Adopt-a-Mom Campaign Assists Single Mothers on Mother’s Day and Beyond.
For single mom Juana Hulin, the past few years have been filled with challenges. Hulin was diagnosed with stage four cancer in April 2015, just one month after she and her three daughters, ages 13, 12, and 9, had moved into a new home.
Unable to work due to surgeries and chemotherapy treatments, Hulin feared that she would get behind on her bills while waiting for her supplemental security income to be approved. It was then that Hulin heard about the Ark, a non-profit organization that serves low-income, working families in the Athens, Georgia, area.
The Ark helped Hulin with her expenses until she was back on her feet financially, but the organization’s support did not end there. Hulin says she received a call last year on Mother’s Day, telling her to stop by the Ark’s offices to pick up a special gift.
“I’m a single mom, and sometimes as mothers, we don’t worry about ourselves because we just want our kids to be OK,” Hulin told TODAY Parents, explaining that when she went to the Ark, she was given a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a handwritten card, both provided by an anonymous donor.
“It brought tears to my eyes because the thought of someone thinking of you on Mother’s Day who doesn’t even know you — it just really warmed my heart and lifted my spirits,” said Hulin.
Stephanie Cockfield is financial education director at the Ark, and says that Hulin received a gift as a part of the organization’s Adopt-a-Mom program. Now in its fourth year, the program provides flowers and a card to single moms and moms in nursing homes.
“Adopt-a-Mom got started based on us wanting to meet a need in the community that we didn’t see was being met,” said Cockfield. “The majority of people that we help are single, working moms and we thought, ‘What can we do to better serve them and also recognize them for what they’re doing?'”