Show and Tell:
Bev Minnerly came with her usual lovely doll clothes and a pile of masks for the Youth Ranch.
Ellen Hein showed her completed strip quilt. (Since I got to add the backing and quilting, I gave it a multi-color cat themed backing and an edge-to-edge cat quilt design.)
Marty Rhyne Made a lovely flat-bottomed backpack for herself and showed a quilt top she completed.
Alice Meunier Showed an embroidered tile wall hanging she made - Starry Night Santa.She also showed head coverings she made for her dentist son and scarfs for him to cover exposed skin around his neck, as required, for when he is working.
I showed the lasted quilts that I quilted and Ellen put the binding on.
The first 2 quilt tops were sewn together by Diana Gosselin.The pink and green one was put together by Diane Placek.
A large Hospice quilt top was turned in by Charlotte Cecilio, and the standard size Hospice quilt top was made by Tonya Carrell.
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Last week I delivered items for the Youth Ranch to Skip Bryan and sat down with him to find out the status of the Youth Ranches. In 2018, President Trump signed into law The Family First Prevention Services Act. The link above will take you to the actual act, if you want to read for yourself. This link gives a shorter summary from a group supporting it - The Children's Defense Organization.
Basically, this is a well meaning bi-partisan law that seeks to keep children in their own homes and prevent them from entering the foster care system, or if they need to be in foster homes, it prioritizes family homes and not group homes. The emphasis is now on rehabilitating the family. However, it's not always safe for kids to return to their parents and foster families are rarely willing to take in more than one child from a family, forcing siblings to be separated, This is where the Sheriff's Youth Ranch and similar facilities have helped. The Live Oaks Ranch has separate cabins for girls and for very young children, so that siblings could live at the same camp and still see each other. Live Oaks currently has several sets of siblings. Passage of this law meant that the Sheriff's Youth Ranches will loose $3.09 million in federal funding next year because this money is being diverted away from group homes and into other services.
A similar program run by the Baptists has closed due to this change in funding allocation. The Sheriff's Youth ranch program is closing one of the sites that had mostly foster kids. They are renovating two cabins at Live Oaks and would like to build 2 more so that kids displaced from the closed facility might go there, but there is a budget shortfall without the federal funds. Of course, they are looking for donations to offset the shortfall, but the 2021 status is in question.
Several of you have asked how many kids are at each location. Currently :
Live Oak has 62 boys and girls in 6 cottages. Two more cabins are under renovation.
Safety Harbor has the capacity for 30 youth in 3 cottages
Bradenton has 2 cottages so they can house 20 boys and girls.
Bartow has 5 cottages that can house 48 boys and girls.
The summer camps are held in Barberville and Caruth Camp in Ingles/Yankeetown.
I will keep you all updated on the Youth Ranch status. For now, they are still operating. The items we make that they most need right now are:
zipper bags
pillowcases
drawstring backpacks
throw/lap quilts (approximately 50" x 65")
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I will not hold a meeting next week because I have a medical appointment I couldn't schedule on any other date. Our next meeting will be July 8th. Hope to see you then.
Lois Rose, Sewing 'N More Club Leader
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