Episode 82 – A Soldier’s Big Heart: Jackson’s Gift to Foster Youth with Sarah Davis and Andrea Forringer

• Jackson’s Gift honors the legacy of Andrea’s son, Jackson.
• The organization supports youth aging out of foster care who enlist in the military.
• Jackson faced significant challenges in his early life, including foster care and adoption.
• He aspired to be a Marine and wanted to help others in similar situations.
• The importance of mentorship and community support for foster youth is emphasized.
• Jackson’s experiences in foster care prepared him for military life.
• The organization provides monetary awards to eligible youth.
• Advocacy for foster youth navigating military enlistment is crucial.
• The founders aim to raise awareness about the challenges faced by foster youth.
• Jackson’s Gift is committed to making a positive impact on the lives of young people.

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Courtney (00:01.262)
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Foster Friendly Podcast. I’m Courtney Williams, along with my co-host, Travis Vongsness, and we are joined tonight by two people. We’re recording at night. We don’t usually do this, so it feels weird to say tonight, but it is night. Sarah Davis and Andrea Foringer. She told me it’s like a hamburger, so I have to think about it. Foringer. They are both board members of an organization called Jackson’s Gift.

Travis (00:14.903)
Thanks

Andrea Forringer (00:20.138)
That is correct.

Travis (00:22.389)
You’ve got it.

Andrea Forringer (00:24.078)
So. you

Courtney (00:29.1)
And their mission is to award Jackson gifts Jackson’s gift to heroes who have aged of the foster care system and have completed basic training for a branch of the military. they’re the name Jackson’s gift is in honor of Andrea’s adoptive son Jackson, who was, he lost his life during a military training accident. So, welcome to the podcast, Sarah and Andrea. thanks for joining us. Yeah. We’re excited to hear more about.

Andrea Forringer (00:52.759)
Thank you for having us.

Courtney (00:57.014)
his life and Jackson and who he was and yeah, learn about the great organization you guys are doing. I’m a military mom. I have two sons in the Marines. So yeah, this is near and dear to my heart as well.

Andrea Forringer (01:10.038)
Well, thank you for their service. It’s a big deal.

Sarah Davis (01:13.771)
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for their service.

Travis (01:13.953)
Yeah.

Travis (01:17.399)
Yeah. Welcome to the podcast and you know, just from Courtney and I, just to say express, you know, the condolences that he did lose Jackson and, um, you know, the loss of his life, but let’s go down the backstory of his life. tell us about his early life and then him entering into foster care.

Andrea Forringer (01:35.309)
Okay, well Jackson, Jackson’s gift actually is the perfect name because Jackson really was a gift to anybody who ever met him. Just a very kind soul and he went through a lot of difficult things. His biological parents were unable to care for him. There was, I guess he said once told me his earliest memory when he was about three years old, he vaguely remembers his birth mother.

but she had left and there was drugs, drug abuse and things like that. And so he had a biological father that he was with and that was a very dangerous situation for him. And his father was in a lot of drug trouble and things like that. There was a grandmother and I’m not sure if this was his mother’s mother or his father’s mother.

but he remembers her caring for him when he was a toddler in his young years. So he does remember being loved and being cared for by a grandmother. So that was some positive early memories that he had. But when he was nine years old, she had passed away. And because his biological parents were in the scene and couldn’t care for him and she had passed away, that was around the time that he entered into foster care.

So from there, that’s really only the story I know from him telling me from his memories. But from there, he did enter the system and he was about nine years old.

Travis (03:14.837)
And this is what year around?

Andrea Forringer (03:17.516)
So he was, let’s see, in the system, he was born in 2003. So he was about nine then, so in 2012, I guess we’ve been around there. So yeah, and that was, I’m not even sure, I think that was in Florida, but I’m not positive exactly where he…

Travis (03:32.575)
other okay okay

Andrea Forringer (03:46.55)
where he was. It could have been somewhere in South Carolina. I know he was born in Anderson, South Carolina, but they had moved around. So I’m not really sure where he was with his grandmother, but at the time of him entering foster care, he was nine for the first time.

