At the Comfort Cases packing party Sept. 27 at Linton Hall School in Bristow, many community volunteers packed a total of 1200 cases for foster children in the local area and Virginia.
Comfort Cases is a charity dedicated to giving foster children items to call their own while trying to eliminate the sad reality of foster kids carrying their things in garbage bags. Each case, which can be in the form of a backpack or duffel bag, contains items such as blankets, socks, books, stuffed animals, pajamas, and toiletries.
Robert Scheer founded the charity in Maryland. He grew up in foster care and as an adult, wanted to make a difference for those still in the system.
“I was a foster child and carried my things in a trash bag. No child should ever have to carry a trash bag,” Scheer said.
Terri Stevens, a friend of Scheer, and her daughter, Emily Stevens, found out about the charity and wanted to bring a chapter to the Bristow area as well.
“My daughter, Emily, and I saw Rob post on Facebook about it and we wanted to get involved. We went to one of his packing parties in Maryland and asked to start a chapter in Virginia. He said yes,” Terri Stevens said.
Emily Stevens, a local teen, was excited to take on the project and help make a difference for the children in need.
“Once I heard Rob’s story, I was moved. I never knew about the trash bags. As a community, this was something we needed to change,” she said.
When first starting the charity, Scheer hoped to change the lives of 1000 foster kids within the first year. Today, one month shy of reaching the first anniversary of Comfort Cases, Scheer has quadrupled that number.
“We wanted to get 1000 cases in the first year that we started. After today, we have filled 4800, and we will celebrate our first anniversary next month,” Scheer said.
At last year’s event, the charity packed 900 cases. Going into this year’s packing party, Terri and Emily Stevens and Scheer hoped to get just as many. To their surprise, this year’s event packed more with a total of 1200.
“We packed 300 more cases. I was surprised. The packing party went really well. We got so many donations from the drop off sites and businesses and a lot of monetary donations as well,” Emily Stevens said.
Scheer and the others are pleased with the outcome of the event and the community’s willingness to come together and help at the packing party.
“This year’s packing party was amazing,” Scheer said, “For a boy who grew up in foster care, no words can describe it.”
Emily hopes the comfort cases they assembled will, in fact, bring comfort to the foster child recipients and will also bring joy and optimism into their lives.
“I hope that once the foster children are given the comfort cases, they’ll see that life isn’t in a trash bag and I hope that it will give them comfort during a time of major transition,” Emily Stevens said.
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