By Kylie Brown

The Albert Lea Lakeview Lions Club has started a new community service project to help children in foster care. This project is called the Foster Care Backpack Project.

The club is asking people to donate personal care items, school supplies and backpacks. Every backpack will include a quilt or blanket, pillow and pillowcase, tooth paste, tooth brush, one box of diapers or $25, a Walmart card, two to three pairs of underwear, socks and a Beanie Baby or another stuffed animal.

“Our goal is to help the kids feel like the community cares about them,” organizer Lioba Forman said. “We want them to feel like they have something that is theirs.”

Forman wants to help the children as well as the foster parents. She will help them by  providing the children with what they need.

“Some kids come in with just the clothes on their backs,” Forman said.

The children will get the backpacks when their foster parents call Forman. After asking for the age and gender, she will find clothes, wash them and give the clothes and backpack to the child.

Forman said the club has received many Beanie Babies, quilts and blankets and do not need any more donated. She thanked the Leah Circle from the Hayward Lutheran Church for donating many fleece blankets.

There is no deadline for when people can donate. If you would like to donate, call Forman at 507-383-6491 or email her at liobaforman@gmail.com.