Our Story
On September 11, 2014, Helen Zeerip, President of Teddy’s Transport, was watching a training video required to renew her foster care license. This video discussed the great difficulty of finding adoptive homes for foster children in the U.S. A young boy in the video, said “My older siblings told me once I reached a certain age, I would be unadoptable.” He paused, and with a sad expression said, “No one should steal your hope.”
That statement changed Helen’s life. Something needed to change. The video went on to explain that 600,000 children spend time in the foster care system each year in the U.S. Of those available for adoption, 125,000 are considered “unadoptable” because they are “too old,” are part of sibling groups, or have medical or emotional issues.
Helen learned about a marketing campaign in the state of California that featured its foster children on TV and had a huge success rate of finding them forever homes. So, Helen called Jeanette Hoyer, then Executive Director of Pathways MI, and Barb Aalderink of Fusion Graphic Consultants and asked “If I can come up with the underwriting/donations, can you help me get these foster children on TV?” They both gave her an enthusiastic “Yes!” They met and set the goal of airing the first child the first week of January 2015 and they made it happen!
Grant Me Hope’s professionally produced, broadcast quality videos air on TV networks across the country. We are actively helping foster children in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Georgia and South Carolina. We are also working with several counties in New York state. Our videos have been successful in introducing foster children hoping for adoption to perspective families.
Why is this so important?
When a foster child turns 18 and ages out of the foster care system, 25% of them end up homeless. This is unacceptable. Our goal is to find these children loving, stable homes and families that will raise them to be successful contributing adults in our communities, and break the cycle. The reality is that homelessness is only the beginning of what many of these kids will face. Click HERE to learn more.
- Click HERE to see a list of children hoping for adoption.
- Click HERE to see some success stories.
- Click HERE to see some samples of our work.
Grant Me Hope has 3 goals:
1. Educate the public about the plight of aged out foster children
2. Recruit more foster families to limit the number of foster children in institutions
3. Get as many children adopted as possible
Grant Me Hope Board of Directors
- Helen Zeerip, President & Founder | President of Teddy’s Transport, Holland, MI
- Barb Aalderink, Vice President | President of Fusion Graphic Consultants, Holland, MI
- Nathan Shabaz, Secretary | Consultant, Holland, MI
- Craig Zeerip, Treasurer | Vice President of Teddy’s Transport, Holland, MI
- Michael Hill, board member | Founder, Total Control Health Plans
- Mark Bergsma, board member | Senior Commercial Account Executive, Berends Hendricks Stuit Insurance
- Sarah Lilly, Sarah Lilly Relationship Based Reality
- Anna Vandeventer, owner, Baert Baron Mansion B&B, Zeeland, MI
Find us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe, like, share, and retweet our children’s videos to help find them a forever home!
