FRIENDS OF

CHILDREN AT HEART

FUNDRAISER

While we have no events planned at this time, we are working hard to raise funds

to support the establishment of our two

new adoption programs in Poland and Nepal.  Please read the letter below, and

let us know what you can do to help,

as a friend of Children at Heart!

Dear Friend of Children at Heart:

Over a period of 20 years, I stood in the middle of courtrooms as an attorney, but now I stand in the middle of orphanage rooms full of children and wonder how I can help them all. My husband, Mark Bergeron, and I, Janice Serbalik Bergeron, founded a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit, international adoption agency over 15 years ago. This agency has helped more than 450 orphans from Russia and Kazakhstan to be adopted by families here in the United States.  Children at Heart has helped countless more, by supplying the children who remain in the orphanages with medical supplies, food, clothes, bedding and other necessities of life.  We can=t continue serving these children without your help.

Our agency is very small, consisting of Mark, myself and our assistant directors, Kathy Geleta and Erica Bergeron Willock.  We do what we can by helping people to adopt, which enables us to help the children left behind who will never live in a home with a family. 

For the past several years, Children at Heart has worked hard to expand our horizons, and in the past two weeks, that hard work has paid off - Children at Heart has been accredited in both Poland and Nepal! As the Directors of Children at Heart, Mark and I have planned a trip to Poland to begin establishing the program there.  We will depart from Wilmington, NC on August 11, 2010, and we’ll travel to Warsaw, Poland.  Our goals for this trip are not only to lay out the groundwork for what our adoptive families will experience while they are in Poland, but also to provide humanitarian assistance to children living in orphanages there.  Upon returning from Poland, we will be planning a trip to Nepal, with the same goals in mind.

Children at Heart’s Poland program will focus on finding homes for older children, and infants and toddlers with special needs, while the Nepal program will find homes for children of all ages - we very much anticipate getting these programs up and running! 

We need your help, in whatever way you can provide it - by making a tax deductible donation to our 501(c)(3) corporation; by making your co-workers, clients, patients, friends and relatives aware of the plight of these children and asking them to donate to our agency; by contacting us and offering your assistance to sponsor a fundraising event.  The cost to just set up the programs in Poland and Nepal will be a minimum of $30,000. I know that we have all witnessed horrible events both here in our country and abroad that stirred most of us to give what we could to help.  I=m asking for you to give again to help the children who we see everyday who have virtually no hope of a better life. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.  Please do what you can to help.  The children need your support.  Thank you. 

From the heart,

Janice Serbalik Bergeron

Executive Director

__________________________________________

Summer Picnic 2010

We celebrated our 15th anniversary on June 26th and 27th - and we had a great time!  On Saturday, June 26th, we spent the day at The Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom, in Lake George, NY.  The weather was nice in the morning, but it slowly turned cloudy, and it started to rain after our group lunch.  But the rain didn't stop many families from having a great time on the rides! 

On Sunday, June 27th, we hosted our annual picnic in Halfmoon, NY.  In honor of our 15th anniversary, we decided to have pony rides and a bouncy house (thanks to some generous donations!) - and they were both a

big hit!  We also hired a food vendor this year, so families could purchase lunch at the picnic, instead of having to bring food with them - the food was great!

You can see pictures of our picnic on our Facebook page (Children At Heart). Thank you so much to

those families who made donations to support our

annual picnic - we really appreciate it! 

And thank you to all of the families who came out to celebrate with us this year - we really do love to see all

of you!  We hope to have a picnic again at The Great Escape, and we hope to have the same food vendor

at next year's picnic in Halfmoon as well. 

It won't be long before we have to start planning our Summer 2011 picnic in NY...and we are thinking of hosting a smaller picnic in Wilmington, NC this

coming spring (April 2011) - if you are interested

in attending, email us to let us know! 

Check back here for more details in the coming

months on upcoming events - we hope

everyone is enjoying their summer!