Group Collects Suitcases for Foster Children

Suitcases collected at a recent collection drive for Suitcases4Kids. Courtesy photo.

Suitcase Drive at Medford City Hall January 16

Organizers Seek to Break Guinness Record by Collecting 5,550 Suitcases

A local group is helping foster children move to their stuff to new homes by giving them their very own luggage.

Suitcases4Kids has a simple goal: that every foster child in the state has at least one suitcase “so that when they are moving to a new home, they can pack their belongings with dignity.”

The group was started by Ron Nickerson of North Andover after his foster son, Chris, was upset by having his belongings thrown into a plastic garbage bag before heading to Nickerson’s home.

“…They had already thrown all my stuff into the cheap white kitchen trash bags. The pictures of my real family were just thrown in, and some of them got torn or bent,” said Chris, a 14-year-old foster child who has moved eighteen times.

Nickerson, a foster dad with three sons, said, “After 25 years of working with children, I have seen enough kids with trash bags! It’s time to give them some dignity.”

The organization has collected thousands of suitcases and will be holding a donation drive in Medford at City Hall on January 16 from 10:30AM-2:30PM. Donations of new or gently used suitcases, duffel bags, or oversized backpacks are welcome and appreciated.

According to organizer Saul Wilner, Suitcases4Kids wants to collect 5,550 items from the Medford drive, a feat that could potentially land in the Guinness Book of World Records.

– InsideMedford.com