LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Most people start off a new year with big personal goals, but one local teenager has a challenging new project going into 2014 meant to benefit others.
Fourteen-year-old Erica Illg of Kelseyville has launched her “Backpacks for Foster Kids” project.
The teen has been a member of 4-H for seven years, and currently belongs to the Cole Creek 4-H Club.
For her Emerald Star project – which also is a project under the “Revolution of Responsibility” program – she has decided to raise funds in order to provide backpacks to children when they're placed in foster care.
She and her younger sister, 13-year-old Kimberly, came up with the idea after seeing, firsthand, the challenges that foster children face.
Over the past year, the Illgs – a farming family that raises Nigerian dwarf diary goats and Boer goats in Kelseyville – has fostered several children.
Since last February, the family has cared for five children, including a 3-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and, currently, a 12-month-old baby boy, she said.
“It's just been really cool for us,” Erica explained.
Along the way, Erica observed that children placed in foster care often are scared and bring with them few, if any, personal belongings.
“I experienced this firsthand in my own home becoming a foster family this year,” Erica said. “We have had on more than one occasion children brought here with nothing but the clothes they had on and we had to run to the store for pajamas, socks, clothes etc.”
That lack of few personal belongings, coupled with the fact that they're being taken to homes they've never been before, can create a stressful and fearful experience. The first night is usually the hardest for such children, Erica observed.
She also saw how that giving such children something they could call their own was very important to them.
As a result, Erica concluded that if children could be given a backpack containing essentials like a toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush, socks, pajamas, a blanket and a stuffed animal when they are placed in a foster home, it would help them get settled in for their first night and also serve as a transition item that can stay with them when they leave.
Adding to her personal knowledge of what foster children face, Erica also has has done some research, speaking with social workers and foster care agencies.
She learned that many people donate items for babies and children up to age 5 as well as for teenagers and high school-age children. One group in Hidden Valley Lake put together duffel bags for teens.
However, she's discovered a gap for children ranging in age from 6 to 12 years.
“This is when I started thinking that I could help my community with this problem by supplying backpacks to foster kids in this age group,” she said.
The need, she's finding, is great. “This is a lot larger undertaking than I thought it would be.”
“Backpacks for Foster Kids” is also a service learning project, “So we have to involve more kids,” Erica said.
As a result, she has formed a 12-member team of Cole Creek 4-Hers to help spread the word and working on the project.
“I think I'll really start putting them to work when we buy the backpacks,” she said.
To help fund the effort, Erica is asking for community support. She also applied for and received a $1,000 Revolution of Responsibility 4-H grant, and is seeking a Violet Richardson grant through the local Soroptimist chapter.
So far, she noted, “It's been a lot of paperwork.”
She's also planning to visit local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs to ask for support.
She wants to raise $1,600, but has a narrow time frame to accomplish that goal.
Her deadline to have the money in hand is March 1, after which the backpacks will be purchased and filled. She said 4-H will require her final report on the project by March or April.
If she's able to raise more than $1,600, Erica said she will expand the project, either by purchasing more backpacks or expanding it across other counties.
If you would like to donate items or money to this project, contact Erica Illg at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone 707-536-8071.
Donations also can be made through the Lake County 4-H Office, 883 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-6838.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.