Courtney (04:02.742)
Okay. Nine. And you see that at that, about the same time, he heard about a summer camp. Tell us, Andrew, what that summer camp was all about and what did that instill in his heart?

Andrea Forringer (04:14.966)
So yeah, so that was about, he was nine years old, he was in the third grade and he was still with his grandmother at this time because this is part of his memory of this summer camp where the idea of being a Marine was started. That’s where the seed was planted. He was in school, he said there was Marines that came to visit the school and so for something going on in the school where he was.

And the Marines came and they talked to the kids and talked to the classes. They were telling them about this summer camp that they had at Paris Island in South Carolina. And he ended up going that summer. I’m not like, again, I’m not sure of the timeframe of when he lost his grandmother, but I know I remember him saying his grandma let him go. So he did go to that summer camp at Paris Island in South Carolina.

the summer after his third grade. So he was about nine when he went there. And that is actually where he went for boot camp. When he, after he graduated high school, was the same place. I remember him walking us around saying, I was on that obstacle right there when I was in third grade. And so that had to have been a full circle moment for him. But from that day on, from that timeframe on, he knew he wanted, that was his life goal, to become a Marine.

Travis (05:31.671)
Ha

Sarah Davis (05:31.918)
Thank you.

Travis (05:34.753)
Mmm.

Travis (05:42.071)
Very cool.

Courtney (05:44.216)
That’s great. Yeah. And then after some time in foster care, so entered around age nine, was in foster care for some while. He was adopted at about age 11, but that was not a great placement, actually kind of an abusive situation and that he eventually fled from when he was around 15. What do you know about that time in his life in that home and of leaving?

Andrea Forringer (06:01.515)
Yes. We know unfortunately more than I wish I knew. He shared a lot about with that and he actually journaled a lot and I do have that journal that he shared with me. he yeah, you know he was in foster care at nine for a couple years. He went from different homes and then he ended up in a placement where they had actually adopted eight kids out of foster care. So from the.

public view. It looked like wonderful people adopting all these kids. But inside the house, it was a whole different story. So there’s good and bad to that. The good side was they would take them all to church. so he actually had some positive influences in a local church. But inside the home, was not good. It was abusive. It was mentally abusive.

Travis (06:59.114)
Hmm.

Andrea Forringer (07:00.36)
He was definitely, his self-esteem was really low. I don’t know the exact details of when or what exactly made him run away the first time, but I just know he was not treated well. And for him to like just flee, I’m not sure what caused the last straw. But he left, ran away, he said, and the police found him and brought him home.

And a couple of weeks later, he ran away again, because things got worse when he did that. And then he ran away. And the third time he ran away. Well, the third time he ran away, was just before his 16th birthday in April. actually, he had just turned 16. That’s what it was, because when the police picked him up again, it was the purple tackies he was going into. He found money and he was going into a Dollar General to buy something.

Travis (07:51.927)
You

Travis (07:57.879)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (07:59.69)
purple tackies and, or purple Doritos. That’s what it was. Purple Doritos. It was a bag of purple Doritos he had in his hand and police officer found him again and he wouldn’t get out of the police car at that point. So he said, you’re 16. If you don’t get out, I have to, you’re a runaway and I have to bring you to DJJ, Department of Juvenile Justice. And he chose that over going back into that home. So it was pretty bad.

Travis (08:01.237)
Ha

Andrea Forringer (08:28.97)
situation that he left from and he was very, very worried and concerned about the siblings, the adopted siblings. But he got out of there and he ended up staying for three months in the Department of Juvenile Justice and did a lot of journaling while he was in there. And that’s just because there was no, there was no placement for a teenage boy, 16 year old teenage boy. And then after three months, a group home, had a

Travis (08:44.406)
Mmm.

Travis (08:52.939)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (08:58.09)
room available. So that’s how he ended up going to the group home at age 16. So he really had nobody. Nobody was fighting for him. Nobody was coming to get him. He just had it. I’m going to age out of the system and I’m going to join the Marines. And his goal to be a Marine was still burning strong in him at that time. Yeah.

Travis (09:21.559)
Hmm.

Take us into then in that phase of just what you know about his time at the group home then, like how long or what that experience was like for him there.

