The Community Service Committee is sponsoring a drive to help two young people at Boys & Girls Harbor who are graduating from high school in May. Paul will attend San Jacinto College in the fall, and Jessica will work full time at her current job. To help them furnish the independent living quarters that they will move into, we asked them to register their needs at Target.

The Community Service Committee is sponsoring a drive to help two young people at Boys & Girls Harbor who are graduating from high school in May. Paul will attend San Jacinto College in the fall, and Jessica will work full time at her current job. To help them furnish the independent living quarters that they will move into, we asked them to register their needs at Target.

You can help support them from the Target registry under Paul Umana and Jessica Tullas.

They will be moving into their independent-living quarters at the end of the summer.

Please note that these are young people, who, like all the others we know among us, have wishes in addition to their needs. In that regard, they put items on the registry that they would like to have, beside the things they need for their new quarters. As is true with wishes, they are not expecting all or any of the items on the list and prefer to get the essential household items before anything else.

Please drop off your purchase in our Fellowship Hall. For more information, contact Paula Criswell or call the office.

For those of you who don't know about Boys & Girls Harbor in La Porte, it provides foster care to abused, abandoned, and neglected children. Separate boys's and girls's campuses house the children in cottages of up to eight children who are in the care of a foster couple in the cottage. The idea is to provide, as close as possible, a family environment in a home setting. Among other things in this community, they share a common dining room, library, and recreational facilities, and they raise farm animals. The Harbor is home to about 70 children, and their average age is 10 - 12 years.

As you may know, foster children who reach the age of 18 "age out" of the system - that is, they are no longer eligible for support from the state.

Fortunately, Boys & Girls Harbor has some limited means to continue to "harbor" some young people who need to stay after age 18.

This year, against the odds of the hardships in their young lives, Paul and Jessica at the Harbor are graduating from high school. The Harbor will be able to shelter them in independent living facilities on campus, but, these facilities are not furnished. That's where we come in! You can help these two young people make their next step into the adult world. Here are their brief biographies:

Paul:

Paul is 18 years old and has lived at the Harbor since 2005. He has five brothers and one sister who were all placed together. Of the sibling group, he is the only one who remains at the Harbor. He participates on all the Harbor athletic teams and works part time after school around the campus.

Paul will begin classes at San Jacinto College in the fall and is considering (and has tested for) transfer to an out-of-town university next year. He will be moving into the post-high-school house on campus. He is currently undecided as far as major and wants to get his feet wet in college before he picks a concentration.

Jessica:

Jessica is 18 years old and has lived at the Harbor since 2001. She and her sister were both placed here, and Jessica chooses to remain at the Harbor, while her sister went home. She focuses all of her efforts on school and working. She will move into the efficiency apartment at the Harbor when she graduates and will continue to work.

• Gifts may be delivered to the designated table in the Fellowship Hall - until July 31.
• Do not gift wrap, but gift receipts may be attached to gifts purchased.
• Gift cards and checks are welcome. (If giving a check, make it out to Community Service Committee, and put "B&G Harbor Grads" in the memo line.) You may leave the gift cards and checks in the Community Service Committee mailbox in the office, or deliver them to Paula Criswell.
• Note that these 18-yr-olds have never set up housekeeping for themselves. They will surely appreciate your filling in the blanks on their lists with items such as utensils, storage containers, cleaning supplies, etc. - new or used!