Choices For Life To Host Leave Your Mark Event In Support Of National Foster Care Month

SAPULPA, OKLAHOMA — April 3, 2008 — Choices for Life Foster Care, Inc. will recognize Mary Walters at the annual Leave Your Mark event on May 8, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. The event, which will be held at Freddie’s Bar-B-Que & Steak House located on New Sapulpa Road, is intended to raise awareness of the month of May as National Foster Care Month, and pay tribute to the support given by local leaders to the organization’s Therapeutic Foster Care program.

Walters, through her position as executive director of Community Care Inc., provides food, clothing, and infant and child necessities to families in need living in Creak County. When funding is available, financial assistance is also provided to families to cover utility bills and prescription costs. In her private capacity, Walters also acts as program manager for Share of Colorado (a food program), is president of the Sapulpa Community Theater, sits on the board of directors for Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma, and teaches weakly self-esteem and goal-setting classes at the Oklahoma Victory Transformation Center.

As part of the awards ceremony, Walters will be given a bench decorated with handprints of the children on the Choices For Life foster program, and placed in a location of her choice. The bench will serve as a reminder of the need for therapeutic foster care, while encouraging the public to consider becoming foster families (or as they are otherwise known, Treatment Parent Specialists).

“We are constantly inspired by the relentless and selfless work provided by Mary to the under-privileged families residing in our community,” said Douglas C. Fellrath, CEO of Choices for Life Foster Care, Inc. “Attendants at the Leave Your Mark event will be given the opportunity to learn more about what the community as a whole can do to help those in vulnerable situations, especially information on how to provide greater assistance to therapeutic foster care.”

The Choices for Life Therapeutic Foster Care program combines professional foster homes with an intensive and personalized therapy program. Subsequently, children and adolescents are able to benefit from the stability and support provided by a trained foster family, while at the same time, they receive professional therapy from qualified counselors.  The program is designed specifically to help children with severe emotional issues that may be the result of previous abuse. More information on the program will be readily available at the event.

In 2006, 58.02% of the 27,172 children who experienced neglect or abuse in the state of Oklahoma were under six years of age.

Choices for Life Foster Care, Inc., which was established in 1997, is an active member of the Oklahoma Therapeutic Foster Care Association, the professional association of all therapeutic care provider agencies in Oklahoma. The organization has also been a national member of the Foster Family-based Treatment Association since 2001 and is accredited by the Council of Accreditation. The organization, which was founded in Oklahoma and has served over 1,500 children in the state, now also operates in Georgia. Visit cflfostercare.com or call (405) 751-0800 for more information.