Comfort Cases brings backpacks to LA foster youth
A brand-new backpack filled with comfort and personal supplies, even a blanket. To kids in foster care, it can mean the world.
The concept of Comfort Cases came from former foster youth Rob Scheer. He was heartbroken knowing kids in the system carried their possessions in trash bags, as he did himself.
After being homeless his senior year of high school, he joined the Navy and became a successful banker. Scheer and his husband are also the adoptive parents of five children from foster care.
Their family portrait is a picture of diversity. He wanted to be an example for his children in finding a meaningful way to give back. Volunteers joined packing parties to stuff the backpacks. His nonprofit Comfort Cases is now international. They've donated over 165,000 backpacks.
On Saturday, May 21, he donated 250 stuffed backpacks to the nonprofit Dream North Foundation for an event in Los Angeles to honor Foster Care Awareness month. Scheer lives in Virginia but will be back in LA to partner with yet another LA-based foster care event.
It’s a partnership with comedian Tiffany Haddish’s organization, "She Ready," and a few other amazing groups. Haddish herself was in foster care. The event is Sunday, June 18 between 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Temple Israel Los Angeles on Hollywood Boulevard.
See his full interview on In Depth, which airs Sunday on FOX 11 at 9:30 a.m.