School of Nursing faculty member gives back to foster care children with annual toy drive

In 2012, Liberty University School of Nursing adjunct faculty member Amber Bruffy became a parent for the first time, fostering a newborn through the City of Lynchburg’s foster care system. A year later, she adopted the child, her son, Logan.

Going through the experience herself, Bruffy’s heart for local foster children has grown. This holiday season, she’s making sure that these children are able to have some cheer.

As the vice president of Liberty’s Psi Delta Sigma Theta Tau International chapter, an honor society for nursing, Bruffy started a Christmas toy drive for foster children in Lynchburg. The chapter has sponsored the toy drive for three years.

“I thought of my son,” Bruffy said. “I felt like the foster children are a forgotten population and that people don’t realize that sometimes they come out of their homes with nothing.”

Bruffy said after she and her husband learned that they were unable to have biological children, they began the city’s foster-to-adopt process.

“We went in with the intentions to adopt, and it worked out,” Bruffy said. “But when we started, we weren’t sure what was going to happen. Sometimes it works out when the kids are able to go back home, and that’s always the goal.”

There are currently 112 Lynchburg children in foster care.  Bruffy said the city has a budget for Christmas gifts but at times it does not stretch very far for the number of children in care. Bruffy said she is grateful that Liberty wants to give back.

“For a lot of children, this is going to be the first time they are away from their (original) home,” Bruffy said. “Maybe this is the first year they’re actually getting a Christmas present. They may have never gotten that at home. I can’t say that I’ve been there or been in my son’s shoes, but just seeing that a big institution like Liberty wants to show compassion and serve this community is great.”

Toys will be collected through Thursday, Dec. 14, at the main entrances of the School of Nursing and the School of Education in DeMoss Hall. Gifts are needed for newborns through age 21. The Department of Social Services suggests gift card donations for ages 17-21 to places such as Sheetz, Walmart, Target, and T.J. Maxx.