Our story
It started with a request for three bikes.
Fostering Wishes Foundation is an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) that grants birthday and holiday wishes to kids in Delaware foster care.
Wishes range from bikes, helmets and accessories to educational games, athletic equipment, musical instruments, art supplies, books and board games.
Through nearly a decade of association with coordinators at the Delaware Office of the Child Advocate, working out how best to help children and youth experiencing foster care, Fostering Wishes Foundation was created in 2019.
We were called upon to help in November 2021, when someone asked us to buy “a couple bikes, assembled… oh, and helmets! Let me know if you can get 3.” The answer was: “Three!? I can get 5!” — only because we know how generous and competitive our friends are.
Five turned into 11, with locks, lights and helmets, an electric guitar, an electronic educational game, tool bags and accessories. Within four weeks we fulfilled every wish submitted, thanks to many generous donations.
How we got here
- 2019
Fostering Wishes Foundation is created
After nearly a decade working alongside coordinators at the Delaware Office of the Child Advocate to find the best ways to help children and youth experiencing foster care.
- Nov 2021
“Three? I can get five.”
The call came asking for “a couple bikes, assembled… oh, and helmets! Let me know if you can get 3.” The answer — only because we know how generous and competitive our friends are — was five.
- 4 weeks later
Every wish, fulfilled
Five turned into 11 bikes with locks, lights and helmets, plus an electric guitar, an electronic educational game, and tool bags and accessories. Within four weeks we fulfilled every wish submitted.
- 2024
Five years, 900+ wishes
We moved into “57” — a sunlit commercial space with offices, storage and an upgraded Little Free Store — and granted over 900 wishes in a single year.
Why it matters
A bike is rarely just a bike
Biking around the neighborhood, basketball with friends, backyard soccer or joining school sports teams promote healthy habits leading to better physical and mental health. Sports help kids make friends, stay in shape, improve self-esteem and learn discipline.
Childhood exercise is known to improve focus and concentration — leading to better sleep, improved academics and test scores, healthy muscle and bone strength, and a lower risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.(source: Mayo Clinic)
Books, games and art supplies help children cope with the trauma of neglect and abuse through self-care.
Providing athletic equipment and enrichment items to kids in foster care affords them the same access to healthy and structured activities as their peers — or gives them an outlet for quiet reflection and mental escape.
According to the Delaware Office of the Child Advocate, children experiencing foster care are rarely able to participate in sports and activities with their peers.
One significant reason is that foster parents aren’t required to purchase gifts for the kids in their care. Each child is afforded $150 annuallyby the State for “extras” — but “extras” for one kid might be Girl Scout fees or school book day, while for another it’s new socks, underwear and sneakers if the foster family can’t afford them.
The concept is simple: kids submit their wish list to the State, we foster these wishes.
Your support lets us raise awareness among foster families, children and donors statewide, and provide everything from bikes, helmets and accessories to soccer nets, running shoes, mitts, sticks and balls.
One wish is one kid who knows someone showed up.
Every dollar and every donated item goes to a child in Delaware foster care. We are all volunteers — nothing gets skimmed off the top.