WEST COLUMBIA, W.Va. – Female prisoners at Lakin Correctional Center in Mason County delivered a gift of love to some kids in need this week.
The Carry-On campaign provides luggage to kids in foster care who often have to move from home to home. The women of Lakin Correctional Industries made 400 bags and 500 blankets and scarves for those in need.
“It was an amazing gift! It’s one that really should be celebrated,” said U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin who was on hand Wednesday at the correctional center to thank the women in person.
Goodwin has been working with Mission West Virginia for the past two years promoting the program, which he says makes a huge difference in a foster child’s life.
“Before what we were looking at was kids who had to transport their belongings in garbage,bags. That can’t be an acceptable form of luggage, especially for kids who are making a difficult transition.”
Goodwin explained there have been some cases where those trash bags filled with a child’s belongings were thrown away by mistake because adults thought it was a bag of garbage.
He stressed that thanks to the women at Lakin, the children will have something to call their own and it’s a source of pride.
“Seeing these women, meeting with them, they really poured their heart into this,” according to Goodwin. “They were very proud of themselves and they should have been because they worked very hard.”
West Virginia currently has more than 4,000 children in its foster care system.