Taking in their first foster child became a crash course for Karen and John Ferrero in 2020.

“She came to us on a Friday night in November,” Karen said of the 7-year-old girl who became part of their family for 407 days.

The day after she arrived, the Ferrero family of Crystal Lake was headed downstate for a cross country meet with their four daughters. Their girls embraced their new foster sister that day, and she embraced the experiences she got to have living with them, John said.

Her clothes were thrown into garbage bags and while she was comfortable with the girls, she didn’t know how to relate to adults, the couple said.

In the time she lived with them, their foster child went skiing in Colorado, learned to water ski on Crystal Lake, played soccer and went to swimming lessons with their four daughters, the couple said.

What they also quickly learned in those 13 months was that most children in foster care cannot expect those kinds of experiences.

While the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and CASA McHenry County do their best to support foster families, many of those families “don’t have the wherewithal for what our children were experiencing,” John said, from having birthday parties at a trampoline park to getting soccer club and swimming lessons.

“The foster families ... don’t have the means to do much for the kids,” he said.

That is why they worked with CASA McHenry County to create the Family Support Fund, which can pay for things from a birthday party at a restaurant to chess club fees, Karen said.

“They are CASA nominated – it is not the family asking for it," John said.

The couple have given almost $30,000 to the program. Since then, it has paid for swimming lessons, day and sleepover camps, basketball and baseball fees, and chess, orchestra and band camps for more than 200 children. Without the program, children in foster care might not have the same opportunities as children growing up in a traditional households.

It all started for the Ferreros with a YMCA preschool program their oldest daughter – now a junior in college – was in. After a holiday breakfast concert, CASA McHenry County had a presentation on what being a court-appointed special advocate means.

“What CASA did really stuck with us,” John said. He went on to get the training and worked with the program for 2½ years, working as an advocate for two children in that time.

The couple also talked about becoming foster parents. But with four daughters – born within 49 months – the Ferreros wanted to wait until each of them was old enough to voice their wants and concerns.

The Ferreros also were building a veterinary practice. Karen treated animals, while John, with a background in business, ran the office and finances.

Even before they started the CASA Family Support Fund, the Ferreros saw the need in their community. They started a similar program with their daughters’ soccer program, raising funds so that kids of lesser means can also participate via a scholarship program.

“We worked with the leadership ... to set up a program to take donations to sponsor a kid who couldn’t afford it otherwise,” John said.

Now, Karen added, a child won’t have to drop out of soccer if a parent loses a job. “There is money available to help them stay in the system.”

What they don’t want, John said, is to make foster families feel like they are not doing enough for children in the system.

What matters first, is that the children are safe while removing any judgment about finances, Karen said.

But those kids also deserve the normalcy others have in their intact family.

“They were given a difficult life by our standards, but our goal has always been to make it better and give them a little dignity,” Karen said.

She also believes in payback down the road.

“It is the butterfly effect. Maybe one of those kids goes and is on a soccer team and the road is a mentor for them, given them the motivation to do even more,” Karen said.

The Ferreros also want to encourage others to learn about CASA and what the program does to protect children going through the court systems for reasons they cannot control.

“If we hadn’t gone to that breakfast program we wouldn’t have known about CASA,” Karen said.

“We got the golden ticket that day,” John added.

Learn more about the program at casamchenrycounty.org.