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Airport Helps Match Parents With
Foster Children
Portrait Gallery Spotlights Children
Seeking Adoption Philadelphia - Travelers arriving at Philadelphia
International Airport are greeted by a new exhibition in the Airport's B/C
Baggage Claim Building that seeks to create families by focusing on the plight
of foster children in need of stable, loving homes.
A collaborative
effort of Philadelphia's Department of Human Services, the Heart Gallery of
Philadelphia and the Airport, the exhibit displays portraits of 13 foster
children hoping for adoption. The children range in age from 2 to 17 years old.
In addition to the portraits, which were taken by professional photographers
donating their time and expertise, there are brief descriptions of the children
that showcase their unique personalities.
According to Terry Hirst,
Heart Gallery of Philadelphia's Director of Photography, the Airport is a
perfect venue for such a display due to the large number of passengers who pass
through it daily. Upon realizing this, she contacted the Airport in 2005 and
proposed the project. In December of that year, the Airport presented its first
Heart Gallery of Philadelphia portrait collection.
"Our primary goal
is to increase awareness of the needs of these children," says Hirst. "Judging
from the increase in visitors to our website after our first exhibit, I think
we accomplished that."
The Heart Gallery of Philadelphia is an
offshoot of a program that originated in New Mexico in 2001 and has since gone
national. It addresses a fundamental problem in helping foster children connect
with potential adoptive parents.
"Before this program," says Hirst,
"most pictures of children who were up for adoption resembled driver's license
photos. You really got no sense of who they were as people."
By
photographing the children in a way that allows their personalities to shine
through, Hirst and others hope to transform them from statistics to
individuals, thereby improving the odds that they will be adopted.
For
Aviation Director Charles Isdell, the humanitarian aspect of this project sets
it apart from most of the other works featured in the Airport's eight-year-old
Exhibitions Program.
"This is a chance to give something back to the
community and make a difference in children's lives," said Isdell. "There is no
more worthwhile pursuit."
Visitors to the Airport can view the Heart
Gallery of Philadelphia display in the B-C Baggage Claim area, which is open to
the public. Additional information may be obtained at
www.heartgalleryphiladelphia.org. The exhibition will run through June of 2007.
For information contact:
Mark Pesce
(215) 937-6944
The Philadelphia Airport System is owned and operated by the City of
Philadelphia and is composed of Philadelphia International Airport and
Northeast Philadelphia Airport. The Airport System is a self-sustaining entity
that operates without the use of local tax dollars. It is one of the largest
economic engines in Pennsylvania, generating an estimated $14 billion in
spending to the regional economy and employing a workforce of nearly
34,000.
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