Masks for Guardians
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Branch Manager Benjamin Davis and his wife, Jamie Davis, did everything they could to make sure the smallest voices continued to be heard. In this case, it involved donating masks to the volunteers who advocate for children as they go through foster care in North Carolina.
“Benjamin has always taken advantage of the philanthropy efforts of CES,” Jamie Davis said. “So when he said that he wanted to donate masks to the GAL volunteers, I supported it 100%.”
Guardian ad Litem (GAL) is a volunteer program in North Carolina that pairs trained volunteers with children placed in foster care due to abuse or neglect. Not only do GAL volunteers serve as an important voice for children in a courtroom, but they also advocate for the best interests of the children in their foster homes.
“The state could only give two masks per employee, which unfortunately wasn’t enough,” said Jamie, who is a program assistant for GAL. “Fortunately, Benjamin knew exactly how he could help our volunteers.”
“Every year, we usually hold a huge counter day,” Benjamin said, “but with everything happening, I suggested to my district manager, Douglas Wells, that we do something else instead: order masks through our district, and then donate them to the GAL program.”
In the end, Benjamin donated 100 masks to the GAL program and their volunteers, urging them to contact him as soon as they needed more. And because his wife, Jamie, already worked directly with a lot of these volunteers, he passed them over to her to safely distribute them to those who needed masks the most.
Words almost can’t describe how critical these masks were. Volunteers work closely with children in the foster homes to see what they need and to make sure they have what they want.
“Already these volunteers donate a lot of time and money and effort into advocating for these children’s best interests. Now, all that time they would’ve spent searching for masks went right back into helping the children placed in foster care,” Jamie said. “Being able to remove at least one worry from the minds of our volunteers during such a difficult time made a huge impact on what we do.”
For Benjamin and his branch, this was just the first step in helping those in his community, and North Carolina as a whole.
“Everyone at the Lexington branch heavily supported this,” he said. “It started with just 100 masks for GAL, but now we’re all working together to try and find other local ministries that need the help. We’re just fortunate that we’re in this position to help others. If someone is in need, me and everyone at CES Lexington are going to help in any way we can.”