There are 391,000 children across the nation in the foster care system, according to the Children’s Bureau. About 80% of them have significant mental health issues with many suffering from traumatic events, abuse, even abandonment. They also must endure the scary process of being introduced into a new family they have never met before.
In Eastern Idaho, The Village works to help these foster children through a foster care closet. It helps provide them with clothing and other items to help during their rearing stages. To raise money for the organization, The Village is sponsoring a 5K race to continue to raise funds for foster children.
Tamina Allred is a foster parent mentor and affiliate of The Village who is helping to organize and advertise the 5K fun run.
“Klain Hansen from Rexburg had this great idea to do a fun run,” she said, “because we are always trying to find ways to pay rent for the building, for the kids to be able to come in and pick out their clothing, toys, and school supplies. So, the fun run is for the purpose of that is to earn money for rent for the building we have. We have a really nice building for the kids to come and pick out their things.”
Allred said they are still looking for runners to sign up for the race which is as easy as scanning a QR code.
“We got it really simple there are posters all around town that you can just go scan the QR codes. We got them on Facebook, on all the area pages and so you can scan it there.”
The 5K fun run will be on September 9 at 10 a.m. located at Green Canyon Hot Springs. Registered runners will receive a free day swim pass and the first 100 registered runners will receive a T-shirt. You can also register for the race and find out more about The Village by visiting www.tinyurl.com/villagefunrun.