A mobile home has already been secured thanks to donations, but funds for furniture sets, a playground, fencing, and a seven passenger van are just a few things on the list of items needed in the next few months. Hank will be opening a third community foster home in Medina County as soon as they can, so that local children taken into State care can stay here in our communities.
HANK INC (Helping local Abused and Neglected Kids) is one-of-a-kind organization.
If there is not room in a local foster home, Medina County kids from Devine, Natalia, Hondo, and all over are often sent off to Austin or Houston or wherever the closest children’s shelter or foster home may be. This means little to no contact is possible with their teachers, school friends or non-offending relatives who may want to adopt or foster them. At this traumatic time, this is the last thing case workers want to do, but there is often no room for another bed here in Medina County.
That is where HANK steps in. Hank has already created two community foster homes (one in Devine and one in Hondo) to prevent them from having to go such a long ways from home.
Hank also buys Christmas gifts for over two hundred fifty local children in foster care every single year. And they do not just buy “a gift”, but a very nice gift so that these children may know the joy of Christmas morning just as ours do. Most foster children in surrounding counties do not have an organization like Hank to do this. It is truly a unique organization, serving a very sincere purpose.
Hank also purchases any needed item for foster children that the State won’t provide…a band instrument so they can be part of the band, or a cheerleading uniform, whatever they need, at the request of case workers.
Co-founders John and Debbie Southwell had a dream, and have become the grandparent-like figures to so many children whose lives they have impacted. It is unbelievable, the amount of good they have been able to do.
“Since the beginning of Hank in 2009, we still operate in such a way that the money we raise goes to the children with very little going to expenses of HANK,” Southwell said. “No one receives compensation, we office at our home at no charge, and all of our volunteers do the work.”
You can mail a donation to:
Hank, Inc.
450 County Road 246
Hondo, TX 78861
If you have any questions, or want to help by donating a playground or seven passenger van for HANK’s kids, you may contact 830-741-1205. You may also email them at hankforkids@gmail.com
Hank is served by a dedicated board of directors including John Southwell, Debbie Southwell, Molly Daniel, Bob McCoy, Glen Riff, Lyle Riff, and advisory board Lou Ann Caywood, Pat Davila, Craig Denton, Susan Denton, Dr. John Fink, Cindy Murphy, Sean Murphy, and Annette Stiegler.
If you ever see one of these people in person be sure to give them a big THANK YOU. They and everyone who donates, volunteers, or helps this homegrown organization is a real HERO for foster kiddos.
It always comes as a shock to me, every time I read the numbers…There are thousands of Texas kids in the foster care system, and several hundred just right here in our backyard in Region 8, including Medina, Uvalde, Real, Frio, and Atascosa Counties.