History
In 1995 a 10 year old girl came up with a great idea. She had found out that the average child in foster care has to move three to four times and carries everything they own in garbage bags.
“I thought it was horrible that the children had nothing to carry their things in as they moved so many times. I wanted to make them feel special by giving them something of their own to keep. I tried to put myself in their place and think how I would feel,” said Aubyn Burnside. And she started a movement to replace these kids’ garbage bags with their own suitcases.
It was not long before newspapers and magazines nationwide picked up the story. Aubyn would later appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show and be named one of Oprah’s Young Angels in her Angel Network.
Fast forward to 2009: Ron Nickerson, the president and founder, decided to use his talents and contacts to help children in the foster care system. During his research he discovered Aubyn Burnside. By this time her project had fallen into disuse as she had moved on to other things. He realized with his background that this would fit in very well with his goals.
Ron has spent the past 25 years working with children and their families in a variety of settings including residential facilities and psychiatric hospitals. He has also been a social worker for kids in specialized foster care and director of a 30 bed youth detention facility in Boston Massachusetts. He is currently a foster dad to several boys with Reactive Attachment Disorder.
Combining Ron’s talents, his network of friends, and the idea, Suitcases4Kids was born.
3 Responses
The Pilot Program Event | Suitcases4Kids - June 16, 2009
[...] History [...]
M J Corr » Suitcases 4 Kids - June 16, 2009
[...] a fire of inspiration and spread Suitcases for Kids across Massachusetts and beyond.” said Donna White, co-chairwoman of Suitcases for Kids, and a mother of [...]
M J Corr » The Road To Glory - June 24, 2009
[...] to children in foster care who only have trash bags to carry their belongings.В The founder, Ron Nickerson, would not consider his goals as lofty.В He takes in the foster kids that no one else wants, the [...]
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