February 18th, 2022 was Care Day – a global celebration of children and young people with experience of care. In Ireland, EPIC (Empowering young People in Care) facilitated and promoted Care Day. The theme of this years Care Day was “It takes a village to raise a child.”

With the pandemic putting in person plans on hold for too long and with restriction being lifted, the team at Orchard Fostering thought it would be a great idea to give back to our Foster Carers, the children and young people in our care, and our staff by holding an in-person party!

Planning our foster care event

Our senior administrator Lauren took on the role of party planner, making hundreds of phone calls, arranging entertainment, treats and goody bags for the day. We would like to offer a special thank you to the lovely people at Lisheen Toys, who supplied us with gorgeous, handcrafted toys for our goody bags.

It was decided that we would attempt the viral Jerusalema Dance challenge. Dance tutorials were sent to the team and the families who wished to be involved. With this being the first event in quite some time, there was lots of energy and excitement around it.

Our team got their dancing shoes on. While the office dance practises in the lead up to the day itself may have been slightly uncoordinated to begin with, we got it in the end (after lots of laughs along the way)!

Dancing, games, refreshments – and the ever-changing weather! 

We had planned to host the event outdoors, in the lovely courtyard of our Parkwest Office block. However, when the day arrived, the weather was against us. With a storm just passed and another storm forecast, we made the decision to bring our event indoors for everyone’s safety and to make sure everyone was nice and warm.

We had giant games supplied by Entertainment Solutions, including giant Connect Four, Xs and Os, Jenga and Kerplunk, which were a huge hit with the children… and with some of the adults, too!

We wanted to film our dance, but to maintain anonymity for the children and young people we asked the children and young people to decorate masks to wear during the dance. We also had a crafting station so the kids could create new masterpieces if they wanted.

The wonderful Cuppacabana coffee provided us with delicious treats, hot chocolates and coffee, which helped warm us all up.

We couldn’t believe our luck when the blue skies appeared, so we all made our way outdoors, and quickly danced our little hearts out before the weather turned again, so we headed back inside and helped ourselves to some yummy pizza supplied by Firehouse Pizza Parkwest.

We got the best group photo, and created some cool hand print art work for us to hang in the office before everyone said goodbye. As we left, it began to snow!

There were a lot of laughs along the way and we are looking forward to hosting another event with our team, our wonderful foster carers and the children and young people of Orchard Fostering.

We couldn’t have done it without you…

A special thank you to all those who contributed to make Care Day 2022 a great one. In particular, Orchard Fostering would like to thank:

  • Cuppabanna for providing us with delicious treats.
  • Topdog Creations for the signage, pens, and Orchard Fostering t-shirts.
  • Entertainment Solutions for the giant games.
  • Firehouse Pizza Parkwest for the delicious pizza.
  • Parkwest Business Park for usage of the space.
  • The team at Orchard Fostering for their help in organising the event.
  • The foster carers for joining us and for practising their dance moves!
  • The children and young people of Orchard for showing us all how to dance and creating some really cool masks!

Foster care recruitment events and foster care event information

We regularly host online foster care recruitment events for those interested in foster care. If you’re interested in learning more about foster care, why not contact us today and see if there is an event coming up soon.

If you’re interested in foster care, please reach out to Orchard Fostering today. We’re available on the phone or via email – you can also fill out a form directly on our contact page. 

The Orchard Foundation was established in February 2021, with the aim to provide opportunities to the children and young people, within Orchard Fostering, through funding for activities, classes and cultural events, where there is a barrier to entry. See more information on The Orchard Foundation here.