This post was submitted by Ivy Tech student and ASB participant Judy B.

The question was asked why I would want to go on an alt. Spring break. My friends say that I’m crazy for wanting to go someplace I don’t know, and with people I don’t know. I have told my friends that I love meeting new people and learning new things. They still don’t understand me at all. I have been a foster parent for 18 years, mostly teens and mostly troubled teens. People again ask me why? I can only try and explain the best I can.

My first foster daughter was 12 and was a friend of my daughter. This was not the first time she had been put in foster care; again and again her Mom just disappeared. This time she asks the welfare system to see if she could stay with her friend until they found a foster family for her. They called and talked to me and my husband and of course we took her home with us. She wanted to stay with us so we become legal foster parents, taking the classes we needed and police background checks. She stayed with us till she was 19, and moved out with her boyfriend of 2 years. Her Mom was back in town before this time and she did have visits with her.

Devin got married 4 years ago and we all went to the wedding and Devin introduced us as her Parents. This was the best feeling in the world to know we made a difference in her life. She is now a Foster parent herself, and we talk all the time. I am so proud of her!

If you can make a small difference in someone’s life, it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world. You can change that person’s life forever, by giving them hope and faith in others. Some of the teens I’ve brought home has been very angry when they came, but in the end when they see someone really does care they begin to believe in someone and try to change the way they feel.

I feel honored to get this chance to go to Mexico and let these wonderful people know that there is hope, and other people do care. No one knows how this one small act of kindness could change their lives forever. I want to Thank Ivy Tech for this wonderful opportunity.