For Immediate Release
Tammy Levent Announces Another Year of "ItsMyBag.Cool" to Provide Foster Children With Some DignityThe acclaimed entrepreneur, travel expert author and speaker is asking for help this holiday season, as she continues to help children who need it the most.
TAMPA, Florida, Nov. 19, 2018—Entrepreneur and travel expert Tammy Levent has announced another big holiday season push for “It’s My Bag,” Levent’s humanitarian effort which provides suitcases, bags and toiletries to foster children. She is looking for people willing to coordinate and serve as drop-off locations around the country. Levent was inspired in this effort years ago upon visiting the Friends of Joshua House, a safe haven for children in need in Tampa, Florida. Levent saw the children using black plastic bags for their belongings, and began a mission with one principle in mind: No child or the things they own should be cast aside. Nanci March, Resource Manager at the Friends of Joshua House Foundation, is grateful for the effort. “Most times when a child comes to Joshua House,” March said, “they arrive with only the clothes they are wearing. If they do have personal items, they are usually in a garbage bag—literally. Suitcases give these children some dignity.” The idea that these children—or their belongings—are equal to garbage is a stigma many of these children are already fighting. According to a statistic from Children’s Rights.org: On any given day, there are nearly 438,000 children in foster care in the United States. “We want our children to feel worthy,” March said. The National Speakers Association is helping with the bag drive again this year, and the group’s Betty Norlin collected some of the reasons that group loves helping with the effort: “Having my own things in my own suitcase,” one of the speakers said, “would have made me feel more secure in a sometimes chaotic environment.” Levent says that although the effort started in the Tampa, Florida area, it has become a national campaign due to people from all over the country reaching out to Levent personally to donate bags. That tremendous outpouring of love has only been tempered with even more organizations from around the country that desperately need bags. The entire effort has been hosted and chronicled at ItsMyBag.Cool, a name and website domain that was selected by many of the same foster kids that Levent has been helping over the years. “In the Tampa area alone,” Levent said, “we have raised over 15,000 suitcases—that is craziness. Now, we have travel agents in Baltimore that are helping…Texas, New York area, New Jersey and more. But, I still need help.” Levent says that they are looking for persons and organizations who can arrange to coordinate and collect the bags when they are dropped off. Specifically, they are looking to pair those collection points with facilities that need help in the same area. Travel agents, naturally, have been very willing to help with this effort in the past. Of course, they are also looking for more bags. “They don't have to be new,” Levent says, “but as long as the zipper works and they have wheels, it is a blessing. What we may otherwise throw out can really help a child out there. So they don’t have to live out of a garbage bag.” Levent suggests that anyone in the travel industry is a natural ally to this effort, but is specifically asking that airlines and airline employees find ways to pitch in this season. For more information and to sign up to help, visit ItsMyBag.Cool. About Tammy Levent: |