SIDNEY — SAFY of Sidney, located at 1065 Fairington Drive, is collecting donations for their annual Duffel Bag Rally to collect personal items for area foster youth and raise awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Every year, during the month of April, SAFY of Sidney does a Duffel Bag Rally to ensure they have a solid supply of hygiene and personal items to supply to any youth that comes into foster care.

Sylvia Roop, foster parent recruiter, explained the reasoning behind the rally. Often times, youth who find themselves being placed in foster care do not have anything of their own. The Duffel Bag Rally allows SAFY to ensure each youth has anything they might need and even an item or two for entertainment or enrichment, such as books, coloring books, fidgets or toys.

“Every youth who comes into care, when they are first placed into care or first come into a foster home, I would say about 90% of these kiddos come with absolutely nothing at all. No clothes, maybe a little grocery bag full of items,” said Roop. “So, what we like to do is we like to give them a duffel bag filled with hygiene items, blankets, age-appropriate toys, whether that’s journals or fidgets, puzzles, stuffed animals. If it’s a teen girl, feminine hygiene products. If it’s a teen boy, maybe some shaving cream and things like that. It’s all age appropriate.”

SAFY of Sidney still has a small stock of items donated last April, however there are certain items they are in need of this year. Some of the items needed include: baby wipes, blankets and baby blankets, diapers (size 5/6), fidgets, water bottles, baby soap, swaddle blankets and deodorant. Anyone wishing to donate to SAFY’s support of foster youth can either shop for these items on their own and drop the donations off to any of the four drop off locations. The drop off locations are Sidney Alive, 110 E. Poplar St.; Sidney Body CARSTAR, 175 N. Stolle Ave.; Mutual Federal, 121 S. Ohio Ave., Sidney; and SAFY’s office, 1065 Fairington Drive, Sidney.

Another way to donate is through SAFY’s Amazon wish list, at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/30CCRQYD2EOMG?ref_=wl_share.

While Roop supports all donations to the foster youth placed by SAFY, for the Duffel Rally, SAFY is only accepting newly bought items and cannot accept larger items like clothes or highchairs due to a lack of storage space at the office. The organization relies on community partners to help provide the larger items.

“We know our foster parents are perfectly capable of providing a clean blanket and toothpaste and a toothbrush. But that’s not the point. It’s more about restoring the dignity of a human having items. At one given time, that might be the only thing they own. So, when they look through it, they see their own toothbrush, their own toothpaste. So they don’t have to ask this new, completely wonderful stranger, who is our foster parent, what toothbrush they can use, what shampoo can they use, where’s your wash rags, things like that. That’s the whole point around our duffel bags and every youth who comes into care gets one,” said Roop.

A common question Roop received during last year’s Duffel Rally is, why include items like coloring books or fidgets in the duffel bags? Her answer is this, “If you kind of imagine yourself as a foster youth — I take you, remove you from your home, say ‘okay, this is your new home,.” You don’t know anyone, you might not even know the community you’re in, you might be hours away from home. So, if I give you puzzles, or a deck of cards, or fidgets, every kid can sit in their new room and do something that’s comforting. Something that they can do on their own if they don’t want to go out and socialize.”

SAFY is collecting Duffel Bag Rally donations through April 25. For more information, contact Sylvia Roop at [email protected] or 937-407-0584.

Following the end of the Duffel Bag Rally, SAFY of Sidney is presenting information on the needs of the community and what SAFY does. Roop and an adopted youth will be attending YPConnect for a Lunch and Learn on Wednesday, April 26 from noon to 1 p.m.. This YPConnect event is being held at the Amos Memorial Public Library, 230 E. North St., Sidney. Roop will be sharing the contents of a few of the bags from the Duffel Bag Rally to show what the community has raised and Roop and an adopted youth, with permission from her adoptive mother, will be available to answer questions about fostering and foster care. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come participate in the networking event and learn for about SAFY and foster care

“I’m really excited about that opportunity, and so is she (adopted youth),” said Roop.