Lifestyle / The Northern Virginia Daily/nvdaily.com
Making the leap
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FROG provides support for local adoptive, foster parents
By Jessica Wiant -- Daily Correspondent
WINCHESTER -- In other company, knowing nods about how neighbors stare when officials drop off court summons at your front door might have different connotations.
But among the foster and adoptive parents involved with the area's Families Reaching Out Group, it's understood that such summons are for all the various hearings involved when the custody of a child is in question -- not for any crime.
For just one of the three agencies that oversee foster children in the area, there are 45 active foster families, 17 of whom had placements as of midweek last week, according to FROG president Tina Marie Scully.
The support group, founded a couple of years ago but gaining official nonprofit status only recently, obviously provides an outlet for foster parents to talk about the common issues they face. But it does much more than that.
"If we can do anything to speak for them ... then we want to do it," said Jennifer Turman Bayliss, the group's vice president.
That involves advocating for and against bills in the legislature that will affect the well-being of children under foster care, and perhaps primarily, trying to make it easier for those in the area who do foster parenting.
For now, the big effort is to establish a "store" for supplies for foster children.
Of the children who have come into her home, Scully explained, they often carry with them only a trash bag of clothing and personal items -- if anything at all -- and what they do bring often doesn't fit well.
The store, currently being put together at a donated empty space in Old Town Winchester and using donated supplies, will house clothing and needed accessories like diapers for children of all ages so foster parents have somewhere to get needed items without running to the store and shopping every time, according to Scully.
The plan, she explained, is for the foster care placement agencies to have its location and contact information available for parents.
Being able to pick up the physical supplies that foster children need will hopefully allow foster parents to focus more on the emotional needs of the children, Bayliss said.
FROG is collecting the supplies and is planning a rummage sale (also using donated items) and a 5K race as well as applying for grants to fund the store and other projects.
For Scully, it was an article in the newspaper about fostering that initially spurred her interest.
"It was like a calling," she said. "I knew I could be a positive influence, even if it's just for a day."
And often it is, she explained. The mother of three biological children and one adopted son, Scully has taken in more than 20 foster children over the years she's been a foster parent. Often, she explained, the time a child is under her care is brief.
"It is heartbreaking work," Bayliss agreed.
Bayliss became a foster parent because she fell in love with two children in the system, she explained, and she hoped to adopt them. Eventually, the children were returned to their home, she said.
Speaking for the children has remained an important cause for her. She said none of the children placed in foster care are there because of anything they've done wrong.
"I would love for that myth to be dispelled," she said.
For Scully, the biggest goal she has for FROG is to make the community aware that they don't have to be a foster parent themselves to be doing something for children under foster care. Assisting groups like FROG can also have an impact, she said.
The group, with about 30 members, meets once monthly for a meal, speaker, business meeting and support session, she said. They meet on the second Monday of every month, so the next meeting will be Feb. 13.
The bazaar is planned for St. Patrick's Day at First Baptist Church in Winchester. Items are being collected to be sold at the sale as well for the supply store for foster families. To make a donation or for more information, email frog231w@gmail.com or call Bayliss at 327-2118.
 Manny Wines, 13, left, and Arlie Wines, 11, right, work on a puzzle with Brandon Scully, 10. All of the children have been adopted. — Dennis Grundman/Daily
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