The Silverliners are retired flight attendants who raise money and conduct endless charity work in their communities. The Key West group typically hosts a Fantasy Flight to the North Pole each year, but has been stymied by COVID for the past two years.
Instead, this year, the Silverliners adopted a local group of four siblings, ages 3 to 8, who are currently in foster care, and ensured that their Christmas dreams will come true on Dec. 25.
For the past two years, the Silverliners have worked with Deborah Bailey, who calls herself a fairy godmother for local kids in foster care.
“I guess I’m the Mother Goose-type,” Deborah Bailey told the Keys Weekly last year when the newspaper honored her as a Holiday Hero.
And she’s right. Ask the scores of local foster kids she mentors, tutors and showers with the compassionate attention many have never received.
A combination of comfort, fun and accountability, Bailey is the adult with whom the kids want to share a good report card, an aced test or a teen-aged heartbreak.
The local Silverliners bought and wrapped a mountain of Christmas gifts for four siblings in foster care who are ages 3 to 8.
“I have kids from years ago still calling to tell me about a good grade they got, and that feels amazing,” she said. “They’re just kids; they want to be seen and heard, but unfortunately a lot of them have been invisible.”
Bailey volunteers with kids in foster care through Wesley House Family Services, which facilitates adoptions and the foster care system in Monroe County. “So many people think of the littlest kids at Christmastime, and that’s so generous, but so often the older ones get overlooked and that’s not fair.”
In addition to tutoring, Bailey takes “her” kids to the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory, the beach, parks to do homework, lunch or the movies.
To help the Keys’ most vulnerable kids, visit Voices for Florida Keys Children on Facebook. The all-volunteer program helps them with scholarships, health, dentist, clothing , camps, tutoring and counseling needs. The program also supports the Guardian Ad Litem program, which ensures that children have a voice in the court system to represent their best interests.
