[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 116 (Thursday, August 1, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1442-E1443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             A TRIBUTE TO LITTLE FLOWER CHILDREN'S SERVICES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL P. FORBES

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 1, 1996

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Little Flower 
Children's Services of Wading River, Long Island, and to the miraculous 
work this organization does in caring for more than 3,000 infants and 
children who have lost their most precious possession--their families.
  Celebrating its 67th year of existence, Little Flower has grown to 
become one of Long Island's most respected institutions because of 
their tireless efforts for these orphaned youngsters of all races, ages 
and religions. These lost and desperate children come to Little Flower 
from throughout New York City, Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
  The agency was founded in 1931 by the pastor of St. Peter Claver 
Church in Brooklyn, with the support of hundreds of loyal parishioners 
who raised funds to purchase a farm in

[[Page E1443]]

Wading River, along the rural North Shore of Suffolk County. The site 
was used to build a residence and school for the homeless, inner-city 
children of New York.
  Little Flower Children's Service continues to reach out and offer 
hope to thousands of children. The 700-member staff administers high-
quality human service programs, including a Residential Treatment 
Center, family foster care, day care, community group homes, adoption 
services, care facilities and foster homes for children and adults with 
physical or mental disabilities. The agency has also pioneered an 
innovative foster care and adoption program to serve more than 2,000 
infants who have been abandoned to languish in city hospitals, babies 
who require protective care in an hour's notice and infants stricken 
with the deadly AIDS virus.
  Little Flower's guiding philosophical principle is simple: Children 
grow up best in families. Families make it happen and Little Flower is 
dedicated to finding loving, nurturing families for children who have 
lost theirs. The youngsters sent to Little Flower have been separated 
from their parents by illness, poverty, death or some other tragedy of 
life. How they got to Little Flower is aways much less important than 
locating a supportive, caring family for them in which to grow and 
learn. Little Flower's main objective is to reunite each child with 
their own family, but if that's not possible then they endeavor to find 
a new family longing to adopt a child.
  In an imperfect world, where infants and children are sometimes left 
without families, there is a desperate need for Little Flower's 
services. In this great Nation of ours, no child should ever have to 
grow up without their parents' love and support. But when a child is 
left alone in this world, we should all be grateful that the 
parishioners of St. Peter Claver Church had the foresight to establish 
Little Flower Children's Services. We are all richer in our souls for 
their benevolence.

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