Andrea Forringer (09:32.17)
Yeah, so when he was the great part about this was my husband was a mentor. We’ve been foster parents. We started fostering in 2015. So we had been foster parents for about four years up to that point. And so this was 2019 and we were on a break.

That was our deal. were on a break from fostering. had a lot of placements and sometimes you just need a break. And so my husband said, well, you know, while we’re on a break, I’m going to mentor over at the group home. There was, he heard about the need there. So he had a couple of boys that were brothers that he was mentoring and they went, they had, he went there in May and, beg your pardon. was June because Jackson was in the,

uh, Department of juvenile justice for a few months. So it was the end of June of 2019 that they, he went to go pick up these boys and they were going to go play some basketball. And they said, Hey, can Jackson come in with us? And my husband said, who’s Jackson? And he said, this kid that just showed up here yesterday. So they brought Jackson along for it to play basketball. And that’s when my husband met Jackson and instantly those two bonded. It was, it was.

100 % instant for them. And then Jackson started coming along and on all the mentoring adventures that he took the other boys on and the other boys ended up moving on. And then my husband kept mentoring Jackson, which wasn’t very long because it was June, in August of 2019, Jackson came to church with us one Sunday and put his arm around me. He said, you should let me live here.

So he was very comfortable. I said, boy Jackson, we’re on a break. So yeah, that break didn’t last very long at all. But yeah, we met him through, like I said, my husband met him through mentoring and they just, the two of them just, it was just instant that they bonded.

Courtney (11:27.809)
you

Travis (11:28.063)
Ahaha

Travis (11:32.917)
I wrote a phrase.

Courtney (11:38.592)
Yeah.

Courtney (11:50.606)
Did you have other kids at home at the time?

Andrea Forringer (11:53.746)
So no, at the time, so when we started fostering, didn’t start fostering until our two biological boys were junior and senior in high school. So they were already out of the house when we had met Jackson. But we do have another young man, his name is Cameron. Him and his brother, we were fostering them at the time. And he had just, they had just gone back to, we had them for two years and they had just gone back to a family. So that was our break.

But the younger one lives with us now. We have legal custody of him. He came and moved back with us. Situation didn’t work out where he was placed back in a home and they asked us, you take him back? absolutely. So we have legal custody of a 15, almost 16 year old now. So Cameron is in a lot of pictures with Jackson because he was, you know, the two of them. was here first. No, I was here first. No.

Travis (12:28.832)
Andrea Forringer (12:52.032)
They would, they would bicker like brothers, but we adopted Jackson before we had full legal custody of Cameron, but Cameron was still in our home holidays and weekends and things like that. So, but we, yeah, after, after we had adopted Jackson, then, we got custody of Cameron. they would, they were brothers, bickering brothers.

Sarah Davis (12:52.174)
Thank you.

Travis (12:55.123)
Haha

Courtney (13:08.664)
of it.

Travis (13:17.815)
The bickering brothers. man. I love that in the story too, where, you know, you kind of see the bond, whether it your husband or just sort of that magic start to form, you know, and kind of lead the way in a way of, know, what would happen next and kind of, you know, the bickering brothers and stuff. So, did you have any other questions about the adoption Courtney or things you want to say, ask? So you’ve really.

Courtney (13:19.886)
you

Andrea Forringer (13:20.162)
Yes.

Andrea Forringer (13:37.925)
Yeah.

Courtney (13:41.814)
Yeah, great overview.

Andrea Forringer (13:44.123)
Yeah, it’s really, we were not planning on adopting. We started being foster parents because we were older foster parents. We’d go to these little groups and there’s all these young people fostering and our kids are graduating high school and they have little ones. So we were like, we’re done, you know, but we, know, things, things happen and work out for a reason. We’ve totally a hundred percent believe that. And Jackson prayed for a family, a loving family.

Travis (13:55.999)
Ahaha.

Travis (14:10.699)
Hmm.

Andrea Forringer (14:11.662)
with siblings and cousins and all the things and he got that, you know, he had that the last four years of his life. He got to experience all that.

Travis (14:15.863)
He got that.

