A whole day just to be a kid is a rare thing for many recent high school graduates, especially for students in foster care. But that’s exactly what 20 local Lubbock foster care students did on Tuesday at a high school graduation party.


“I got a good workout on the trampolines. Felt like a kid again,” Reyanne Hughes said.

Hughes is just one of a group of students celebrating the transition from high school to college or to the workforce. This party was hosted by Buckner International and Fostering Youth Independence (FYI)…a local organization that helps with foster kids. They celebrated their accomplishments with pizza, a ropes course and lazer tag.

Meagan Daniels, a supervisor at the Fostering Youth Independence center, says it’s meaningful to be there for these students during milestones. “I think it’s important to celebrate their victories because some of them don’t have someone who is going to celebrate with them,” she says.

Buckner and FYI have been working with some of these kids since they were 15.

“We do job readiness, budget, personal social relationships, life decisions. Basically anything that their parent might teach them, we’re working on it with them,” Daniels said.

One student says because of the help she received from the people at Buckner and in the CPS system, she was inspired to follow her dream of going into law enforcement as a probation officer.

“I mean I see a lot of kids these days have trouble, and they don’t have the support they need. And I want to be able to guide them in the right direction. I wasn’t guided as a little kid, but I would like to have somebody guide them in the right direction,” Angelica Gonzales said.

The volunteers then took the kids on a shopping spree for their dorms or apartments.

Hughes says the event got her excited to take on the future.

“It’s a good challenge, but it’s a fun challenge,” she said.

They have programs available to the graduates as they enter the workforce, so volunteers say they won’t stop supporting the kids even after graduation.

For more information on how you can volunteer with these organizations, visit their website at http://www.buckner.org/.