No More Trash Bags for 40,000 Kids in Foster Care

Good afternoon!  We hope your weekend is going as well as ours as we work overtime with volunteers to meet the demands of packing and distributing Comfort Cases globally. 

Your support in 2023 was incredible, and we wanted to check in at the half-way point this year to thank you again and to give you some updates:

Since its inception, Comfort Cases, Inc. has served more than 250,000 youth in foster care through the distribution of Comfort Cases and Comfort XLs as well as education and advocacy activities. Also in 2017, an interview Rob did with Upworthy went viral and garnered over 100 million views, and he was later featured in appearances on Ellen and The Today Show. In 2018, Rob published his inspirational memoir, A Forever Family: Fostering Change One Child at a Time, which tells the story of his own turbulent experience as a child in the foster care system and his journey to becoming a foster parent, leading to his drive to reform a broken system. 

The organization receives many expressions of thanks and support from partner agencies and from the children it serves:

• Candice Gabriel of the Children’s Listening Place in Parkersburg, WV said, “The children we serve often come to our center after being removed and they have nothing. When we present them with a Comfort Case, their eyes light up and it brings them joy despite what is happening in their current life. We are so grateful for Comfort Cases.” 

• Barbara Carlton of Trek Foster Care in Cartersville, GA said, “It is so wonderful to be able to give a child a Comfort Case. I cannot think of a better name for these cases. For just a moment in this time of trauma for these children, a gift to look through and take their little minds off of the situation that they are in.” 

• One of the children served by Comfort Cases said, “I met you three years ago. When you visited my shelter you brought me a shiny new book bag. Today I am packing my belongings in that bag and I’m going to my new home! Because of you and Comfort Cases I’m not taking a trash bag. Thank you for remembering us at the children’s home and making sure we knew that we did matter to somebody. We mattered to you and Mr. Rob. My stuffed animal has never left me and never will. I will never forget you.”

We are grateful to add new staff to our team, including a new CFO. Our staff and our volunteers are getting used to our new (and bigger!) space in Gaithersburg which allows us to meet our demands more readily. This year, we have added a bath towel to all Comfort Cases thanks to our partnership with Marriott International.

Thank you so much for taking part in this important mission. We hope you'll stay engaged in 2024 as our goal has grown to 40,000 Comfort Cases. 

Sincerely,

Heidi Webb