Roving exhibit aims to raise adoption awareness

CORRECTION: The Virginia Heart Gallery is headed to Calvary Revival Church Chesapeake, 740 Great Bridge Blvd. Because of a source error, the original version of this story gave the wrong location.

A picture is worth a thousand words, the saying goes. About 20 children featured in the Virginia Heart Gallery are hoping their grins are worth a happy home.

The roving display spotlights foster care children awaiting adoption. The Virginia Department of Social Services sponsors several such displays that move around the state, but one hasn't appeared in Hampton Roads for five years.

Three local social service agencies - Lutheran Family Services of Virginia, Bethany Christian Services and the Up Center - partnered to develop one for the region. Most of the children pictured live in Hampton Roads, but a few are from Richmond and the western part of the state.

Organizers hope the exhibit will raise awareness about the needs of foster care children.

"It gets the idea of adoption out to families and makes the children more real for people," said adoption worker Laura Williams of Lutheran Family Services.

The exhibit is headed to Calvary Revival Church Chesapeake on Great Bridge Boulevard after opening last month at the Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth. Later it will move to the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton.

Organizers have places lined up through August but are looking for more.

"Our assumption is that we'll continue it, but hopefully the children will change," Williams said. "We're hoping all of them will be adopted."

The organizations receive grants from the state to do child-specific recruitment. The gallery showcases harder-to-place older children, ages 6 to 16.

The pictures are taken by professional photographers who donate their services. Youngsters featured include teenagers like Kali who enjoy basketball and roller skating as well as adolescents like Isaiah who love animals and video games.

Mark Julius Hayes and his wife, Lula, have three adopted children and are considering another after seeing the exhibit. Hayes said he feels called by God to help children and that the gallery draws people's attention to an often neglected topic.

"It's a pulse check to see who we really are in taking on individuals that really need to be loved," he said.

Hayes was adopted as a baby and said he understands the desire to have a family. People are hesitant to adopt, he said, because of stigmas such as the children having anger and behavioral problems. The gallery is a way to see the youngsters in a different light, and he hopes others will be inspired to adopt.

"There's one sacrifice we cannot make - that's our children," Hayes said.

Cherise M. Newsome, (757) 446-2794, cherise.newsome@pilotonline.com