07 Aug Peace-ing Families Together—Our Partnership with KidsPeace Foster Care

KidsPeace Foster Care serves Fayetteville with the mission of hope and healing to children in foster care, along with their families. Since 2001, their services include focusing on educating and training foster parents on their potential foster children, while also including workshops on bullying and abuse. Another crucial part of the nonprofit organization is providing therapy to the foster children, allowing the processing of emotions and potential trauma they have faced, and outpatient counseling.

KidsPeace Foster Care employers are passionate and intentional about keeping kids safe through the process and guiding and shaping them into successful adults. One major way the organization raises awareness and the funds to accomplish these goals is a “Chair-ity Auction”, involving literal chairs. Regina Thompson, Board Chairman, explains the process: “We receive from the Fayetteville community donated chairs, tables, or desks. Local artists then pick their designated furniture up, take it home, and carefully refurbish and repaint it into a masterpiece, or “master-peace” as we call it”.

The idea for this auction is also to serve as a metaphor for the foster system. People and artists take these old, used objects and make them beautiful again, paying attention to every detail, where the object looks wanted and people buy it and give it a home. And so, KidsPeace Foster Care employers strive for giving kids a proper home with care and attention, and through the process, they too can feel wanted, loved, and believe that they too have a purpose from their foster family. Re-Store Warehouse joins KidsPeace Foster Care in their endeavors. Regina shares “For the past five to six years, Re-Store Warehouse has been our biggest sponsor in the auction, and Bill has even participated as the auctioneer.”

The “Chair-ity Auction” is met with success as some chairs have auctioned at $4,500. And during the whole process Re-Store Warehouse offers to store the pieces in their facility, saving KidsPeace Foster Care from paying a storage unit. Afterward, Re-Store Warehouse displays a few finished pieces in front of the building, as advertisement for KidsPeace Foster Care. Whatever money is received, it is towards the KidsPeace Foster Care however needed.

Both organizations understand the necessary of peace to thrive. Regina affirms, “We have the same number of viewers and we work together to benefit both of us and the community. For our community it’s about working together, not competing. We’re allowed to go to their board meetings, and they understand the non-profit dynamics, so it benefits our children and families directly.”

Furthermore, in the past, Re-Store Warehouse donated 25 tickets to KidsPeace Foster Care for children and families’ use to the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast. “Re-Store Warehouse is an ambassador and believes in our values and mission. We boost their events and they boost our events. If our clients need furniture pieces, we bring them to Re-Store Warehouse,” Kenderlin Kelly, Supervisor for Family Consultants, shares.

Another employer, Mike Edelman, affirms KidsPeace Foster Care works diligently to give hope, help and healing to children, families, and everyone who loves them. And with partnerships, this mission can be met. We at Re-Store Warehouse want, as well, to see kids transform into strong, capable adults…which sounds like an ordinary process, but is beautiful. Because, isn’t there beauty in the ordinary?