The nonprofit celebrates it’s 35th anniversary of trailblazing the practice of open adoption with a free virtual event

While the COVID-19 pandemic has canceled many celebrations in 2020 for health and safety reasons, Adoptions From The Heart (AFTH) organized a free virtual gathering to celebrate the nonprofit’s 35th anniversary. On Wednesday, November 18th attendees logged on to Zoom to celebrate AFTH’s 35 years of forming families through open adoption. The evening consisted of raffles, photographs through the years, and speeches of gratitude to families and staff. Cam Media Team and Kling & Deibler, LLP.  sponsored the 35th Anniversary Celebration.

By the end of the 35th Anniversary Celebration, the agency received $5,715 through a combination of donations made throughout the evening and raffle sales. All proceeds from the raffle sales and donations were equally distributed between the agency’s development, the Expecting and Birth Parent Support Fund, and Birth Parent Scholarship Fund.

The hour-long event began with CEO/Founder and fellow adoptee, Maxine Chalker, and Social Worker Roberta Evantash talking about being innovators in the adoption field by creating the east coast’s first open adoption agency. During the program, past and present donors of the agency spoke about the reasons behind why they provide financial support to the nonprofit’s services. In addition to donors, previously filmed testimonials of recipients of the AFTH’s Birth Parent Scholarship Fund and the Expecting and Birth Parent Support Fund were shown to virtual attendees.

“The scholarship has helped me so much because all I want to do is make my child proud. I feel like I could do that if I go to college and get an education. I would not be able to go to college without that scholarship, which is just a tremendous, tremendous gift Adoptions From The Heart has given me. Cannot imagine not having gone to Adoptions From The Heart. They’ve impacted my life so much,” said Birth Parent Scholarship recipient Christina Smith during one of the previously filmed testimonials.

The filmmaking company Cam Media Team’s founder Darrick “Rizzo” Rizzo joined in on the festivities towards the later part of the evening to give a speech. Rizzo happens to be a fellow birth father, however, the Cam Media Team founder’s experience in pursuing an open adoption resulted in a closed adoption. For years Rizzo had a lot of resentment towards adoption, but the founder’s attitude changed within these past three years of filming for the nonprofit educational series “Adoptions From The Heart Tv.”

“I feel as though I healed. I use the word ‘healed’ because this is like therapy for me. Coming to work, I’m behind-the-scenes of ‘Adoptions From The Heart tv’ and hear [birth parent, adoptive parent, and adoptee] stories and it’s like ‘this is amazing like, like adoption is not bad.’ That is what I have learned from you guys [Adoptions From The Heart staff],” said Rizzo on why Cam Media Team continues to be to sponsor and work with AFTH.

AFTH Executive Director Heidi Gonzalez hopes to continue AFTH CEO and Founder Maxine Chalker’s legacy. To advocate equally for expecting and birth mothers and fathers.

“It’s important to get both sides [birth mothers and birth fathers] of the story out there, and I think there’s so much shame for some people in placing for adoption, and I want to really kind of work on changing that. The way to change that is to make it visible and to make these stories heard. These people [expecting and birth parents] are brave. These people are thinking of their child first and they deserve our respect,” said Gonzalez during the live virtual event.

The AFTH staff look forward to another 35 years and more of building loving, extended families through open adoption.

About Adoptions From The Heart:

Adoptions From The Heart (AFTH) was founded in 1985 by Maxine Chalker, a social worker, and fellow adoptee. Maxine grew up with little information about her birth parents. Like many children born and placed for adoption during the 1950s. It was Maxine’s dream to give adoption a new face by breaking down the barriers and taking some of the mystery out of the adoption process. Today AFTH’s Executive Director Heidi Gonzalez is continuing Ms. Chalker’s mission. To provide a safe, loving home for children and offer comprehensive, high-quality services to adoptive families, birth parents, and adoptees. The agency is licensed in PA, NJ, DE, CT, VA, and NY.

Media Contact:

Meagan Twardy

MeaganT@AFTH.org

(610) 642-7200