Thanks to your generosity and the nurturing care of their foster parents, these children were given a second chance. Your donations help us recruit the remarkable people who care for infants with special medical needs. People such as Patty Dansen – who is profiled in this year's spring fundraising appeal – who work tirelessly to help these babies gain strength, resiliency and overcome their delays. Your donations also enable us to provide foster parents with specialized training from a medical professional, who teaches them how to identify symptoms and respond quickly and appropriately. This important training helps prepare them for many of the emergency situations that can arise with a sick child.

This is just one example of how the work we do everyday – with your generous support – improves lives and brings about second chances. Today, I am asking for your help to create more second chances by making a donation to this year's spring fundraising appeal. Your contribution will support not only infants and toddlers in the Medically Needy and other foster care and adoption programs, but also the many thousands of children and families who get much-needed help from one of the agency's other programs each year.

For instance, Baby Basics provides free nutritional formula and diapers to low-income families with children younger than 2 years old, as well as a safety-net support system and wide range of referrals to community resources. These families come to us because they are struggling financially, often due to job losses or debt caused by medical bills. You can see the worry on their faces; they are often embarrassed to be asking for help. But after meeting the dedicated and concerned volunteers who staff Baby Basics, they tell us what a difference this program makes in their lives. Your donations provide the nutritional formula and diapers that allow these families to better manage their finances without the stress of constantly worrying about providing the essentials and meeting their basic needs.

There are also a good number of families we serve who face a serious dilemma: they must work full-time but can't afford child care. They risk losing their jobs and, as a result, have great anxiety about their families' futures. Your donations provide educational scholarships to approximately 45 percent of the children attending the Turrell Child Care & Early Learning Center. In fact, we are the largest provider of infant/toddler subsidized slots in Bergen County. These families tell us how thrilled they are at the quality of care and early education their little ones receive and their relief that this once-daunting expense is now manageable.

Your support brings second chances to our children who are aging out of foster care. Many of them have no family safety net to fall back on. We see their worry about being on their own for the first time. Because of your donations, we are able to help them obtain and maintain housing, medical services, education and work. Most important, they know they're not alone at such a young age and have someone to turn to for help.

Every day, I see and hear of so many examples of the ways your generosity changes lives. Because of you, infants, children and families who come to us struggling to survive begin to thrive.

Thank you, again, for your continued support, and I hope you enjoy all of the promise of the spring season.