The enthusiastic reactions pleased Chris Iseli, Director of Communications for Children’s Rights. “We’re here to raise awareness of these issues,” said Iseli. “A lot of people don’t know the horrors these kids go through.” The stats are harrowing: the average child in foster care lives in two to five different homes over a period of two and a half years, never getting a chance to connect with anyone. Over 25,000 leave the foster care system at age 18 with no home, no family and no path to responsible adulthood.
The benefit, Iseli said, was both a celebration of Children’s Rights and a call to action to protect vulnerable children. The evening’s focus on an energetic education of the crowd paid off: through an auction at the end of the evening, guests donated $74,000 to Children’s Rights.
After dessert was served, DMC stayed to sign autographs and take pictures with attendees. He spent quite a bit of time with one table in particular; it was made up of a group of former foster children who had gone on to succeed despite extremely difficult circumstances. As you watched them smile and laugh together—seemingly at ease though they barely knew each other—you couldn’t help but notice:
He was them. And they were him.
