Christmas season is upon us and with it comes the inevitable wash of charities and attempts to make a difference in a life or two. One such opportunity is raised by staff members of KVC.

“Here at KVC-Wheatland we noticed a significant amount of children in coming to our facility having lost many of their personal belongings,” said Joshua Tanguay, residential therapist and spearhead for this cause. “This is due to many reasons, including multiple placements within the foster care system or being removed from an impoverished home environment and having to leave their belongings behind.”

Having belongings and personal items is extremely important, a necessity not every child in the foster care system has.

“In 2012, a federal study indicated as many as 2300 Kansas foster care children have three or more placements in a 24 month period,” Tanguay said. “One of the age-old issues is many children simply do not have luggage to transport their belongings.”

Many children don’t have a proper way of packaging and moving their personal belongings.

“Proper luggage sends the message to their future placement their belongings are important,” Tanguay said.
“Unfortunately for children who are removed from their homes for a variety of reasons, a trash bag is usually the quickest solution for their belongings.”

This unconventional method of moving belongings also sends a message to the children. When their most treasured objects are thrown unceremoniously in a trash bag, their sense of worth is also knocked down.

“This is important to KVC because although foster care agencies work extremely hard to serve children and foster families, not every issue can be addressed,” Tanguay said. “However, how children keep their personal belongings appears to be an issue people can connect with. For a long time, social scientists have theorized about the importance of people’s basic needs and their belongings fall within this realm.”

This charity opportunity is to collect and distribute suitcases and other luggage bags to some of the children encountered through KVC.

“The goals of this project include helping some of the children who come through our hospital attain luggage to help secure their belongings for the future,” Tanguay said.

Donations are welcomed and encouraged.

“We reached out to the Bargain Hut and they have been very generous with their donations,” Tanguay said. “We would gladly accept any donations to KVC-Wheatland including gently used duffel bags or other luggage.”

For those wanting to donate luggage items, used or new, contact Audrey Lindenmeyer, associate director at 785-624-6000. KVC Hospitals Inc. is a not for profit agency.

“KVC believes this clearly states: we care about you,” Tanguay said. “You matter.”