from their past and have a better present and an even brighter future.
The kids in the shelter have been very fortunate to have some very gracious donors in the past including one woman who told her friends and family she didn’t want anything for her birthday but stuffed animals to donate to the kids for Easter to some businesses such as a pharmaceutical company building a baseball field, and a builder who built the Girls Long Term Facility (estimated at about $500,000) for the shelter at no cost to house 8 girls.
These kids deserve our support and there are plenty of ways you can help too.
Most importantly, they need financial support, they have a big need for volunteers to serve in several capacities including mentors, they need more businesses to participate in their “Safe Place” program, and they need other items donated such as gift cards from the big box stores, grocery stores, and entertainment to cleaning, hygiene and laundry supplies, to even X-box and PS2 games.
Here is my challenge to you, to businesses and to churches throughout Gwinnett County and abroad: Step up and help the Gwinnett Children’s Shelter give these kids the love and support many of us were so lucky to experience when we were their age.
Call the Gwinnett Children’s Shelter at 678-546-8770 or visit their website at http://www.gwinnettchildrenshelter.org to see what part you can play in providing a better life for those who probably deserve it the most.
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