From Crayons to Comfort

When Carrie and Neil Wesseler became foster parents, they not only took care of their own foster child, but decided to start helping children all over the area.  At the training session for foster parents, the instructor told them to imagine a child watching TV when someone comes in and hands them a garbage bag, telling them to throw all their stuff in and get ready to go to foster care.

A foster child is already scared and alone, and throwing their stuff into a garbage bag was too much for Carrie.  The instructor told her they had no choice, that garbage bags were all they had to use.  Most of the children didn’t have many possessions anyway.

Carrie decided to do something about the bags, and started asking for donations for duffle bags.  She donated them so that at least some children would have something better to use.  Once she began the donations, she decided to set up a booth at a festival to try to get more.  To draw people to the booth, Carrie melted down crayons and poured them into molds, making fun shaped crayons which she sold for 25 cents.

The response was overwhelming, and the crayons sold out quickly.  Carrie made more.  And more.  Now she raises enough money from her crayons that she can get duffle bags in bulk for the foster children.  She started out donating to one county in Indiana where she lives.  Now she is supplying bags to counties all over Indiana.

Carrie also has started making up school bags for foster children, since she found out many of them start out with nothing.  She fills backpacks with school supplies and gives them out to the needy kids.

Not only has Carrie brought happiness to foster children around Indiana, but she has brought joy to the kids who get to use her fun crayons.  She is using a cute and creative idea to benefit others, and that is something that we need more of every day.  It’s simple things like this that change people’s lives.  No one ever thinks about those garbage bags, but these children will be affected by what she did for them forever.  When they look back on the day they were taken to their foster home, maybe they felt a little more at home right from the start because of Carrie’s work.

Carrie calls her work “Project T3,” which stands for “Totes for Tots and Teens.”  For more information on the project, go to the website at projectT3.org.  There you can also find out about the donations she needs for her duffle bags and bookbags and other ways you can help out with the project.