For the first time, Lambert’s media center will be hosting a pajama drive from now until January 15. Media center specialist Victoria Laguaite and Lambert’s social worker Naran Butler are the heads of this project, and plan to distribute the collected donations to foster kids across the Forsyth County area and beyond.
Earlier this year, Languaite received an email from Chick-fil-A advertising a pajama donation drive they were hosting, which inspired Ms. Laguaite to start a similar donation project at Lambert. Butler has also joined the project in order to help with his insights as the school social worker and as someone who has connections with several organizations who accept clothing donations.
“We were thinking of collaborating with the Department of Family and Children’s Services,” Butler explained. “They are the overarching agency in our state that caters to that population [foster kids].”
The Georgia Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) is a state-wide organization that focuses on child welfare and public assistance for families and communities. The DFCS has divisions in every Georgia county, and the pajama drive donations will be primarily distributed to the DFCS’s Forsyth county division. However, if there is a high turnout for the amount of pajamas donated, the supplies can also be distributed to smaller local organizations in the county like Jesse’s House, a supportive home for adolescent girls, and Bald Ridge Lodge, a community home for adolescent boys.
Pajamas may seem like a common household item for most people, but for foster kids they are often a luxury. After relocating the children, foster care distribution systems don’t always have the resources to supply the kids with essential supplies like clothes and hygienic items, which is why pajamas are a highly demanded donation.
“When children come into my care, they tend to not have any fancy luggage,” Butler noted. “Sometimes they’re coming and bringing their belongings… in a trash bag.”
Many foster kids have to leave behind necessities like clothes when moving out of their homes; often, they only have enough time to grab a couple of memorandums and keepsakes. Making sure that foster kids can be comfortable in their new home with the every-day items they need is the goal Laguaite and Butler hope to accomplish with their pajama donation drive.
“It brings to the kids a level of comfort, just having a new pair of pajamas,”Laguaite said. “Something that they know that they can be warm in.”
With the upcoming winter holidays, Laguaite and Butler hope to receive lots of donations so that the foster kids in the area can experience a little bit of holiday joy. Getting new pajamas in time for the holidays helps lessen the strain on the children’s foster families, and can help the foster kids adjust to their new environments.
Pajamas donated should be brand new with their tags still on, and dropped off in the pajama box in the media center!
