A Sheboygan North student has begun reflecting on her experience with the Innovator Fellowship program.
Aoife Meyer is the creator of Foster Focus, a community-driven project that aims to raise awareness for youth in out-of-home care throughout Sheboygan County.
Meyer has hosted numerous community and fundraising events over the past eight months to help Sheboyganites understand the challenges these children face while raising as much money as she could to benefit them in the future.
Her efforts through Foster Focus culminated last Sunday (June 15th) with the Father’s Day Cornhole Tournament Fundraiser.
“It was really amazing to see the community come out and support my project how they did,” she told SeehaferNews.com “Just seeing people engaged and willing to come out and help, it was really almost a surreal moment seeing my vision come to life.”
Meyer’s end goal with Foster Focus was to raise at least $3,500 through her events to set up a scholarship fund for youth in out-of-home care, as 2-6% of those children will end up attending college.
Thanks to previous events and winning Active8 Sheboygan’s SOUP event, Meyer entered Sunday with over $2,000 raised.
She revealed that the event “allowed us to raise enough money to reach my final goal of $3,500. At the event, I raised over $1,000, but together, like $3,500.”
Looking back on the work she’s done, Meyer also reflected on what she’s learned from the experience.
Meyer said, “I definitely learned more about what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to youth in out-of-home care.”
She added, “Obviously, speaking with these adults who have been in youth in out-of-home care or adults who work with youth in out-of-home care, it was really eye-opening learning about their experience and how that kind of shaped them.”
However, one of the biggest things she learned was that her views and many others’ views on youth in out-of-home care don’t paint a full picture.
“I only called it foster care at that point, but then I learned about kinship care and respite care,” she explained. “There’s a lot more to youth in out-of-home care than just, orphanage.”
Through the Innovator Fellowship Program and Foster Focus, Meyer was able to raise awareness and money in the Sheboygan community that will directly benefit youth in out-of-home care.
She will now hand over the more than $3,500 she’s raised to Lakeland University, which will be responsible for managing the scholarship fund.
Meyer is set to enter her senior year of high school later this year before she hopes to attend college to pursue a career in nursing.
