08/13/2018
We are deeply saddened and upset by the story published by the Arizona Daily Star. What we had thought would be a feel good story about the love and compassion we have for the foster families and children of Tucson, was instead a slightly one sided derogatory version of reality. Our organization solely focuses on bringing together Tucson area foster children and their families to enjoy free venues and events in celebration of their common dilemma. We were led to believe the Star was writing a feel good story about how amazing the community is in support of Tucson area foster kids programs, but in actuality, we got a sadly alarming and biased article. I myself was personally very offended and upset by many of the statements as you can imagine.
The article even spoke poorly of some of our kind and well loved staff members. I understand the Star is in the business of selling newspapers, but the fact is, we have outstanding and caring Tucson ambassadors, Mom's and Dad's and parents just like you, whom without their help raising funds, dozens of our kids would never get the opportunity to experience our free events to places like Funtasticks and the Reid Park Zoo. Unless you are a foster parent or guardian yourself, you may not understand how important it is that these children get the opportunity several times each year to do something fun and exciting with other kids just like themselves. We are the only organization in Tucson that provides this opportunity at no cost to our families.
In addition, many non profits like ours are based outside of Arizona, but have branch offices and/or outside locations in many other states. This is not uncommon. What is unique is that every dollar we raise in Arizona, stays in Arizona. The article insinuated that money from Tucson was being used to pay officers in California and that simply is not true. Let's be very clear about that.
And while we are not perfect and like many organizations we are learning as we grow, we are extremely proud of what we do and how much support Tucson residents give in an effort to fund fun, free events for our kids. While the nuances of running a Foundation is great in scope, I personally will continue to do my best as our program's Director to improve on all aspects of its operations.
While many of our foster families were appalled by this article, we can only continue to show through the power of our love, support and actions how meaningful our Foundation's cause is to our Tucson area families.
That said, we invite all Tucson residents to join us this coming Saturday at the Tucson Zoo and to embrace our wonderful foster kids and their families in support of our awesome Southern Arizona Foster Kids program. Come see for yourself the smiles, joy, and laughter we bring to dozens of Tucson area foster kids throughout the year, AND SEE FIRST HAND the results of why we work so hard to raise money for this incredibly important cause.
Thank you,
Bruce Landau
Southern Arizona Foster Kids
