Parenting Tips

July / August 2006

Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco Opens at Great Explorations

Message Hits Home for Executive Director of the Children’s Museum

For reasons beyond their control, thousands of children have found themselves in the foster care system. Those living in Pinellas and Pasco have now been given a voice in Progress Energy’s Heart Gallery. Seventy intimate, compelling portraits featuring approximately 100 foster children will be on display beginning Saturday June 24 at Great Explorations, The Children’s Museum. Many of the pictures are accompanied by audio of the children themselves as they share their hopes and dreams of finding a “forever” home and a “forever” family.

Adoption is an important issue for David Penn, the Executive Director of Great Explorations. He and his wife Robin adopted their daughter in 1997. Two years ago, they adopted brothers Arthur and Jack after seeing their picture in the Heart Gallery. The boys had each been in seven different homes and seven different schools. Thanks to the Heart Gallery, they have found their forever family.

There are approximately 1,300 children in Pinellas and Pasco County who need to be placed in permanent homes. Aside from group homes, there are just 317 foster families. The 100 children featured in Progress Energy’s Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco were chosen for the exhibit because many of them are considered the “hardest to place.” They are over eight years old, minorities or bi-racial, part of a sibling group that needs to be adopted together, or have a developmental, physical, emotional or behavioral disability.

The exhibit is intended to raise awareness of the number of children needing homes in the Pinellas and Pasco foster care system and to help move potential families considering adoption to take action. There are many benefits to adopting in the state of Florida that the public may not be aware of. It is absolutely free to adopt these children, all legal fees are paid and each child receives a full four-year scholarship to a college in Florida. Adoptive parents also receive a subsidy as well as free insurance for the child until adulthood.

The Progress Energy Heart Gallery of Pinellas & Pasco will open at Great Explorations The Children’s Museum is located at 1925 4^th Street North in St. Petersburg, next to Sunken Gardens on June 24, 2006. It will remain there for approximately six weeks and then will travel throughout Pinellas and Pasco counties.

The Heart Gallery will be displayed in high traffic public areas such as malls, art galleries, museums, libraries, corporate offices, and places of worship. It will remain at each location for approximately six to eight weeks.

If you are interested in hosting the exhibit, please contact the gallery at (727) 456-0637 or info@heartgallery.org.

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