Until recently, if you had mentioned Wendy’s restaurants to me I would have thought of square burgers and thick shakes. Not anymore.
A couple of weeks ago I sat down with Darlene Allen, executive director of Adoption Rhode Island, a nonprofit agency dedicated to finding families for children in state care. Like all nonprofits, a big part of Allen’s job is to secure the funding necessary to stay afloat. For Adoption Rhode Island, that means about $650,000 a year.
There’s a lot of grant writing and fund raising to be done.
Allen gets lots of support from the business community – and sometimes that support is, well, just amazing.
Like with Wendy’s.
Wendy’s founder, the late Dave Thomas, was adopted. Adoption awareness was his cause. For years, local Wendy’s restaurants have supported Adoption Rhode Island – last year, by raising and donating to the organization $150,000.
Ward Parker is a member of Adoption Rhode Island’s board of directors. He owns eight Wendy’s, seven in Rhode Island and another in nearby Massachusetts. To Parker, Dave Thomas, who died in 2001, was a special person.
“This is a personal thing,” said Parker. “He was a special guy. I had no idea the problem that existed out there. … The more you learn about this issue the more you want to do something about it. We wanted to keep his legacy alive.”
Parker realized the best thing he could do for Adoption Rhode Island would be to raise money. So his Wendy’s restaurants do just that. A quarter here, a dollar there. It adds up.
When Harvey Bennett, who owns five Wendy’s in Rhode Island, first met with Allen, he was amazed at how little money the organization had to do what it wanted to do.
During the holidays, all the Wendy’s in the area “adopt” at least a couple of kids per store and buy them gifts. Both Parker and Bennett said their employees love doing it. When they see the kids’ holiday “wish list,” well, it’s a moving experience.
“So many of the kids want so little,” said Bennett. “The simplest things make them happy.”
Adoption Rhode Island gets support from companies all over the state. Hasbro, the Pawtucket-based toy maker, lends the organization its cafeteria for holiday parties and regularly hosts fund-raising telethons, providing not only space and equipment but refreshments for volunteers.
“As a company that is really all about children, what better an organization to help out than one that helps so many children,” said Wayne Charness, a Hasbro spokesman. “It’s the least we can do.”
And for years, NBC-10 has run “Tuesday’s Child” on the noon and 5 p.m. broadcasts at no cost to Adoption Rhode Island. Allen said the weekly spot is perhaps the best recruitment tool the agency has.
Allen said there are currently about 135 kids in need of a home, most of them ranging in age from 5 to 14. In a lot of cases, they have been bounced around a bit. In and out of foster homes. They are, says Allen, “vulnerable.”
“We’ve got the hardest-to-place kids in Rhode Island,” said Allen. “These kids really don’t have a constituency. When you don’t have parents, you don’t have someone fighting for you all the time. It’s not their fault they are in the system.”
“A lot of these kids have been in the system for years,” said Malaina Murphy, an adoption support social worker.
Murphy points out that there is no special formula that makes a family the right fit for adoption. Some folks have already raised children, others have not. One common trait in successful adoptions, she says, is support from extended family members.
There is something else about the kids Adoption Rhode Island is trying to place. It’s a simple point, but one Allen wants to make. That is, they’re good kids. And what they need more than anything is a real chance.
“There are lots of real, real good kids who just want to be loved,” says Allen. “We see kids who have been given up on and when they are placed with a family, they flourish.”
Allen knows that for some people, adopting children may not be a viable option. But there are many ways to help. You can sponsor a fund-raiser at your company, whether it be to raise money to send kids to summer camp or buy them school supplies. You can take part in DCYF’s visiting resource program.
In July, Adoption Rhode Island holds its annual golf tournament. Allen would love for you to take part in that.
For more information about any of these possibilities, call 724-1910 or visit www.adoptionri.org.
