Adoption: It’s personal

November 16th, 2010

Families are so important

At Accent Inns we are all about family values, that’s why we are excited to announce our latest community partner the Adoptive Families Association of BC. This post will provide a little more information about adoption and the AFABC and connect you with a personal story.

Adoption: It’s personal, it saves tax dollars, and it’s about more than babies

Why should you care about adoption? We can give you three very good reasons:

• Adoption saves tax dollars. Kids who age out of care without finding permanent families are less likely than others to finish high school and find stable employment, and are at far greater risk than most young people for  unplanned pregnancy, homelessness, substance use, and criminal involvement — things that come with a price tag for all of us.
• Adoption is personal. People who are not adoptive parents or adoptees tend to think adoption doesn’t concern them. But almost everyone has an adoption connection, whether it’s a grandparent who was adopted, an aunt who is a birth mother, or a cousin who is considering adoption. Adoption touches all of us.
• Adoption is not just about babies. Entertainment news these days is full of wealthy celebrities adopting from impoverished nations. But around 1000 BC children are available for adoption, only a small percentage are under two years old, it doesn’t cost anything to adopt through the Ministry of Children and Family Development, and anyone can do it.  

But, really, the best way to understand how life-changing adoption can be is to listen to the people who are most directly impacted by it—the children.

A short while ago, the Adoptive Families Association of BC received a letter from a little girl and a cheque for $25. Here’s the letter, exactly as she wrote it:

To Whom It May Concern,

Hi! My name is Shawna. I razed money for kids in fostercare. I was in fostercare and so was my two brothers. My mom and dad adopted me and then my two brothers. This is how I know a forever family is important. This is why I decided to do a lemonade stand. I made $25. Could you please use this money for other children to get a forever family?

Thank you

Shawna

If that’s not enough to get your eyes welling up, follow this link to read April’s story on the website of Ethical Bean Coffee, another great corporate supporter.

For Adoption Awareness Month, we are very fortunate to have support from organizations like the Accent Inn Victoria hotel chain to raise funds and awareness about the importance of adoption in all our lives. Here are a couple of the things we have going on:

Wine In The Sky is AFABC’s signature fundraiser. On November 20, Global TV’s Catherine Pope and Randene Neill will host an upscale evening of fine wines from around the world, gourmet nibbles from across BC, live jazz from Vancouver musicians hand-picked by Vancouver’s own Gabriel Mark Hasselbach for the occasion. There will also be live and silent auctions, with items like Fire in the Kitchen (Vancouver firefighters cook dinner for eight in your own kitchen), Mind, Body, Soul (a break for your brain and body at Y Yoga), and Golf with the BC Lions, a day on the links with BC Lions’ Geroy Simon.

Wine In The Sky takes place November 20 from 7PM to midnight at Vancouver Lookout, 555 West Hastings Street in Vancouver. Buy tickets at www.wineinthesky.eventbrite.com

Hop on Board the Train is a great fundraising and awareness-raising opportunity for the AFABC in December. All month long, AFABC will receive the proceeds from a train ride set up for kids through Metropolis at Metrotown. But on December 11, in particular, we have a great opportunity to earn an additional $10,000. Four charities are participating in this unique venture, each for one month, and each charity has one particular day on which to promote the event. Whichever one of the four charities earns the most on “their” day will be gifted with the additional $10,000.

Hop on Board the Train runs through Metropolis Metrotown throughout December, but December 11 is the day you can help us do a little bit more in our efforts to find a family for every child in BC.

Hop on Board the Train poster