Child Supporters

In these weeks before the holidays, Gary and Holli Weekes hope their Mission Viejo garage fills up with new clothes, toys, school supplies, infant products, toiletries and other items.

What becomes of these donations? Parents drop by and “shop” for free gifts to give their foster children.

Gary, 42, and Holli, 37, keep their garage--the Kid’s Closet--open year-round, but the holidays are their busiest time. They scramble to find presents for hundreds of foster care children and foster mothers, while shopping for two daughters and six foster-care children of their own.

Gary puts in long hours as a driver for United Parcel Service, then comes home to help Holli and the children sort through piles of presents.

“We wanted to help foster parents with some of their expenses, especially when it came time for the holidays,” Holli said.

Holli often stays up until 3 a.m. stuffing stockings and gift bags.

“She’s incredibly organized,” Gary said.

The Weekeses restock the Kid’s Closet by making the rounds to local businesses that supply them with donations. Target and Wal-Mart stores have given them everything from toilet paper to toys. Sizzler in Mission Viejo and employees at Ingram Micro Inc. in Santa Ana hold toy drives.

Once, the couple received 300 plastic swimming pools from Target, which they stacked in their garage until all of them found a home.

“We don’t turn anything down,” Holli said.

This year will be especially hard for the couple to help fill children’s wish lists: Holli has spent the last few months recuperating from leg surgery, so inventory in the garage is low.

“Ordinarily I would have started [holiday shopping] months ago,” she said.

The Weekeses also gather gifts for an annual party given to foster-care mothers licensed through the Orange County Social Services Agency. They load up presents in a U-Haul and deliver them to the agency headquarters in Orange, where mothers pick out toys and clothes to give to their foster kids. The Weekeses are rushing to get enough gifts for the children and mothers for this year’s party Dec. 19.

“Right now I need 150 stockings and everything to go in them,” Holli said.

She plans to fill the stockings with small treats for the mothers, such as bath products and gift certificates or movie passes.

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The Weekeses understand the needs of foster parents. Since taking in their first foster child in May 1994, they have cared for 50 youngsters placed with them by Social Services.

“When we got our first placement, a 15-year-old girl, it was a rude awakening of how expensive it was to fit her needs. It was hard to have to buy clothes, pajamas, shoes, a backpack and school supplies all at once,” Holli said. “We decided there had to be a better way, so we opened the Kid’s Closet.”

Most foster children come directly from Orangewood Children’s Home, a county-operated shelter for abused, abandoned and neglected youngsters. The children have been removed from their homes by the court, often leaving all of their possessions behind.

“These kids come with nothing,” said Lacey Slosar, an Irvine foster parent and president of the South Orange County Foster Parent Assn.

Although the county gives monthly reimbursement checks to foster parents (the rate starts at about $400 but varies depending on the child’s age, medical needs and other factors), the sum doesn’t cover all of the things many parents try to provide for their foster children.

“When you’re trying to supply them with everything your own child has, the Kid’s Closet comes in handy,” Slosar said. “It really does help out, especially during the holidays.”

The Weekeses accept items for newborns to 18-year-olds. They prefer new clothing instead of used, because they want foster children to be able to dress nicely.

“It’s for their own comfort and self-esteem,” Gary said.

Keeping the garage stocked with infant-care items is their greatest challenge. They send letters, make phone calls, pass out fliers and travel door to door to area stores and businesses seeking donations.

“In most homes, there’s a large changeover of children. They come and go so quickly that there’s constant expense and constant need,” Holli said.

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The Weekeses have grown accustomed to change: They are licensed to have as many as six foster care children, who live with them from one night to 2 1/2 years.

“We do a lot of emergency shelter care until long-term foster care can be found,” Holli said.

They open their homes to children ranging from newborn babies born with drug addictions to pregnant teens, the hardest youngsters to place in the foster-care system.

“We’ll take anyone,” Holli said. “Foster parents usually shy away from older kids because they fear the unknown and what trouble they might cause.”

The Weekeses say they’ve had no serious problems with teens. Older kids who have grown up in unstable environments tend to have a greater appreciation of the couple’s comfortable five-bedroom home.

“They’re aware of the environment of drugs and physical abuse they came from, and they’re really appreciative of the support we give them and the consistency of our family,” Holli said. “Most of the time they don’t want to leave.”

Holli gets along well with the older kids because she remembers the problems she had during her teen years.

“My parents divorced when I was in my early teens. It was very difficult on me and caused some hard times in my young adulthood. So I relate better to teens,” she said.

One 18-year-old girl moved in with the Weekeses when she was six months’ pregnant. She now has a 9-month-old baby and will move out in March.

“My ultimate goal is to have a home where I could take care of five or six pregnant teens. I would go through labor with them and teach them to be appropriate moms,” Holli said.

The Weekeses almost always have two newborns in their care. One baby usually sleeps in their master bedroom, so it’s easier for Gary or Holli to get up every couple of hours for feedings.

“The Weekeses are not your usual foster parents,” said Rita Leek, a senior social worker with Social Services. “Besides providing placement for children in their own home, they’ve provided a lot of emotional and physical support for other foster parents.”

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Holli serves as a board member of Club Mom, a support group of about 75 foster mothers who meet on the last Thursday of every month to have dinner, play games or go to the theater. She also belongs to the local Foster Parent Assn. She often takes donations from the Kid’s Closet to the meetings to share with the parents.

The Weekeses are in the process of adopting two of their foster-care children, a 23-month-old girl and 7-month-old boy. Their daughters, 15-year-old Kristen and 10-year-old Sadie, have become accustomed to the ever-changing makeup of their family. To make sure the girls don’t feel neglected, the Weekeses involve them in their foster-care work and in the Kid’s Closet.

“We let them know they’re part of it,” Gary said. “They help us pick up donations, and we let them sort and organize” the garage. Holli’s father and stepmother, Tony and Marlene Lankford of Rancho Santa Margarita, also help solicit and round up donations.

The Weekeses say their reward comes when they see their foster care children get adopted into permanent homes, knowing that they served as positive role models if only for a brief time.

“It’s nice to teach children something they’ll keep with them a long time,” Holli said. “We’re in foster parenting to help as many children as we can.”

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The Kid’s Closet needs new clothing and toys for children, especially items for infants and teens. The Weekeses also are collecting stocking stuffers for foster moms. They do not accept cash donations. Send items to: 24831 Alicia Parkway, Suite C-258, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 or call (949) 581-0557.

For information on becoming a foster parent, call the Social Services Agency of Orange County at (714) 704-8704.