Deloitte consultants garner high fees for their expertise.  So why would three-quarters of their workforce take a day off with pay to give back to the community on IMPACT Day? 

CEO Barry Salzberg told USA Today that, “Our people look forward to it, they carve out the time for it and they care about participating in it. It always inspires me to see how much our people both give and get out of IMPACT Day.” 

Recently, OFA was fortunate enough to participate in IMPACT Day.  Sixty Deloitte employees read scholarship essays, made cards that will go in future care packages and learned about OFA and the students we serve.  Lynn Davis, Community Partnerships Director, showed a short video and spoke about other volunteer opportunities at OFA.  Tina Raheem, Scholarship Director, told the group about the importance of the scholarship program.  But the real interest was in hearing from OFA students who told of their lives in foster care and their dreams of an education.  They spoke from the heart when talking about the family-like support they have come to rely on from OFA.  Throughout the day they mingled with Deloitte employees and helped them to understand the real IMPACT of the work they were doing for OFA:  Every student needs encouragement, and without family support our students rely on OFA.  OFA, in turn, relies on the community to help get big projects done.  

Deloitte’s IMPACT Day will last more than just one day – nearly 10% of the employees who volunteered have signed up to continue supporting OFA.

Thanks to Volunteer Fairfax for recommending OFA as an IMPACT Day participant.   And heartfelt thanks as well to Deloitte employees Jan Kadela, Divya Kumar, Stephanie Davis, Alex Bernard and Shanika Lane who worked hard to make IMPACT Day a rousing success. 

The Impact Day Team, including Deloitte, Volunteer Fairfax and OFA

Summer is busy for everyone! Internships and summer jobs are almost a rite of passage for young adults, but in 2010 it’s hard for teens and college students to find employment. Imagine not having a parent or neighbor who can say, “Let me call so-and-so, maybe they’ll hire you.”

For 20 former foster youth OFA is that family that opens the door to prestigious Washington DC internships each summer. InternAmerica has 20 amazing students working in 14 different organizations including Congressional offices, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the Laborers International Union, and the American Bar Association.  Yes, their resumes now have more substance and yes, they are learning on the job, but equally importantly they’re stepping out into a bigger world and positioning themselves as young professionals.

In the workplace today, such experience counts.  These young people may have gotten help from OFA to find and apply for an internship, but each one of them goes to work every day ready to learn and make a contribution to the organization.  Along the way, they’re having fun in DC and tonight they’re rooting for the home team.  Thanks to the Salt River Project (www.srpnet.com) they’re going to the Nationals game to enjoy America’s favorite pass time and each a hot dog or two.

Whether the Nats win or lose tonight, InternAmerica wins the pennant every summer for helping deserving young people hit a home run by graduating and starting their professional careers.

For the fourth consecutive year, student loan service provider EdFund held a Charity Golf Tournament and will make a substantial donation to the OFA scholarship fund! As a result of last year’s generous contribution, five foster youth were awarded scholarships. One of them, David, commented, “I greatly appreciate EdFund for sponsoring the golf tournament and for creating more opportunities for foster youth. Thanks for your time and dedication.” EdFund’s fundamental ‘drive’ for donating money to OFA is to “beat the stats”. OFA has proven through its own statistics for foster youth (i.e. the nearly 70% graduation rate for OFA scholarship recipients) that with a little money, compassion and support, foster youth are no different than any other youth.

Thanks EdFund! OFA looks forward to funding six more EdFund scholars for 2010-11. Along with generous financial support, they will be granted mentoring opportunities, life coaching, emotional support and the chance to be “cared about as a person and approached in a loving and caring way” as current EdFund scholar Whitney put it.

For foster care month, here’s a lovely “shout out” from OFA Glory/ETV scholar Jasmine, a second year criminal justice major at Youngstown University in Ohio. She asked us to post this for her foster mother, and we’re happy to oblige!

At OFA, every day we hear of wonderful foster parents, we talk with them about the children they love and support and we talk to young people who wouldn’t be where they are without the love of caring foster parents.

