The Joyful Child Foundation was established in 2002 by the Runnion family after the sexual assault and murder of five-year-old Samantha Runnion in 2002. Its first initiative was "Samantha's Pride" which aims to facilitate the establishment of child watch programs in communities across the US. As at the end of 2004, 51 programs had been established concentrated in the Orange County, California area of southern California. The California Conservatory of the Arts sponsored a group called the Kids Next Door who recorded a fundraising Christmas album at the end of 2004 with funds going to the Joyful Child Foundation.
In addition to funding the "Samantha's Pride" initiative, the Joyful Child Foundation will use donations to
- fund children's creative writing and artistic programs; and
- fund nonprofit organisations that seek to prevent child abuse and abduction; and
- research into predator behaviour and recidivism.
Famous quotes containing the words joyful, child and/or foundation:
“The power of this experience [fatherhood] can never be explained. It is one of those joyful codings that rumbles in the species far below understanding. When it is experienced it makes you one with all men in a way that fills you with warmth and harmony.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)
“Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The ability to secure an independent livelihood and honorable employ suited to her education and capacities is the only true foundation of the social elevation of woman, even in the very highest classes of society. While she continues to be educated only to be somebody’s wife, and is left without any aim in life till that somebody either in love, or in pity, or in selfish regard at last grants her the opportunity, she can never be truly independent.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)