ANGELS FLY TO AID OF FOSTER KIDS
NO matter your age, you can make a difference to the lives of young people and Sue Gardner and Bev Douthett are living proof.
The Pyjama Foundation provides support to foster children ch to help them achieve their dreams. Volunteers dubbed du Pyjama Angels are each matched with a child in care, ca and spend one hour a week focusing on learning-based ba activities, including reading, helping with homework and playing games. Ms Gardner and Ms Douthett both love their roles with the Pyjama Foundation.
Ms Gardner became involved with the Pyjama Foundation in 2016 after retiring from teaching.
“I wanted to use my skills for something and my daughter told me about the Pyjama Foundation,” she said.
“It’s like being a grandparent. I have grandchildren of my own and it’s just like having an extra grandchild.”
She was matched up with a four- year- old boy in foster care and over the next few years their weekly visits included reading, playing outdoors and science experiments. That little boy has since moved away from Townsville and Ms Gardner has started visiting a little girl.
Ms Douthett once had a foster child of her own and three- and- a- half years ago she decided to become a Pyjama Angel, when she was matched up with a young boy. “We first got put together because we both love football,” she said.
“When I went out the first time I wore my Cowboys cap and I gave him a Cowboys cap too – and when we wear them, people know it’s our special time together.”
Ms Douthett says she and the boy she’s paired with play games together and even go on outings to North Queensland Cowboys games.
“When I go out I’m like Mary Poppins … I take two bags with eight or nine different things to do,” she said.
“My husband and I don’t have any grandchildren so this is our grandchildren fix. My husband saw how much I got out of the foundation, so he became a Pyjama Angel, too.
“He just couldn’t believe how wonderful it is.”