Hats off to all of them, and to

Mom Dawn

Thank you for your T.L.C.
It’s hard to find the right words to tell you how I feel.
I want to deeply thank you for all you’ve have done for me.
I am no longer a little child who always wanted another hug or a minute with you, but I thank you for being there.
I may no longer need your hand for every step I take, but I still need your approval and support for everything I do.
As I start a new chapter in my life, I want you to know that your love and support are among my most cherished memories.
You have been the best parent I could ever want.
You were with me when I laughed, when I cried, when I succeeded and when I failed.
You were always there giving me a helping hand.
You were there to tell me to go after my dreams, and for you I will.
I love you for all you have taught me, for all the unconditional love you have given me I love you.
Thank you to my hero and my mother.

OFA ETV student Joseph C, rising senior at Yale College, told us about a fantastic opportunity he’s been granted for this summer. Joe is a Classical Civilization major, and has been part of our programs for several years.

His summer plans:

The Berkeley, Biddle and Woolsey travel fellowship is a grant to pay for classical research in the Mediterranean. As my senior thesis will hopefully be on the intersection of Roman religion and the economy, with a focus on the role the introduction of the Magna Mater into the pantheon had on this intersection, I will use the fellowship to go to do research in places related to the ancient Roman economy or to the Magna Mater. I will be going to Rome, some of the surrounding port cities such as Ostia, Istanbul, the archaeological digs at Pergamon and Ephesus, and then to travel to Berlin to see the artifacts that have been excavated from the two digs.

Joe, we’re very impressed with your work, and a little jealous that you get to spend part of your summer in such a wonderful place!

The world works in mysterious – and sometimes wonderful! – ways.

Christina B. is an OFA scholarship recipient, a business administration major at Arkansas State University. She has a 3.2 cumulative GPA and will be graduating in a couple of weeks. She works full time, she’s mother to an adorable two-year-old daughter, and she is appreciative of the funding and support she’s gotten from OFA over the past four years.

Which made her think …. What could she do to help OFA, to thank us for the way we’d helped her?

In her final semester she had to take a Leadership class, for which she had to do an individual project. So she got together a gift basket and raffled it off. Or, as she explains, “Oh well actually I didn’t really raffle it at an event I just asked people I know at work, my family, my friends, etc. Then I made up tickets and had a day that was the draw day and I called the person that won the basket.” This slide from her power point presentation says it all –

In the meantime, halfway across the country in Denver, Colorado, OFA student Chandell B. suddenly, unexpectedly, had family who needed to live with her – family without any resources of their own, straining Chandell’s own very limited budget.

Chandell can tell the rest of the story:

“I emailed OFA and I explained that I was in a bad place. I told them how frustrated and sad I had become because I had no other resources or support and I did not know what to do. The scholarship team replied back immediately with this, “Chandell, we can help – and there’s even a story in it!” Another OFA student, Christina, who has no idea who I am, recently raised money to donate to OFA’s emergency fund by raffling off a gift basket in Arkansas. OFA forwarded me a beautiful power point presentation that explained what Christina did and how she did it. At the end of her presentation Christina wrote:

“In our society of today we all too often only think of ourselves. So I think when we stop to think of someone else for a change any individual is doing something extraordinary.”

Christina did not know at that moment the exact person that would benefit from her gift. She did not know that there was someone, a few states away in such a situation as this. But because of Christina and OFA, I will be able to buy groceries and pay the utility bills so that I and my family can rejoice in being together instead of worrying about how we are going to make it. Throughout the twenty-four years of my life I have had plans made for me, and I have made plans for myself and if there is one thing that life has taught me it is that no matter how I plan my life, even if it is minute by minute, there is no way to plan for what you can not foresee.

However, it is at those times that I am most grateful and honored to be a part of the Orphan Foundation of America because I know that they are always in my corner. And Christina, I want you to know that you are extraordinary and what you have done is inspirational. You did not just help one person, you helped a family of four. Thank you for constructing such a great project and being as successful at it as you were. I am very grateful for people like you.”

Chandell in her red scarf from OFA!

See? The world works in mysterious – and sometimes wonderful! – ways.