When Lindsey Wood was in the sixth grade, two things happened to her around the same time — she learned about foster care, and she learned how to make hair bows.
“One of my best friends was adopted through foster care, and her mother and older sister actually work at the Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes, so I got to learn about how the foster care system works and what the needs were,” said Wood, a member of First Baptist Church, Thorsby.
She learned how many children entering the foster system leave their homes with nothing but a few toys or clothes in a garbage bag, if they carry anything with them at all.
“Around that time, I also learned how to make hair bows from a YouTube video,” Wood said. “It was really just God putting that together at the exact same time.”
10,000 bows and counting
She started crafting bows, selling them and giving the proceeds to ABCH and other foster care agencies. At first, she only sold them to friends and cheerleading squads, then she got into some local stores in Thorsby and Clanton.
Now between those outlets and selling them via Facebook and Instagram, people all over the country are wearing the more than 10,000 bows she’s made since the sixth grade.
The ministry is named Bows that Bless, and Wood — now 17 — has raised more than $12,000 to buy clothes and other necessities for children in the foster system.
She’s now working on adding a scholarship fund to help children who have been adopted out of the foster system before the age of 14 to go to college, since they don’t get as much financial assistance from the government.
“I hope to train some younger girls and boys to learn how to create their own things so they can raise their own money for children in foster care too,” Wood said. “I plan to teach some of them how to make hair bows and bow ties.”
Chilton Baptist Association also got behind her effort too, providing her some seed money a few years ago to help her expand her efforts, according to Larry Felkins, recently retired director of missions.
“Some of the youth and adult ladies have gotten involved in her ministry too, and we felt some money from the vision fund could help her upgrade to do even more,” Felkins said.
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