When Christine Curiale, a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Consultant working in Southampton, New York, attended her first Kidsave event, Curiale didn’t know she was taking the first step to finding her daughter. One summer evening last year, Curiale was scrolling through her emails before bed and noticed an unexpected message from a client. It read, “In this attachment is something for you. I don’t know why, but I feel like I should send it to you.” The attachment was an invitation to a Kidsave event, an opportunity to meet Colombian preteens currently up for adoption. Curiale, an active volunteer in the community, assumed her client was looking for help with the event. Curiale arrived with her husband and spent the next two hours at the Bridgehampton Children’s Museum meeting the kids and Kidsave volunteers. In the following weeks, the couple continued their involvement with Kidsave, propelled by a feeling that something was there for them. “We didn’t know exactly what we were looking for or if this was even for us,” Curiale recalls, “We just kind of felt like we should go with it, and so we did.”
A few weeks later, Kidsave’s Executive Vice President called the Curiales with astonishing news: They’d found the couple a daughter. Curiale and her husband were shocked. The two had never even made the decision to adopt a child. She remembers, “We didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘We want to adopt a teenager from another country. That never happened.’” Despite this, the Curiales boarded a plane to Chattanooga, Tennessee to meet the young girl at her host home. Sharon, a beautiful and spirited 14-year-old, had mere days left in the United States to find a family with Kidsave before returning to Colombia. The couple spent 15 hours with Sharon on their first day. “We just didn’t want to leave. It was the most unbelievable experience,” Curiale reminisces, “We got along so beautifully.” Serendipity continued to intervene, and Curiale got the opportunity to spend a week with Sharon back in the northeast. “It was magic,” Curiale says of that first week together. With a few days left in the country and with three hopeful couples vying to adopt her, Sharon chose the Curiales as her family. Says Curiale of her life-changing experience with Kidsave, “I’ve been involved with many, many charities, and I have never seen this much effect in my life. It is incredibly powerful.”
Globally, an estimated 2-8 million children live in orphanages, and programs like Kidsave help find families for kids like Sharon, who might otherwise spend their lives in foster homes and orphanages. Next week, you can get involved with Kidsave yourself at the charity’s cocktail reception and silent auction, with 100% of the proceeds benefitting the program. The Curiales are the perfect testament to the charity’s immense success. Curiale says, “They’re an amazing organization. They change people’s lives. It’s tangible. You can feel it; you can see it. It’s really an amazing thing that they’re doing.”
Kidsave Cocktail Reception
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Suburban Country Club
1730 Morris Ave
Union, New Jersey
RSVP to the reception here.
Consider becoming a sponsor here.
Give a gift here.
Explore future Kidsave events here.
