Mormon Author Helps Foster Care Kids

Mormon Author Helps Foster Care Kids

Popular author Richard Paul Evans, who wrote The Christmas Box, Grace: A Novel,  Timepiece, The Letter, and The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth, sponsors Christmas Box International.   Richard Paul Evans is a Latter-day Saint.  Christmas Box International is now associated with Operation Kids®.  Operation Kids sponsors the Christmas Box Lifestart Initiative with the motto, “Until every child is OK.”

Operation Kids has been around for a decade.  The organization supports charities that help secure the education, health, safety and well-being of kids.  Examples include the following:

• Improving Safety through The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s “Net Smartz” program.
• Improving Health through the life-changing and life-saving medical procedures of Operation Smile and the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.
• Improving Well-Being through Right To Play’s effective programs teaching conflict resolution through sport, in more than 23 countries.
• Improving Education in New Orleans through the Edible Schoolyard project, funding for summer science internships at New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School and programs for intellectually disabled children provided by Best Buddies.

The Christmas Box Initiative focuses on youth who are or who have been in foster care:

“Each year, more than 24,000 youths age out of the foster care system in America . These are teens that were never adopted, nor able to return to the homes from which they were removed due to abuse, neglect and abandonment. Many of these youth leave foster care as young as 18 years old. Without a family or support network, they face almost insurmountable challenges as they try to navigate the difficulties of adulthood, including incarceration, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, mental illness, poverty, homelessness and suicide. With the right resources, however, they have a much higher chance of success. 

“In October 2008, Operation Kids joined with Christmas Box International to help raise money for the Christmas Box Lifestart Initiative.  Each Lifestart kit provides youth aging out of the foster care system with important necessities including dinnerware, cooking utensils, first aid supplies, bedding, a tool kit, towels, information on local resources available to them, and much more.  As of December 31, 2008, more than $50,000 had been raised online for the Lifestart initiative, providing Lifestart kits for nearly 1,000 youth.  The funding also allows the program to grow to several new states in 2009.  Operation Kids will match every donation, dollar-for-dollar, contributed toward the Christmas Box Lifestart kits. (Read More.)