{"id":3634,"date":"2014-06-12T09:23:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T16:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/?p=3634"},"modified":"2014-06-12T09:23:56","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T16:23:56","slug":"lgbt-foster-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/lgbt-foster-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBT Foster Kids Pride and Joy Campaign #donate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"familybuilders_logo\"Have you ever been really pleasantly surprised by something? Or happened upon something fantastic just by chance? It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it can feel like the universe is sending you a message.<\/p>\n

A few months ago I was walking down the street in Oakland. You may associate Oakland with high crime and the Raiders, but it\u2019s a pretty diverse city and not as bad as the press would have you believe. Anyway, as I was walking a city bus stopped about 20 feet ahead of me. I\u2019m not one to notice ads on buses, but this one caught my eye.<\/p>\n

Family Builders, finding homes for LGBT foster kids<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow. That ad would look right at home in San Francisco, but in Oakland?<\/p>\n

When I got home I went to the Family Builders website to see what they\u2019re all about. While I can\u2019t foster a child, I did become familiar with the alarming statistics about LGBT kids in foster care while researching for Gingerbread Palace<\/em>, where one of the characters was a foster kid who finally found a loving home after years of abuse in the foster system. I made up an organization that he worked with helping out foster kids. But Family Builders was a real life organization that did exactly what I imagined.<\/p>\n

I immediately sent in a donation. It wasn\u2019t much, but any little bit counts.<\/p>\n

\"prideI also called to find out about volunteer opportunities. The woman I spoke to was surprised, because they don\u2019t usually get volunteers and didn\u2019t quite know how I could help, though she\u2019s keeping me in mind.<\/p>\n

That was also when I decided to donate the royalties from my Gingerbread bonus story to Family Builders.<\/p>\n

I was going to post about that during May, which was Foster Care Month, but didn\u2019t manage to.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m posting about it right now. During June, as part of Pride Month, Family Builders is running a special campaign and I\u2019d like to be able to send them a much bigger donation than last time.<\/p>\n

Would you believe their goal is only $2500 for this special Pride and Joy<\/a> campaign? That\u2019s a tiny amount for such a huge problem. I imagine they don\u2019t get much support at all, if that\u2019s all they\u2019re trying to raise.<\/p>\n

You can help by buying a copy of An Extra Helping of Gingerbread<\/em>. Whether or not you\u2019ve read the original novella, this stands alone and doesn\u2019t give spoilers about Gingerbread Palace<\/em>. It\u2019s a Christmas story with a hot fireman and a sexy chef. What\u2019s not to love about that?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only $2.99 at Amazon<\/a> and All Romance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"lgbt-youth-300x162\"Why you should consider supporting this project:<\/p>\n