Giving back is a part of who the Matt family is. About twice a year the Johns Creek family researches a service project and pays it forward.
It was through an email from a neighbor and friend, Allison Ashe, that Susan Matt learned of Wellroot’s “wish list” seeking Christmas donations for families, children and teens in Georgia’s foster care system.
Wellroot Family Services, headquartered in Tucker with offices in Augusta, Gainesville, LaGrange and Newnan, began as an orphanage after the Civil War. “Our goal and mission is to heal the family unit,” said CEO Allison Ashe.
“That’s a long continuum of services to support families with everything from counseling to parenting, coaching, supporting young moms … providing foster homes for children who are in our care and supporting the foster parents throughout their journey,” Ashe said.
The nonprofit will be providing for over 244 children who are in their care through their programs this holiday. Christmas for the kids the foster parents are taking care of is another slice of the assistance Wellroot bestows.
In discussing the project with her daughter Diana, Susan stated, “I’m so proud of Diana. She said, ‘Why don’t I just ask some of my friends to do this with me? We can get it done quicker and can get money from more people and do more’.”
It was on the school bus that the fifth grader at Wilson Creek Elementary asked her friends if they would like to join in helping. Giving back to others was also not new to her friends that jumped on board.
Diana along with Scarlett Barsness, Rose Busse, Catriona Forbes, Bianca Mallman, Quinn Perrault and Neha Raju banded together to sponsor two foster kids: a 10-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy. Each child had a specific gift wish list.
With the help of Diana’s mother, the girls raised about $750 through a collection drive.
The group got together via Zoom to plan, organize and divide up duties. They were joined by Ashe who explained the program and what Wellroot does for foster kids.
Breaking into two groups, each had a researcher, planner and treasurer. They looked for sales, and took advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to stretch their money.
“We had to think about what stores and work with the researcher who looked into what the stores had and the cost of the items,” said Forbes, the sixth grader at Autrey Mill Middle. “The researcher would talk to the treasurer. It was like an actual job. The researchers did a lot. They helped to navigate and direct what stores to shop at.
“If you bought $100 in toys at Target you got $25 off so we were able to buy a lot more toys for others kids in need, not just the two we sponsored,” she added.
Mallman, one of the treasurers, whose new name is “Wednesday” said budgeting was harder than it looked. Diana, the other treasurer, said surprisingly the boy wanted clothes and the girl wished for Legos.
“We had so much fun watching them with their calculators and the entire process,” said the CEO.
“It was really a gift to the kids because they learned how expensive certain things were. Life lessons were gained from the tools of planning, researching and budgeting. That Santa doesn’t just drop gifts off for free,” added Susan.
The group of young girls with big hearts all agreed that it felt good to give to others less fortunate.
For more information, visit https://wellroot.org/
Each Sunday we write about a deserving person or charity events such as fun-runs, volunteer projects and other community gatherings that benefit a good cause. To submit a story for us to cover, send to ajc.doinggood@gmail.com.
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