Month: December 2016

By Lori Nadeau

As a foster parent recruiter/homefinder for Northern Rivers Family of Services, I travel throughout Warren, Washington, Saratoga and Essex Counties talking to people every day about opening their homes to children in need.

You may have seen me or a member of my team at a county fair or community event. We’re the ones at the Give Hope a Home table. And the number one thing I’ve learned from meeting so many friends and neighbors is that not everyone understands exactly what foster care is and how they can help.

There are times when the only safe option for a child is removal from their home. Reasons can vary from abuse and neglect, lack of proper housing or other challenges. Regardless of the reasons a child may enter foster care, the system has two goals: Keep the child in a warm, safe, loving place in their own community where he or she can heal and grow; and to work towards reunification and achieve permanency in the families’ life.

Northern Rivers serves 14,000 children and families in 36 counties as the parent organization to Parsons Child & Family Center and Northeast Parent & Child Society, and my team is headquartered on Quaker Road in Queensbury.

Saratoga Hospital Volunteer Guild has pledged $500,000—the auxiliary organization’s largest gift ever—to help bring “smart” intravenous (IV) pumps to all Saratoga Hospital facilities.

The gift also is the most significant to date for the hospital’s newest fundraising initiative, which seeks more than $1 million to buy and set up 270 smart pumps and related software, officials said.

“That this project will touch every patient who comes through the doors of a Saratoga Hospital site every day is praiseworthy and extraordinary,” said Barbara King, guild president.

IV pumps have long been used to deliver lifesaving fluids, from blood products to advanced antibiotics, insulin, and chemotherapy. New “smart” pumps include technology designed to ensure that patients receive the right medication at the right dose and the right time. The result is enhanced safety and better outcomes.