RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Foster care kids in the Richmond area got a special treat after an event Wednesday morning when the nonprofit “Comfort Cases” teamed up with Anthem Healthkeepers Plus to provide comfort and personal care items for kids entering the system.

When children arrive in the foster care system, they are often given a trash bag to put their belongings in. Founder of Comfort Cases, Rob Scheer, made it his mission to give kids a better alternative.

“We wanted to make sure that every child who entered foster care got what we call a comfort case,” Scheer said. “A comfort case is filled with essential items [like] pajamas, and they have blankies and they have toiletries, and toothbrushes and books.”

On Wednesday, May 3, Anthem HealthKeepers Plus hosted a “Packing Party” where volunteers filled over 250 backpacks with blankets, stuffed animals and books. The bags were given to Central Virginia Department of Social Service Offices, where some kids got their bags that same night.

Scheer knows all too well the struggles that foster kids can go through. According to this Comfort Cases biography, he grew up in the system himself, and he Scheer and his husband Reece are fathers to five children who came to them through the foster care system. Many of Scheer’s children arrived to his home with their own garbage bags full of belongings. Starting a decade ago, he took his experience and decided to make a positive difference.

“You do not have to know someone to love someone,” Scheer said. “You don’t, and these kids are feeling that love.”

Volunteers worked hard to make Scheer’s dream a reality during Wednesday’s event, including social worker Chamia Ford.

“This is a great opportunity for our kids that are in foster care to have some loving items to take with them that are brand new and that are there,” Ford said. “It’s for them to keep when they go to a loving new home.”

Scheer hopes with these types of events, they can help at least one of the over 5,000 kids are in currently in the Virginia foster care system.

“They’re not foster children. They are children who are experiencing something that they didn’t ask to experience,” Scheer said. “So, let’s help them.”

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