NORTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — KidsPeace in Orefield has launched a spring fundraiser that seeks to assist the practical needs of children in its foster care and residential programs.
Mo’s Closet is a tribute to KidsPeace family advisor Maureen “Mo” Harrington, who for 20 years always kept the organization and the kids and families it served in South Portland, Maine, close to her heart, KidsPeace said in a news release Tuesday.
Harrington died in 2021. Her family and friends raised $10,000 to supply a donation room with items that "support the safety, health, hygiene and everyday living for the children and families KidsPeace serves.”
Now the effort is kicking off in the Lehigh Valley.
“When a child comes to us, we are their family, we work with their family, we are actively part of their village now, and we want to help them in any way we can," KidsPeace Orefield Director of Development Missy Hartney said.
"And that’s what this fund’s about. If a child needs something specific that we just don’t have.”
That means things such as feminine supplies, acne cream, dandruff shampoo and other personal hygiene and street-clothing items.
For kids and teens who consistently are provided for, solutions to everyday problems are always “there.”
That's not so for children who have been displaced.
KidsPeace foster care
Imagine this: It’s 11:30 at night. You’re a 12-year-old girl who has just arrived at your new foster home, after being driven in a car by someone you just met, to a place you’ve never been, to live, indefinitely, with people you don’t know.
All that you own is in a black garbage bag you’re holding onto, and it isn’t much. You’re tired, and you’re scared. You're thinking, "Where will you sleep? Is there food? Am I safe?"
To make things worse, you just got your period. It’s the first time, or maybe it’s not, but you’ve never had the "privilege" of having supplies at the ready. You wish you could disappear. Or worse.
Enter Mo’s Closet.
“When the kids get older,” said KidsPeace Communiations Director Bob Martin said, hygiene products are a real need.
“You may not realize that there’s this specific thing that can mean a huge deal to a kid.”
Orefield’s local auxiliary donated $2,500 to start Mo’s Closet for the hospital, where kids go for short-term stabilization after being seen in an emergency room and deemed a threat to themselves or to others.
The 120-bed hospital sits on 260 acres and offers short-term programs, classrooms, indoor and outdoor athletic facilities and common rooms, established to provide a structured environment where kids feel supported and protected, according to its website.
The majority of clients are ages 13 and up.
“It’s as simple as a comment made out of frustration, things like that, we take very seriously right now,” said Tamara Wasilick, executive director of KidsPeace Children’s Psychiatric Hospital in Orefield.
“Parents often have exhausted everything they know to help, so the kids come here and stay to level out. And it helps the family and the child.”
The hospital supplies basic hygiene and clothing, as some clients come from the emergency room and the parents live far away.
Many kids arrive still in a hospital gown until the parents can bring their belongings, at times they can’t get there at all.
“The main focus in all of this is making the kids feel better about themselves while they’re getting better. It helps address the other issues they’re dealing with.”Tamara Wasilick, executive director of KidsPeace Children’s Psychiatric Hospital in Orefield.
Belongings are inventoried, and then KidsPeace staff gives out the same pieces to every child: gray pants, a gray sweatshirt, and T-shirt.
“Kind of blah, probably comfy, but we also want to add street clothes, donations they can keep, so that all of the kids don’t look the same, and make it look a little bit more personal for them,” Wasillick said.
Important for the hospital, Wasilick said, is to provide the kids with "just regular clothes," for school, and to wear out in the community.
“The main focus in all of this is making the kids feel better about themselves while they’re getting better," she said. "It helps address the other issues they’re dealing with."
It's more name-brand products, shampoos and conditioners, especially detanglers, to be able to help kids with different hair types maintain their hair during their stay.
“We have an employee at our hospital who taught our African American girls how to do their care," Wasilick said. "There are a lot of cases like that, children who come from very broken homes, not taught any of those things."
About 2,500 active donors get a three-dimensional mailer announcing Mo’s Closet, which Hartney said actually is a little closet that they could open.
No donation is too small
Those interested in donating to support the day-to-day operations of Mo's Closet can contribute via their Facebook page. The fundraiser has a goal of $20,000.
“So that our smaller offices can help their kids too,” Hartney said.
Or even donations of time, or any in-kind gifts. If people want to donate products instead of money, they can call the location beforehand just to make sure they have room for the product, Hartney said.
“When I drop those things off to the house manager, they cry," she said. "This is just fantastic. This is so great. I want to see that all the time.”
