For children and teenagers in foster care, birthdays can be bittersweet, but an Onset-based nonprofit called The Gifted Crate is helping change that.
Mary Nogueras, the organization’s co-founder and executive director, explained that birthdays for local youth in foster care aren’t always a straightforward time of fun and celebration.
Although birthdays were always important within her family, she discovered they were a time of mixed emotions for her foster son. Nogueras explained that he had been removed from his biological parents’ care for several years and spent “a great amount of his young life” in the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families’ care.
It was her son’s experiences that inspired Nogueras to start The Gifted Crate.
“We wanted to ensure that these kids and teenagers are still celebrated,” she said.
The Gifted Crate, which launched in fall 2020, was designed to support foster parents and ensure that kids and teens in foster care receive a customized “birthday crate” to celebrate their special day.
“In this crate is everything you need to have a small birthday celebration,” Nogueras said. “It’ll include a cake mix, candles, party supplies — like a tablecloth, cake plates and banners — and a couple of gifts based on the kids’ or teenagers’ interests or requests.”
Nogueras said the crates are valued between $50 to $100, and The Gifted Crate works with social workers in the region to deliver the crates to children. Social workers request a crate, and The Gifted Crate’s staff — currently a team of six employees — and volunteers assemble and deliver the crate.
Nogueras recalled how the crates have had lasting impacts on several kids’ lives. The Gifted Crate recently provided a foster mom with some special birthday surprises for one pre-teen boy whose father left the country, leaving the boy in the state’s care, she said.
The boy had a new bike — but he didn’t have a helmet. With that in mind, his birthday crate came with a helmet, a set of Legos and an action camera so he could document his adventures on video.
“He just spent hours with the Legos he received and with his social worker,” Nogueras said. “It’s those stories that really tug at us. That’s why we’re here.”
Although the gifts are tailor-made to suit the kids’ interests, they’re not the only things that make the crates special.
“Another pre-teen we had a couple months ago, she told her social worker that she’s been in care since she was a toddler and it was her first birthday with party plates,” Nogueras said. “Those little things we take for granted — it’s just maybe a dollar from the Dollar Tree. [...] But these kids have gone without it.”
On top of guaranteeing a festive celebration, The Gifted Crate also hopes to strengthen the foster family bonds, Nogueras said.
“[The foster parents] don’t even have to claim that [the crate] is from an organization, because we understand the stigma of feeling like everything is just a charity,” she said. The creates “are essentially given to families to help them bond or strengthen their bond that they already have with the kids in their care.”
The Gifted Crate’s decision to package their birthday supplies in banker’s boxes instead of birthday gift bags, for example, was also intentional.
“We want [the kids] to reuse this crate maybe for memorabilia and things they collect throughout the years while in care,” Nogueras said. “Either they can bring it back home when they reunify with their parents or if they move on toward adoption they can reuse that box to hold on to momentos.”
The Gifted Crate is located at 211 Onset Avenue in the basement of the building where Ebb and Flow is located. The space isn’t really open to the public, but it is where crates are organized, Nogueras said.
She said Onset is a great location for the nonprofit because the organization has already provided a lot of kids in Wareham with birthday crates.
“It’s kind of a central hub for us,” Nogueras said, noting that the Department of Children & Families’ Cape Cod, New Bedford and Plymouth offices were all in close proximity. Social workers from those offices send in requests for crates, she said.
The organization has received requests for 32 crates in April.
“The amount of [requests for] crates we’re getting means the word is spreading, but it also means there’s a lot of kids in DCF care, so it’s a little bittersweet,” Nogueras said.
With the increased demand, she outlined a number of ways community members can show their support:
• Hosting drives for toys and gifts for older children
• Volunteering as “crate couriers” who deliver crates to social workers
• Donating money (on Venmo, the organization is @TheGiftedCrate) or items from The Gifted Crate’s wishlist
Businesses are also asked to donate spare banker’s boxes or to volunteer their time to help pack crates. For more information about donating, visit the organization’s donation page here: https://www.thegiftedcrate.org/donate.
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April 05, 2021 at 10:01AM
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Nonprofit spreads birthday cheer to local youth in foster care - Wareham Week
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