Where there is HELP,
there is HOPE!
Zephyrhills will be the center point and she will spread out from
there. She will deliver them wherever they are needed. Any extra
money will go toward anything else they may need. Group
homes children often need clothes, she said.
Jodi never knew what being born into a family was all about.
She was born weighing 3 pounds, 11 ounces and was in an in-
home for a couple weeks until she was taken in by a couple who
would adopt her at the age of four. She would live there for 13
more years.
This woman of the house was a leader in local foster care or-
-
ter children came through the home. The couple adopted 13, but
according to Jodi, life there was not good.
“I was severely mentally and physically
abused,” she said. “It did not include
I was almost on a daily basis picked
up by my hair,” she recalled. “As a small
child I found an inappropriate picture and
my adoptive mother found out and while I
was in the shower, she opened the curtains
and took pictures of me while I was standing
there. She put me in a diaper and beat
me with a ruler and called me a slut and a
whore. I was four.”
“It wasn’t just me. Punishment was
afraid of things so when I did something
she considered to be wrong, at times I was
locked in the attic. I was afraid of Freddy
Krueger so she would have foster siblings
claw at the door.”
Jodi is obviously upset when she recounts
her life as a foster child.
“It gave me a very distorted perception
of reality,” Jodi said. I thought it was nor-
had my adoptive sister come into the home
Jodi McDonald models the bracelets she
is going to sell to raise money to give
and she and I were each others saving grace. She would just hold
my hand and say this isn’t normal and say one day were going
to have normal families and were going to get away from here.”
At one point after moving to Florida, she and her foster sib-
electricity and they were not allowed to shower in the house.
They would wait until the mother was asleep and sneak over to
the garden hose and take a shower.
At the age of 17 she ran away. She still struggled but at 24
By Gary S. Hatrick
-
Not to Jodi M
Not to Jodi McDonald it doesn’t. You see Jodi McDonald is
beginning a mission. It is a mission to foster children. It is a mis-
for it from birth because she herself was a foster child.
“Foster children, ever since I was a foster child, carried
around their belongings from house to house with garbage bags,”
Jodi explained. “I researched it and found that this was still typ-
that this is still a common occurrence.”
“I believe they should at least have a duf-
-
sions from house to house,” Jodi continued.
“It is humiliating in a way. It makes them feel
that society really doesn’t care about them or
that they are disposable themselves carrying
around trash bags.”
In order to carry out her mission Jodi
Jodi’s Foster Care Corporation. The goal for
hoping that it will give them a little self-respect
and a sense that someone cares.
The problem, as is always the case with
Jodi has come up with a plan to raise it. She
is selling leather bracelets that she has hand-
Bag.”
That may not be a greeting card sentiment,
but there is a method to her madness.
The bracelets can be obtained for $19.99 and
but the plan is that the person who bought
the bracelet will wear it and show it around.
“The bracelet is for those who donate,” she said. “I thought
it would be more thought-provoking. ‘What does that mean, you
these children need.”
She only started seven months ago and has been buying the
bracelets as she can and hand stamping them. Once she feels she
has enough, she will launch her mission. She will start at home
and spread out as she is able.
“I’m going to the closest group homes and ask how many
sexual abuse.”
18 • OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 81831.36.8628.29.3963464 FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE