Shelves Help Us Expand Reach

When we say “it takes a village” to make the magic happen, we mean it! When Fostering Hope moved into the new facility in Solon, the warehouse was vast…and bare. Thanks to a generous grant from the Northern Ohio Golf Charities & Foundation, we were able to purchase shelves and equipment to set up the space.

Fast forward several months. Demand for our journey bags has increased, and we’ve run out of places to put them. As luck would have it, a Progressive Insurance representative called and asked if we could use industrial sized shelving they no longer used. Of course we can! However, none of us had the skills or the equipment to install them.

Enter an extra large volunteer group from Parker Hannifin who were there to make 80 birthday boxes and prepare crafts for gardening projects. A few of the engineers, seeing the stack of shelving on the floor, offered to install them for us. Yes, and thank you! Not finishing that day, the ring leader, Aaron, brought his coworkers Carmelo, George, and Ryan (pictured above) to the warehouse to finish the job.

The generosity of these donors and volunteers have provided us the capacity to store more journey bags and birthday boxes. As demand increases—and our footprint expands to other counties like Van Wert—Fostering Hope is bringing dignity and sharing the kindness and generosity of strangers with many more deserving youth.

Thank you to Northern Ohio Golf Charities & Foundation, Progressive Insurance, Parker Hannifin, and the weekly volunteers who restocked the new shelves for beautifying our space and helping us serve more young people.

To learn more about volunteering with Fostering Hope, visit HERE.