Posted       Posted, June 6, 2014 11:35 am | Updated June 7, 2014 03:37 pm

By Sandy Strickland

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Tammy McGuire's 'Closet' earned her the EVE Award for volunteer service.

The Times-Union--03/04/11--Tammy McGuire, president of Foster Closet, where foster children can get clothing and home items, in her store Friday, March 4, 2011 in Atlantic Beach, Florida. She is one of the 10 Who Make a Difference winners.

EVE Award honoree Tammy McGuire runs Foster Closet, which provides donated furniture, clothing and other items to foster families. The latest version opened last year at 8307 Beach Blvd. By any standard, Tammy McGuire’s “closet” is awesome. But it didn’t start out that way. At first, it was your pedestrian closet tucked under the stairs of her home. As it began to overflow, it moved many times — to her garage, her husband’s office, a storage unit, a foster care agency’s building, a storefront. Six moves in about a year.

You should see it now. At 4,200 square feet, it’s the size of a spacious house. But the latest version, which opened last year at 8307 Beach Blvd., doesn’t house McGuire’s belongings. It’s Foster Closet, a place where children in Northeast Florida’s foster care system can obtain donated clothing, toys, furniture, household goods, electronics and other items. In 2009, it became a nonprofit.

McGuire said her “purpose on earth” is to help foster children. And to date, the closet has served about 4,000 kids, who often must leave home without their personal belongings.

“It’s not about stuff,” she said. “Our volunteers are trained to share love. It’s about a treasure that they may have to leave in the middle of the night, and we bring them back to that sweet moment, that wonderful moment, when we replace that treasure.”

For her work with Foster Closet and its programs, McGuire received the 2014 EVE Award for volunteer service. One program is The Pathway, which also provides items such as furniture, kitchen supplies, books, games and TVs to those aging out of foster care at 18. McGuire staged a fundraiser so Foster Closet could buy a moving truck to deliver the items to their new homes.

Soon, she will launch a program to provide volunteer mentors to help foster teens achieve their goals.

“She’s basically dedicated her life to helping underprivileged children, foster parents and foster volunteers,” said Eddie Encarnacion, director for licensing and placement for Family Support Services of North Florida. “No one else has been that driven to do something about helping foster kids the way she has. Everyone in the state has tried to do some kind of clothes closet, but she’s taken it to a whole other level.”

VALUE OF SERVICE

It’s a passion that was instilled at an early age. Her grandparents, Eugene and Beulah Johnson, co-founded University Baptist Church in 1950 and ran the Parental Home for Girls for 21 years. McGuire, a Jacksonville native who graduated from Nease High School in 1984, attended Bayard Baptist Church, whose pastor taught its young parishioners the value of service. At age 20, McGuire mentored a 13-year-old girl at the Children’s Home Society. The girl was adopted when she was 16.

“I knew from then on that once I got married, I wanted to adopt one day,” she said.

McGuire married husband John in 1993 and became a licensed cosmetologist at 22, though she left the field 17 years ago. They have a son, Benjamin, 20, and a daughter, Reagan, who will be 17 in July. The longing to adopt remained, and the couple went to the Children’s Home Society.

“When we left, we thought about how many couples could not have babies and were trying to adopt out of the system,” she said. “We prayed about it for two years. I did some research, and we came to the conclusion that foster care was our way of service.”

They’ve taken in 53 kids since 2005 and still keep in touch with some, as well as their parents. Their first foster children were a newborn and his 13-month-old brother. With less than 48 hours’ notice, they scrambled to acquire clothes, a crib, high chair and stroller. When they learned that no equipment or supplies were available for foster families, McGuire was inspired to create her closet.

She solicited donations from friends, family and neighbors. She established a Facebook page. She sought support from grants and foundations. She talked about it everywhere she went, even the grocery store. As a result, McGuire developed a network of volunteers, social workers, foster parents and community supporters.

“Her connections in the community are vast,” Encarnacion said.

Family Support Services counts on McGuire to speak at major events to recruit new foster parents in a five-county area and promote child welfare legislation. The nonprofit asked her to be an advocate for a “normalcy” law that was recently passed by the Florida Legislature granting caregivers the authority to decide whether foster children can go on field trips, sleepovers and participate in other activities without a court order or state approval.

McGuire plans major fundraisers and hosts an annual foster children’s Christmas party. Her passion is evident, say those who know her.

“My son went to hear me many speak one time and said, ‘Mother, you get so excited about it.’ ”

In recent years, the majority of McGuire’s work has been providing respite care from one to 12 days to give foster parents a break. She is vice president of the Greater Jacksonville Foster Adoptive Parent Association and was a recipient of the Jim Strayer Leadership Award from the Florida Coalition for Children in 2010. The Times-Union honored her in 2011 with a “10 Who Make a Difference Award.”

