A Light In Every Window  

Dear Friends,

This has been an exciting year for everyone at Children’s Home. We celebrated our 140th anniversary - that’s 140 years of caring for the children in our community! In those 140 years, we have touched the lives of more than 100,000 children and families. Children like Danielle…

When Danielle first came to Children’s Home, she suffered from nightmares, had a poor self-image and was both verbally/physically aggressive. (In fact, Danielle was so uncomfortable when talking to strangers that she often covered her eyes.) She was performing very poorly in school with her reading far below average and she often refused to complete assignments. At only eight years old, Danielle was already getting to know kids in her neighborhood who had a negative influence on her and she had started to emulate their behaviors. On one occasion, Danielle became so threatening that all of the knives in her home had to be kept in locked drawers!

After welcoming Danielle into our foster care program, our resource team worked hard to match her with a loving foster family committed to helping her deal with her emotional issues and show progress in all areas of her life. Our resource team not only found Danielle a good foster home, but foster parents who were interested in adopting her!

After two years of intensive therapeutic services with Children’s Home, Danielle made such remarkable improvements that she was adopted by her foster family! She is now 10 years old, academically on-target, has positive friends and enjoys many extra-curricular activities such as soccer and church. Danielle has bonded extremely well with her adoptive family and loves them very much. Her self-esteem has improved and her personality shines - she’s quite a funny and charismatic young lady who lights up a room when she walks in! It’s truly amazing to see a transformation like Danielle’s and it takes an entire community of support to make that possible!

At Children’s Home, we want to continue to serve the best of interests children for the next 140 years. We want to continue to comfort victims, heal wounded souls, improve lives and help children find hope and direction when it seems there is none. While we have reached out to the thousands of children who have come through our doors… we want to reach out to thousands more.

This holiday season, I’m asking you to remember the children in our community, like Danielle, who need our help. I’m asking you to remember them by placing a “Candle of Hopes and Dreams” in your window. The candle will not only help us celebrate 140 years of making a difference in our community, but will also be a symbol of hope to the children who have none.

Our children need your financial support. For a gift of $35 or more, we will send you a special “Candle of Hopes and Dreams” to put in your window. If you send an extra $35, we will see that a child gets an electrically operated candle in your name.

Our goal is to have 100,000 lights burning in Peoria to celebrate 140 years
of not only changing,but improving the lives of children and their families!

I thank you in advance for making our 6th Annual “A Light In Every Window” campaign a success and for helping us fulfill the hopes and dreams of children for another 140 years!

Sincerely,

Arlene

Arlene Happach, President & CEO