Kidsave Miracle Walk for Orphans

MiracleWalk Advocates for Permanent Families for Kids Everywhere

July 01,2002 / Martha Osborne

On July 27 , children from orphanages and foster care, adoptive families and their children will walk in seven US cities, Smolensk and St. Petersburg, Russia and Karaganda, Kazakhstan as part of Kidsave International’s 2002 MiracleWalk .  This historic walk will advocate for permanent families for children worldwide and raise money to support finding families for kids. The 5K Kidsave International MiracleWalk is taking place in Concord, New Hampshire, Washington, DC, Branson, Missouri New Orleans, Louisiana, Atlanta/Peachtree City, Georgia, Grand Junction, Colorado and Los Angeles/Long Beach, California. 

Kidsave International is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the harmful institutionalization of abandoned children worldwide.  The goal of Kidsave International’s MiracleWalk is to put a face on a big problem: the plight of children around the world living in orphanages and foster care.  MiracleWalk proceeds will benefit two important Kidsave programs:

• Summer Miracles, which brings children living in orphanages to 20 US cities to live with families for the summer. Approximately 200 children will participate this summer from Russia and Kazakhstan.  In the process of meeting and hosting these children, miracles happen and many families adopt the children they meet.  In past summers, 95% of the children who wanted to be adopted have found permanent families as a result of their participation in Summer Miracles.
• Development of Secure Futures USA, a demonstration program aimed at placing older, hard to place U.S. foster care children in permanent families. This program is one of the many ways that Kidsave International is working to affect a far-reaching, long lasting change in the system.

Children in orphanages and foster care around the world have never been officially counted.  But in the United States 550,000 are in foster care and in Russia, over 650,000 pass through the orphanage system each year. In the United States two-thirds of children in foster care don’t graduate from high school, six of ten have no job experience, and one-third go on welfare.  In Russia when kids “graduate” from their orphanages, their future is bleak.  One in 5 are incarcerated within a year, 1 in 3 are homeless, and 1 in 10 commit suicide.

It’s time for change and you can help. Register for Kidsave International’s MiracleWalk and raise funds by soliciting friends, family and local businesses to sponsor you. The registration fee is $35 for adults and $20 for children and seniors.  T-shirts will be given to all registered walkers and fundraising thank you prizes of Kidsave caps and sport sox, sweat shirts, duffle bags and even a bicycle will be given to walkers who reach certain fundraising levels, starting at $150-$1500. Additional prizes donated by local businesses will be awarded on the day of the walk for the walker who raises the most money.

If there is no MiracleWalk in your city, you can still help by sponsoring an orphanage or foster care child to walk in any one of the six US cities or in Smolensk and St. Petersburg, Russia or in Karaganda, Kazakhstan.  You can sponsor an orphanage child to walk on-line by going to  http://annex.kidsave.org/walk_donate.htm and designate a person/city you want to sponsor. With the support of individuals, the media and local organizations Kidsave International can make dreams come true for abandoned orphanage and foster care children.           

Join us today and help make “Miracles” happen around the world.  To register for the walk or to sponsor a walker, please contact Kidsave International at 888-KIDSAVE, online at www.kidsave.org or by email at miraclewalk@kidsave.org .

Caption: Summer Miracles 1999 and 2001 campers, now Southern CA residents, are in training for Kidsave International’s MiracleWalk  Come join them!

For more information about the walk in these cities, please contact:
1-888-KIDSAVE (543-7283) Or:
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: MaryBeth Hudson, Email: Mbhudson246@cs.com - 949-581-5872 
ATLANTA, GEORGIA (PEACHTREE CITY): Suzan Miller, Email: Smiller@burr.com - 770-487-9028  
BRANSON, MISSOURI:   Michelle Coltrin,,, Email:  michelle@coltrin.org - 417-335-4000
CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE Lydia Harmon, Email: lhdh@attbi.com - 603-224-3233    
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: Michelle Byrne, Email: suplecs@earthlink.net -504.269.0405
GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO: Shelley Baker, Email: shell9939@aol.com - 970.243.1335
WASHINGTON, DC: Veronique De La Bruyere, Email: Vivi@kidsave.org , 877.330.1110