Meet Olivia "Livvy", The Love of My Soul

Growing up in the Foster Care System was not easy, now as I an adult I couldn’t imagine my life without my bitter-sweet experiences. My daughter Olivia has been my motivation and inspiration throughout this journey and I wanted to make sure that she never experiences any of the unpleasant battles and struggles that I had endured.

I named the foundation after Olivia "Livvy" when she was 5 years old. Although, she understood that the foundation was helping other not so fortunate, it was not until beginning of 2009 that I saw her passion for helping others. Neglect, abuse, abandonment and unfortunate circumstances are all reasons for entering the Foster Care System. It is real and statics shows that many youths end up being homeless at some point after leaving the system. I can not imagine my daughter being homeless and on the street at 16, 17 or any age for that matter.

As I was planning our holiday gifts, Olivia wanted to know what we were going to give the participant of our programs, and I said "maybe gift cards so they can buy whatever they wanted". She looked at me and said "Mommy maybe we can give them blanket since it cold" I though for a moment to myself and realized that something tangible might be better than the gift cards.

My humble child decided that a blanket with a heart would be nicer so the recipient would know that we loved them just like God loves us. Her dedication of making sure that others received something almost brought me to tears.

After weeks of designing and ordering blanket for our "Christmas Hope Project", we were able to collect some money to order the items to stuff our bags. When I called to place the order, I realized that we were $400.00 short; I told Olivia that we can only order 30 blankets instead of the 50 that we had hoped for.

As disappointing as the news was to her, she went straight to her bedroom and brought me $8.00 from her piggy bank and said "this is all I have, is it enough?" As her mother I knew her heart and responded "it plenty".

During the week of Christmas, Olivia and our angel volunteers will be passing out Blankets and CDs at a local homeless shelter for teens and women in crisis.

This is the second of many holidays that Olivia will be participating in, so please join Olivia and I as we set our mission to donate 200 blankets/Scarves/Gloves and Gift Cards in 2010. Your in-kind donation of just $21.00 will buy a comfortable throw blanket for someone in need. We can not help everyone who crosses our path, but we can all "Lend a Helping Hand".

You can also send us blankets and scarves that you or your group have and we will kindly donate on your behalf. Let teach our kids that it is better to give than to receive, it is better to lend a helping hand than to take.

To help Olivia plan her 2011 Christmas Hope Project, please send us an email at oliviagifts@livvylovefoundation.org or make a donation and state in the comment box "Olivia’s Gift".

If you need some ideas on getting your gifts together, or would like to share your ideas with us, email us at oliviagifts@livvylovefoundation.org.  Our aim is to give 250 blankets and scarves, and raise $25,000 throughout the year for our ‘lend a helping hand funds", which provides financial assistance for youths aging out of the Foster Care System.