Thanksgiving Luncheon Brings Together
Children, Families and Foster Parents

November 27, 2024

The 2024 Thanksgiving Co-Parenting Luncheon brought together children
with their families and their foster caregivers for a Thanksgiving meal and
fun crafts and activities. Read more in the story below.

 

Port St. Lucie - Biological families joined their children and the foster families caring for them for a very special Thanksgiving dinner Saturday at the Indian River Presbyterian Church, in Fort Pierce.

It was the Treasure Coast's first co-parenting dinner since the inaugural event was sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It was arranged to help keep families who are recovering from crisis together during the holiday.

More than 40 people - 27 of them children - attended the dinner, which was sponsored by community donors and several CCKids board members.

CCKids' Caregiver Support staff coordinated the event.

“Each time we host an event that brings foster families and birth families together as one unit, I look out over the tables filled with people and

think ‘this is what the village is supposed to look like,’ and it keeps my heart full," said Jerra Wisecup, CCKids' licensing and caregiver support specialist.

"I really feel this event is a true reflection of our system of care’s dedication to reunification and our community’s desire to offer grace and understanding to families in their time of need,” she said.

Research shows that co-parenting - a partnership between families while children are in foster care - creates better transitions for children returning home and provides on-going supports to vulnerable families.

CCKids would like to recognize the community partners who made this event possible.

They are: Indian River Presbyterian Church; Steve Simon, of Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa; Leslie Kroeger, of Cohen Milstein; Angela Boling; Carol Deloach, of CCKids; Voices for Children; Suncoast Mental Health Center; Eric Kohrhamer, of Life Builders of the Treasure Coast; Translations USA; Michelle Miller, of the St. Lucie County Clerk of Court; Behavior Basics; and the Michael and Christina Kaiser Family.

Donations can now be made to CCKids through PayPal. Click here to donate. Your contribution will be used to help fund upcoming events and activities such as Christmas and holiday drives and our 2025 Foster Family Pizza & Pool Party.