Lisa Szafranski — Foster Parent of the Year 2006
Lisa Szafranski, right, is interviewed by Claudine Ewing, reporter for Channel 2 News.
Lisa Szafranski of Amherst was named Foster Parent of the Year at the annual foster parent recognition dinner held May 5 by Global Village Therapeutic Foster Care in the Northern Tier. Patricia Maxwell, Erie County Family Court judge, spoke. May is National Foster Parent Month.
“I feel very honored,” Mrs. Szafranski said of the award.
Mrs. Szafranski works in partnership with the staff at Global Village, and they all find her a pleasure to work with.
A widow for 10 years, Mrs. Szafranski has three grown children, and three children still at home. She also four foster children, including a set of three siblings.
“I love raising kids and working with them one on one."
“I love raising kids and working with them one on one,” she said.
Years ago, she and her late husband, Arthur, took in two teen boys, one from Vietnam and one from Laos, who had escaped from their countries. Those boys stayed with the Szafranskis through their early 20s, and are now both married and doing well.
Six years ago, Mrs. Szafranski adopted her daughter, Lily, from an orphanage in Sierra Leone.
“I thought I would love to get another girl from the same orphanage, but that had been a miracle,” she said. “I hadn’t had the money, but the money was given to me. That wasn’t going to happen again, so I prayed about it. I thought I might do foster care, and I prayed about that.”
Then a friend told her of a girl from Sierra Leone who was going into foster care, and wondered whether Mrs. Szafranski might be interested. She was interested, and began classes with Global Village Therapeutic Foster Care.
“I had her for a year, and she’s back with her family now,” Mrs. Szafranski.
Global Village Therapeutic Foster aims to give every child “permanency,” or a “forever home.” Sometimes the child can be reunited with his or her biological parents; in other cases, the child needs an adoptive home.
With seven children at home, “Our schedule is crazy,” Mrs. Szafranski said. “Two of the kids are really into gymnastics and ballet, and we have visits at Global Village and social worker visits. My grown daughters are in the area, and my mother is in the area, and they help.”
In fact, Mrs. Szafranski’s oldest daughter, Lydia Szafranski, 27, of Williamsville, has just completed classes to become a foster parent herself.
“I have encouraged a few people to become foster parents,” Mrs. Szafranski said. “I make sure they understand it’s hard work, but it’s wonderful when you see kids respond. Most of the time it’s the greatest job in the world.”
For information on becoming a foster parent, call Laurie Grimm, family resource/intake coordinator at Global Village, at 834-9413, ext. 220, or visit the Web site at www.ndyfs.org.
Lisa Szafranski, right, was honored as Foster Parent of the Year at the Global Village dinner in the north. Her daughter, Lydia Szafranski, left, has completed fostering parenting classes.
Posted May 2006
