Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! This is our final episode of Fostering Change before we launch into 2025. And what a year it’s been. We’ve celebrated amazing guests on our show, learning so much about each other and our society.

Thank you to all of you who have written in with comments and guests suggestions about what you’ve listened to this year. We truly appreciate YOU ALL!

Our charity, Comfort Cases has touched so many people around the country this year, with Rob Scheer once again sharing our message of providing hope and dignity for youth in foster care. It’s not too late to make one last donation if this is possible for you. If this is something you would like to do, to help out our most important people, youth entering foster care, please click on this link or here: https://comfortcases.org/ to become a #Bagbuster to help us stop the evil practice of giving trash bags to our youth.

Thank you!

As for today’s Christmas Eve episode, we end the year with a Very Special Guest: Chef Art Smith. You may initially recognize him as Oprah’s personal Chef, a role he held for 10 years. He is also the founder of Common Threads, a non-profit organization teaching low-income children to cook wholesome and affordable meals since 2003. He believes that through hands-on cooking and introducing children to fresh foods we can help prevent childhood obesity, reverse the trend of poor eating habits, and learn about diversity and tolerance through the celebration of our cultural differences and our commonalities.

Chef Art has appeared on numerous national television appearances including ABC’s Lady Gaga Thanksgiving Special, Top Chef, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Iron Chef America, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, Fox News, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, BBQ Pitmasters, The Talk, The Dr. Oz Show and of course, The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Chef Art has appeared on the cover of Parade Magazine, and has been featured in Cooking Light magazine. He is a regular contributor to Standup magazine, whose proceeds benefit The Ben Foundation, which raises awareness of the long-term, damaging effects of bullying.

To learn more about Chef Art Smith, please visit:

Website: https://www.chefartsmith.com/

Instagram: @thechefartsmith

Facebook: ChefArtSmith

X/Twitter: @chefartsmith

To learn more about Common Threads, please visit:

Website: https://www.commonthreads.org/

Instagram: @commonthreadsorg

Facebook: CommonThreadsOrg

X/Twitter: @commonthreadsUS

Thank you again for listening and watching Fostering Change. We hope you have a happy and safe holiday and look forward to bringing you more great discussions in 2025. Again, if you have any comments or guest suggestions, please feel free to reach out by emailing our producers at info@comfortcases.org.

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Welcome back to another thought-provoking episode of Fostering Change. Today, we speak with Jason Green, a friend and amazing filmmaker. Jason’s documentary, Finding Fellowship, is a story of hope about the unlikely merger of three segregated churches in the 1960s. Jason and Rob belong to this same church, which is how they first met, and both have the same passion for community coming together.

We thought today would be a perfect time to share this interview in the spirit of the holiday season.

Following the episode, we encourage you to watch Finding Fellowship. You can find it on PBS, or click the following link to stream it on PBS.org: https://www.pbs.org/show/finding-fellowship/

If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch with us at info@comfortcases.org. There is just one more episode before the New Year, which posts on Christmas Eve—with someone we know you will love to meet!

To learn more about Jason and Finding Fellowship:

Instagram: @jg1732

Twitter/X: @jg1732

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasongerardgreen/

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A reminder that through the end of November (National Adoption Awareness Month), when you visit www.BarelyCanadian.com our friend Kelly and her team will donate a Comfort XL Duffle bag for every one of their amazingly plush items purchased.

Today, we go back almost exactly 3 years to revisit a special episode about a remarkable woman, Pam Willis and family. We know you’ll enjoy!

Pam and her husband have been married 36 years, raised 5 biological children (the youngest is 20). 11 years ago they became foster parents and began caring for children in their home. Pam led down a road of foster care and as a surprise to their life plan, 5 years ago they adopted a set of seven siblings from the foster care system. These kids now have a second chance at parenting, and they have a second chance at a family after their first parents passed away in a car accident.

It’s an amazing story we wanted to reshare with you.

Story Key Notes:

🖐️Adopting 7 Sets of Children Siblings

🖐️History of the 7 Children

🖐️Adjusting into a New Home

🖐️5 Biological Children's Reaction to Adopt New Siblings

🖐️Process to Adopt 7 Set of Children Siblings

Learn more at https://www.comfortcases.org/

If you have any questions, comments or guest suggestions, please reach out to us at info@comfortcases.org.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

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