Every year about 700 kids go through the Delaware Foster Care system, 1/3 are teens. Our goal is to provide Refresh Bags to the teenage children who are under the state’s care.
About the Refresh Bags
The Refresh Bags are handmade drawstring bags filled with essential toiletry items. So far we’ve donated a total of 187 Refresh Bags! We recently officially became a 501(c)(3) organization.
We have donated the Refresh Bags to:
- Kids In Foster Care in Delaware through Family Services
We have provided a total of 137 Refresh Bags to Delaware’s Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. The Refresh Bags are distributed throughout the state to social workers who provide the bags to teens in their care. - Kids in Foster Care Enrolled in Life Skills Training Classes
We donated 50 Refresh Bags to Kind to Kids for teens participating in the Life Skills classes. The bags were used in the Self Care session.
What’s Inside the Refresh Bags?
We’ll fill the bags with age and gender appropriate items that will help the child to feel clean and refreshed:
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 Boy’s Refresh Bag  Girl’s Refresh Bag |
See What’s Inside the Girl’s Refresh Bag:
See What’s Inside the Boy’s Refresh Bag:
We create Refresh Bags for teen boys and teen girls.
How This Idea Came About
It was already a special day at church. After years of sharing his talent with the congregation, it was the last service that my Dad would be singing a solo. My inspiring moment came from the sermon that morning which had a powerful statement: When you have a dinner party, don’t invite your friends. They have food to eat. Instead, invite those who need the food.
One of my hobbies is sewing. I’ve been making bags and purses for myself and as gifts. As I was sitting in church, it hit me that I should make toiletry bags for people in need and use my marketing, organizational and management of a non-profit to find ways to fill the bags.
I’ve always had a special place in my heart for kids in foster care, for the simple fact that I can’t imagine what they go through. We have two boys who are super fortunate in life, they have a stable home life, have no real needs that aren’t being met — their lives are abundant.
The time in the child’s life when they receive the Refresh Bag could be one of their lowest moments: being pulled from their home and from their family by strangers, very likely after a disturbing situation that involved abuse or neglect. Put yourself in that situation as a child — not knowing where you’re going or what’s going to happen to you. It would shake you to your core.
Hopefully, the Refresh Bags will help to make the child feel special, worthy and loved. It may seem shallow and wasteful to use branded products in the bags, there are surely cheaper generic products out there. In today’s society, branded items have a higher perceived value. We want to maximize their feelings of worthiness and being loved at that moment by giving them items that, even artificially, make them feel the most special and worthy. Branded items have that ability.
The organization has transitioned with the fundraising and donation drives being managed by Carter and Evan Keith, who are teenagers themselves. Lori makes the actual bags and her boys manage finding volunteers, developing the marketing and communication materials, manage the logistics and organization of the donated items and funds. They have been nominated for a proclamation from the Governor of Delaware.
You can help by donating to Refresh Bags! Every penny goes towards filling the bags with name brand toiletry items.
refreshbags.com 