Grant Me A Chance

Grant Me A Chance

By Robert Bell Friday, 17 July 2009

When many people think of adopting a child, what comes to mind is a healthy newborn baby. But in reality, many children who live in orphanages around the world don’t fit that image.

That is why Tyla Gilchrist, Holly Brooke and Cheryl Bonfils-Rasmussen founded Grant Me a Chance, a nonprofit that helps orphaned children find loving homes.

“When you travel to a foreign country, or Third World countries and see thousands and thousands of children that may not have the chance to have a family, it breaks your heart,” said Gilchrist, chairman of the organization.

What the three wanted to do was advocate for the children, especially those who are often difficult to place —the ones who are older, have special needs or belong to a sibling group.

Gilchrist, Brooke and Bonfils-Rasmussen — all adoptive mothers —founded Grant Me a Chance in May 2007, and since that time have helped place 20 children with families. This is done in large part through raising money to help offset the costs of international adoptions.

“It really is no less expensive to go through the process for a healthy child versus a special needs child,” she said. “And that’s kind of where we step in, is advocating for these kids, doing some fundraising on their behalf.”

The cost of adopting a child from another country can be as high as $30,000. This includes agency fees, approval from immigration, background checks, physicals and home studies, Gilchrist said.

A home study is when a social worker comes to a potential adoptive family’s house to meet the parents and do a home inspection to make sure it is a safe and appropriate environment.

Grant Me a Chance works alongside nonprofit placement agencies in countries such as China, Thailand, Vietnam and Ethiopia. The agencies have lists of children who need families. Many of the children who are older or who have special needs might be on the list for many months.

The agency will notify groups like Grant Me a Chance about particular children or sibling groups it is having a hard time placing.

Gilchrist and the other volunteers will then raise money through donations and other efforts and let its group of potential adoptive parents know about the child and the money raised to offset the adoption costs.

“We also opened up our program in our second year to families that are hoping to adopt and have identified a child we may not know about,” she said. “We had a deaf sibling group from Ethiopia that a family contacted us about and said, ‘We’d really like to bring these girls home.’”

Grant Me a Chance is an all-volunteer organization. No one on the board is paid.

“We give of our time out of a love for these kids,” Gilchrist said. “Our supplies are donated. Our webhosting we pay for out of our own pocket. We really haven’t had any expenses other than paying an accountant. It’s been really a blessing, all the people who have come forward and offered their services to us at a greatly reduced price or for free, to get our efforts off the ground.”

Virtual pancake breakfast

One unique type of fundraiser Grant Me a Chance did was a new take on the pancake breakfast, but with a twist: they didn’t served any pancakes. It was an online fund drive to honor the memory of a little boy who had passed away. His favorite thing was pancakes, so the nonprofit organized Mikey’s Pancake Breakfast. Volunteers asked the adoption community and other supporters to donate the cost of a pancake breakfast. Individual donations varied from $5-$25. For that weekend, Grant Me a Chance was able to raise $2,500.

Grant Me a Chance, 1525 Cypress Creek Road, Ste. H #113, Cedar Park (mailing address only), www.grantmeachance.com