The second annual Tips for Tots held at AJ’s Fish House at Lake Fork raised over $20,000 for the foster children of Wood County.

Kathy Gilbreath is a past president of the Wood County Child Welfare Protection board and remains active in the organization’s activities and fundraisers. “This year was just fantastic. We were able to raise $20,789, which is up from last year’s just over $14,000. We can’t thank people enough for coming out and supporting the children of Wood County,” Gilbreath said of the Aug. 1 event.

“The tips alone raised $7,004 with the sponsors, the live auction, the raffle, and the bake sale providing the rest. We served 550 people and that is not counting board members or the Yantis kids who helped out. The Yantis FFA kids are just wonderful, they worked really hard and really helped the event to be successful.”

Sharon Brooks is the secretary / treasurer of the group. “We are so thankful for all of our sponsors and for the community and their wonderful support. We continue to need everyone’s help because the children’s needs continue throughout the year,” Brooks noted. “The overwhelming support of our community is the key to the welfare and protection boards. All of our money comes from donated money from which comes from the generosity of the citizens of Wood County.”

The child protection board has over 100 children in supervised care. Over 90 percent of cases in Wood County where children are removed from their homes involve drug use or the manufacture and sale of drugs. Most removals of children take place in the middle of the night or early morning.

Children are not allowed to take anything with them from their homes because of their being contaminated by drug fumes and filth. There are not enough foster homes in Wood County to take all the children who have been removed. Unfortunately, sometimes siblings have to be split up because of the lack of available foster homes.

“We get kids from birth to 18 years of age. We immediately provide them with everything they need for three days from clothes to shoes and of course, diapers and baby formula.” Gilbreath said.

Some Wood County children must be placed in foster homes in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and other places far from Wood County. State funds for foster care do not cover a lot of expenses needed for a child to have a normal life. The Wood County Protection Board helps provide items not covered by state funds.

Some of the things the protection board provides for foster children of Wood County are initial clothing allowances for children when they are first removed ($100); monthly allowance based on age; birthday money ($25 per child); back to school money for clothes and supplies ($200); Christmas gifts and a party for all Wood County children in foster care ($200 per child) and special items such as senior rings, driver’s education, graduation gifts, prom activities and other things common to children living normal lives with parents.

Donations also help with the maintenance of the Rainbow Room. The Rainbow Room is a project of the Wood County Child Protection Board that provides an emergency resource stocked with all new items to help meet critical needs of abused and neglected Wood County children. Wood County’s Rainbow Room was dedicated in 1998 by Laura Bush. The room stocks clothing, underwear, shoes, baby formula, hygiene items and car seats. It also provides household cleaning supplies for families who are working with CPS to regain or maintain custody of their children.

“Our goal is to provide as normal a life as possible for these children who have already come through so much in their short lives. We hope in doing this it will help them become productive well-adjusted adults and hopefully break the cycle so often seen with the abused and neglected in turn becoming abusers themselves,” Brooks explained. “We are trying to make a difference in the lives of these children in any way we can help. We are truly blessed to live in such a wonderful, loving, and concerned community.”

The Wood County Child Protection Board focuses on helping the children and the caseworkers know they have not been forgotten and there are those who love them and will care for them.

Donations are always needed throughout the year and the board believes the protection of the children is the responsibility of the entire community.

“We want foster children to have the same things most of our children take for granted as a normal part of life. We are truly humbled over and over again by the turn out for our fundraisers. We are envied by so many other CPS counties because we have so much support which they do not experience,” Brooks concluded.