Effort brings Christmas joy to area's foster children

There are more than 4,300 children in foster care throughout Southeast Missouri, and Mary Haldeman has made it her life's mission to help as many of them as possible.

Haldeman is the program director for the Southeast Missouri office of FosterAdopt Connect, and its mission is to bring stability and support to children and families with programs designed to fill gaps found in the child welfare system. According to Haldeman, it's a very big gap.

"I fostered for 20 years and had I had the support that I'm now a part of during those 20 years, there would have been such a greater opportunity for me to help," Haldeman said.

Hefner Furniture has made a commitment to assist FosterAdopt Connect meet the needs of foster children over the past two years, and this year they added an Angel Tree designed to help the neediest clients in the system, adolescent children

"Some of these kids, it will make the difference between feeling like they are valued in life and feeling like they are worthless in life," Haldeman said.

Foster Adopt Connect serves up to 300 children and 75 families a month, and thanks to the generous efforts of Hefner Furniture, 30 adolescents are being helped this year after being selected according to need.

Nate Newman, corporate sales manager with Hefner Furniture, was the one to reach out to Haldeman two years ago wanting to help year-round. His desire and commitment to help comes from personal experience. Newman was a foster child himself.

"I was a kid in the 80s, where children didn't quite have the rights they have nowadays. Law enforcement and the Division of Youth Services were very limited, so organizations like FosterAdopt Connect now can really help fill in the gaps. If they had been present when I was young, I probably could have avoided a lot of emotional and physical trauma," Newman said.

Newman's story has turned out to be atypical of many adolescent foster children. He was adopted into a forever home later in life, before he became stuck in the system. Through love, he was able to get out and now he wants to help kids experience that lifesaving compassion any way he can.

"When someone takes a name off this tree, it might be the first time a child in the system feels compassion. Those moments of compassion are what fuel us and change us and help guide us through our lives. Showing compassion to a child today might help them show compassion to a child later and it might let them know that they matter," Newman said.

Hefner's erected its Giving Tree near the entrance to the store. Some employees and many customers picked names from the tree and brought gifts to bring hope to these foster children's lives.

The gifts were picked up for distribution this Christmas, but Haldeman and Newman want to stress the importance of helping these children year-round.

Haldeman explained, "If we ignore these children and ignore these teens and don't support them in every way that we possibly can, we all pay the price of our neglect, not just the child."

Newman added, "I think it's very important organizations like FosterAdopt Connect, and leaders like Mary Haldeman, have support in the community to help save a child."