BALTIMORE — Comfort Cases is holding its Pack a Trolley event in-person once again at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court hotel.
The trolley will be parked outside the hotel along Light Street on Friday December 17 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They are collecting personal care items and fun things like toys, stuffed animals and books for kids as young as newborns, all the way up to 19-year-olds.
Comfort Cases is a non-profit based in Rockville that provides backpacks filled with essential and comforting items for children who are entering the foster care system.
Rob Scheer, the founder of Comfort Cases, says often times children who are entering the system are only given trash bags for their belongings. He said he started the organization to give foster children a sense of dignity and so they have their own bags for their belongings, plus new items to enjoy during their transition.
Scheer said at the start of the pandemic, there was a drop in the number of child welfare cases across the country. He attributes this to remote learning, where teachers weren't able to regularly see their students in the classroom. He said teachers report almost 80% of all child welfare cases and things changed once schools returned to in-person learning.
"As soon as schools opened up, we have seen such an increase in the amount of kids entering foster care," he said. "And the thing that has happened for Comfort Cases is that we’ve seen an increase in the amount of cases that we have been delivering."
Scheer said they are seeing a very high demand for cases for newborns and they are in desperate need of pajamas for kids of all ages, especially older kids.
"Understand that anything that you give when you visit comfortcases.org and find the list of items that we put in, anything you give, we love."
For a list of needed donations, click here.
