Dear Friends:
In 1949, something magical took place in downtown Los Angeles. A newborn baby was handed to a couple in a car – an “adoption” in the streets if you can imagine. The miracle was that Dr. George Piness of St. Anne’s Maternity Hospital, and Dolores Hope (yes, Bob’s wife) witnessed it, and felt there had to be a better way to facilitate an adoption. Together, they created the agency now known as HFS Adoption & Foster Care.
The miracle lives on. Nearly 75 years later, HFS continues to make miracles happen by uniting eager, loving parents with the children who need them. It continues to provide a safe environment for birth mothers to select an adoptive family and receive counseling and medical care. It is still creating “forever families.”
How do I know this? I know because I was one of those babies selected by a loving family in the 1960’s. My brother, Tom, and I were adopted by my loving parents, Tom and Mary Lou Workman, and together we have been witnesses to the transformation that occurs through the selfless, difficult act of a birth mother giving up her child for a better life. To say that I am forever grateful to HFS for being there for me, my brother, my parents, and especially my birth mother, is an understatement.
At this writing, I have dedicated most of my professional life to working with organizations that help to create opportunities for those struggling with life’s challenges, including the Sisters of Social Service (who managed HFS when I was born), Holy Family Church in South Pasadena, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and I now serve on HFS’s dedicated Board of Directors as we work to steer the agency through the challenges that face us in a turbulent world. There simply is not enough funding from governmental sources to keep a small adoption agency alive, which is why we must turn to you, our dedicated community of supporters, and ask for your personal contribution.
Since 1949, we have been Southern California’s most experienced adoption resource, finalizing the largest number of infant and child adoptions of any private agency in California. State-licensed and fully accredited, we focus exclusively on providing high-quality adoption and foster care services.
As we celebrate our 75th anniversary, our greatest need is to raise enough money to meet our continuing needs. Our Board alone has collectively committed $75,000 in personal gifts toward a total anniversary goal of $750,000, raised from generous donors and friends like you, to help guarantee a bright and prosperous future for HFS.
So today, we ask you to be thoughtful and generous, and we thank you sincerely, in advance, for your consideration of a meaningful gift. We all stand on the shoulders of many donors and board members who have been bountiful with their time, treasure, and talents. Please join us in our quest to continue creating forever families in the decades to come.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Mary Workman Hatton
Board Member