At Foster Closet, she has about 20 volunteers who help run the store and is looking for more. For her part, she spends about 60 hours a week on foster family issues. In February, she hired two independent living teens who were formerly in the system. They are developing a work ethic, a resume and a sense of stability, McGuire said. Their salaries are funded by a thrift store that the closet opened a few months ago in the same facility. The thrift store is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

“Her love for children shines through in everything she does,” said Margaret Walker, one of the closet’s volunteers. “She’s just fabulous. The children are glowing and the foster parents are glowing when they come in. I don’t know what they would do if they didn’t have the Foster Closet … It’s just magnificent to watch. She greets each one of them. They feel so special and want to give her a hug.”

The closet isn’t based on financial need. It’s open by appointment to families in Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau and Baker counties. Each child is given seven outfits and miscellaneous clothing such as bathing suits or jackets. Foster Support Services pays the building’s rent and electricity. She raises about $12,000 a year to purchase bicycles, scooters and other needed items. Those who want to donate or volunteer can go to the website at fostercloset.org.

McGuire spends her spare time with her husband and children, going to the beach, the movies, to dinner and playing with the dogs.

A momma's trauma prayer

February, eight years ago, we became foster parents to what we now know as our last two foster children out of the 61 we fostered over the 13 years. Our now daughter was six at the time, and her brother, our now son, was only 5. These two souls began their lives with many mental health care trauma (predisposing factors). And our then five-year son, at the time, found out he was born with physical challenges. Just seven days after coming into our home, he and I discovered at his first-ever Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinic (MDA) that he had DMD (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy). This was devastating news. He was only five, knowing his prior family tried to kill him and his body. This is where my mama's trauma began.

These two small souls became our forever children just 14 months after arriving in our home. However, they both came into this world with a predisposition to mental factors from their biological family. And our son, with a devastating health condition from his biological mother. Let's not forget the physical and psychological neglect, as well as the sexual abuse which was inflicted on these innocent children. In the first years of their little lives, before our home, their birth families and the adopted family. This adopted "family," who only had them less than a year, came back into foster care and our home. This in and of itself would give way to even more mental health problems, issues, conditions, and concerns. Concerns that we, known as their third set of parents, would not be adequately supported. Honestly, who would be? Even with having sixty-one children in our home and learning through the vast amount of training given to us, all we could about mental health along the way, no one could be prepared for such a dire situation our two children were and would be faced with because of their past. 

Our daughter was physically and mentally neglected and abused. Our son was as well; however, he was also tortured by his prior adopted family for five months before entering back into foster care. Although these eight years have brought permanency and closure to the previous mentally and physically unstable environment, it never takes away or closes the past of the emotional, physical, and mental impact on a child's permanent state of mind. 

If anyone says adoption is the beginning of a fairy-tale dream, they are sadly mistaken. When a family takes on children with the "sins of their forefathers," families begin the unexpected journey of navigating how best to heal the child and keep the family unit together. It forms a new life of unstable mental health atmosphere and the concerns of each child's state of mind at any given time of day or life's triggers. It begins a life of PTSD for the family at large and how that will forever change the family unit.

Sometimes it feels as though the horrific trauma given by the prior homes is now our own. I began my life with my deep-rooted trauma, which is now ten-fold by our children's trauma. Their trauma and triggers are now spilling over into our daily lives, which creates my triggers. Even the strongest of parents, couples, and families are forever altered by the constant change of emotional state shared by the family unit and home environment. 

Unless you have lived through this tumultuous atmosphere, it is easier to explain adequately. Being an advocate for over 18 years, we have been sharing the needs of children in foster care, but now our family has forever changed. We are now living a new existence of how the rest of our lives will life out. It is hard to be in a constant home full of peace. This is and will forever be an understatement. We take those small moments of peace as a time to be grateful for those limited occasions. 

Finding a new way to live out the following years of our lives will be challenging. It is hard to live with the knowledge that the findings of our children will forever make the most robust parent feel defeated. How does one see the past trauma of a teen, but on the other hand, see the poor, sometimes criminal decision made by the same teen? I pray that all of you who read this will never experience such pain and loss. However, I stand with you in support, love, and prayer for those mighty few who have lived out this parenting life. 

I pray over my husband, marriage, children, and grandchildren. I pray that all see our adoption decision of the children as a gift from our God Almighty. I pray over their past, their DNA, their trauma, their decision, and their future. I pray their lives are seen as open vessels for God to change forever. To use their lives to make an impactful light for others to see. I pray they see God's grace over their lives by setting an example and showing my grace. I am confident that I can have the strength to make a difference and have the wisdom to do so as I reach my life's end. 

In His Service,
Tammy
president and founder of +Foster Closet
"Mom to the Broken - Hope to the Fatherless"