Six-year-old Ellie arrived at Child and Family Services (C+FS) over one month ago. When Ellie first came to C+FS Residential Treatment Program, she would spend a lot of time in her room, and she was incredibly shy around the other children. Despite her nervousness, Ellie has always been a very happy child who loves to sing, dance and color in coloring books.
“We try to go the extra mile for her because we know she has been through a lot,” explained Janine Dixon, Residential Supervisor. “Ellie is one of the few children who doesn’t have a family to go home to, so she’s with us all the time.”
One day after Ellie was done with school, Ashlee who works closely with Ellie, discovered a paper in her backpack about celebrating the 101st day of school with a dress-up day. The theme was 101 Dalmatians. Ashlee told Janine about the dress-up day and the two were determined to find the perfect outfit for Ellie to wear to school.
It was all hands-on-deck as Janine scrambled to find an all-white outfit for Ellie. After searching multiple stores with no luck, time was running out. With help, they finally found a white sweatsuit for Ellie. Ashlee put her craft skills to the test by using her Cricut to make black hearts and placed them on the white sweatsuit.
Ellie was beaming with excitement when she saw her custom-made, 101 Dalmatians outfit. “Look at my outfit, I’m a Dalmatian!” exclaimed Ellie, as she crawled on her hands and knees, barking like a puppy.
“Everything came together so nicely,” said Janine. “I was smiling from ear-to-ear when I saw her get off the school bus in her outfit.”
For the rest of the day, Ellie couldn’t stop showing off her one-of-a-kind outfit and pretending to be a Dalmatian. Janine and Ashlee were so happy to help Ellie with her school celebration. The last-minute hustle was worth the effort to see the smile on Ellie’s face and hear about her classmate’s reactions towards her paw-sitively perfect look.