MIDLAND In the plaza of Centennial Park on Thursday morning, One Accord for Kids featured nine portraits of teenagers up for adoption.
The portraits are part of the Heart Gallery of West Texas, which is a gallery that provides quality portraits and stories of local children waiting to be adopted.
Matt Waller, the associate director for One Accord for Kids, explained the importance of the gallery is to help put faces to names of children in foster care.
“With this program, we can put a face with the name,” Waller said. “It’s really special to get a really good portrait of them.”
Jamie Poe, the West Texas program director for Addy’s Hope Adoption Agency, talked about the seriousness of having teenagers adopted into forever families rather than age out of the foster care system.
According to Poe, as of June 30, there have been 501 teens that aged out of the foster care system.
“This gallery is really a heart-string puller,” Poe said. “People need to know these are kids in their community that are available for adoption. Truthfully, if they don’t get adopted, they will age out of the system and statistics for kids that age out at 18 aren’t good.”
The Heart Gallery of West Texas is comprised of volunteers and paid photography.
Ronda Ireton, a volunteer photographer, spoke to the Odessa American on Thursday morning about donating her time and talent to help children in foster care.
Ireton said she has had a lifelong passion for photography and she said about four years ago she started taking classes through Midland College’s continuing education. She said the purpose was to take better pictures of her grandchildren.
“I have a special place in my heart for foster children hoping they will be adopted into their forever family,” Ireton said. “… I spent a long time learning how to take good pictures and I’m always willing to take a picture and I would never ask for any compensation. It’s a hobby that I love.”
Waller said there’s a special investment made when someone offers their time and talents rather than paying a photographer. He said the Heart Gallery of West Texas does include paid photographers as he explained most of the volunteers are retired so they just have to work around their schedule.
If someone wants to get involved with One Accord for Kids, the link is tinyurl.com/mpnkxnt7.
“It’s one thing to pay somebody to do a job, but when you get volunteers you get buy in,” Waller said. “You get people who their hearts are into it. We had a volunteer that was ready to take a photo at Centennial Park, but there was a change of plans on a dime and she went out to Big Spring and shot some incredible pictures.”
Poe said if someone is interested about adoption Addy’s Hope Adoption Agency hosts an information meeting on Zoom once a month. The next information meeting will be 7 p.m. Oct. 17.
”We are an adopt-only agency, so our main program is placing these kids and other kids that are in CPS care up for adoption into an adoptive home,” Poe said. “We don’t foster. We take you into the process of having this child in your home forever.”
Poe added: “The biggest obstacle in adoption for people is fear. People don’t know they can do it. They don’t know where to start. They don’t know what the long term will look like. The truth is that none of us have a crystal ball. The thing that we try to do is really equip our families to provide care for the children in their home. Even though there’s some fear in that, the reality is you can do it if you are committed to it. You can adopt. You can be successful if you commit to it.”
