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:
“To-morrow is the joyful day, Audrey, to-morrow will we be
married.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Parents must begin to discover their children as individuals of developing tastes and views and so help them be, and see, themselves as thinking, feeling people. It is far too easy for a middle-years child to absorb an over-simplified picture of himself as a sloppy, unreliable, careless, irresponsible, lazy creature and not much more—an attitude toward himself he will carry far beyond these years.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark:M”I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.””
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)