Fairfax County Department of Family Services to Honor Adoptive Families

Fairfax County Department of Family Services
12011 Government Center Parkway, Suite 500
Fairfax, VA 22035-1102
Contact: Joseph Battista, Publications Manager
703-324-5870, TTY 703-222-9452
DFSPIO@fairfaxcounty.gov

October 29, 2007

On Friday, November 2, from 6 – 8:30 p.m., the Fairfax County Department of Family Services will honor adoptive families at Celebrating Adoption '07: Honoring Families & Children, as part of National Adoption Awareness Month at the Fairfax County Government Center (12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax, VA 22035).

Also being honored are The Honorable Robert W. Wooldridge Jr., Fairfax County Circuit Court judge, and Barbara Harrison, NBC 4 Anchor and host of “Wednesday's Child,” for their efforts in helping children in Fairfax County 's foster care system find permanent homes.

Judge Wooldridge is scheduled to finalize two adoptions at the event. Ms. Anne Holton, the First Lady of Virginia, will deliver the keynote address. Ms. Holton recently established the “For Keeps” initiative – a statewide effort to help find permanent families for older children in foster care.

National Adoption Awareness Month began in 1976 when former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis proclaimed Adoption Week in an effort to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in foster care. The effort went national shortly after that when former President Gerald Ford made the first National Adoption Week proclamation. In 1990 the week was expanded to a month.

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