Travis (14:21.419)
Yeah. Well, as we keep kind of going in the arc of the journey, kind of in the next phase, Jackson, you know, did live out his dream to become a U.S. Marine. But sadly, as you’ve said, and we’ve kind of talked about already, he did lose his life two years into that journey. So, Andrea, if you could just talk to us a little bit about what did it mean for him to become a Marine?

Andrea Forringer (14:45.507)
Well, we got, like I said, we got to see it. It was just such a gift to be able to see him accomplish that. it’s almost like he knew once he reached that point and made, it’s like he knew this was his purpose to be on this earth, to do this. And he wanted to be a Marine and he did it. And then all he could talk about

in addition to being Marine is wanting to help foster kids. He wanted to help specifically those aging out because he realized after he got into the Marines, he’s like, I’m meeting these guys and some of them, they were in foster care too, like me, but they don’t have any family. They joined the Marines. That’s what I thought was gonna happen to me. I would age out of the system and join the Marines and that would be my family. He said, but all the letters that…

Mom and dad, all the letters you wrote me and grandma and grandpa and nana, papa and all the letters I got from my family from home kept me going. And so it really burdened him that he knew kids aging out of foster care are kind of like, there you go, sink or swim, you know, and they, really wanted to support his, his brothers like that, his foster siblings out there, you know, he wanted to make sure that

You know, he knew if he wasn’t adopted, he wouldn’t have that support. So he wanted to be in the gap there. So that’s really, you know, Jackson’s gift organization is fulfilling that dream of his cause he, he would not leave base without making sure everybody had somewhere to go home. If it was a holiday, if it was leave break, he’s like, mom, can I bring so-and-so home? They can’t make it home. It’s too far away or something like that. So it burdened him to.

know that there was kids aging out of foster care without support, especially the ones he met in the Marines. know, so going into the military, you have that back home family support or someone to go home to, somebody waiting for you. So that’s really what this, the gift of Jackson is continuing to give.

Travis (16:49.697)
Yeah.

Courtney (17:04.76)
Yeah, that’s beautiful. I know again, just being a military mom, how hard the process is, know, bootcamp and the trainings and the toll it takes on a body physically, know, emotionally, spiritually, like all this stuff, just takes, beats people down, you know, to nothing. And then to know if they don’t have people alongside them. talk about that a lot on our podcast about kids who age out and don’t have family to call home, to call a place to belong. And, you know, it really does make you think.

Andrea Forringer (17:16.901)
Alright.

Sarah Davis (17:17.228)
Right.

Andrea Forringer (17:28.612)
Yeah.

Andrea Forringer (17:32.395)
Yeah, and honestly, I never thought about it either. You know, I mean, I didn’t I didn’t see that perspective until he would talk about it. He said, you know, these guys, these buddies of mine, they were in foster care like me. And I’m like writing letters and getting letters. then he would ask me, would you write to this guy? I’m like, yes, I’ll write to him, you know. So he would want to make sure that they were getting some letters. So I never really like said, I didn’t see it that way either. You know, you get he.

Travis (17:41.402)
Hmm.

Travis (17:50.689)
Haha, that’s cool.

Travis (17:59.735)
Hmm.

Andrea Forringer (18:00.641)
Jackson was somebody who really was gifted in letting you see things through a different perspective because he had to do that to survive. so I think, like I said, Jackson’s gift is named appropriately because he had a gift with people and seeing the bigger picture of their purpose for things happening. I mean, he could have been a troubled kid getting in trouble and doing bad things.

Travis (18:08.915)
yeah.

Yeah.

Courtney (18:26.414)
Yeah.

Travis (18:26.773)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andrea Forringer (18:28.708)
He could have chosen such a different path. So, yeah.

Travis (18:32.055)
Hmm. Yeah.

Courtney (18:36.046)
Sarah, how did this come to be? mean, you’re a board member. So did Andrew just come up with this idea and bring it up to a few of you? Or how did it come to be that you guys became an organization and how did you get the ball rolling?

Sarah Davis (18:48.662)
So, first of all, Andrea is my cousin. a lot of people probably don’t know that. We tend to forget about that sometimes. We just talk to each other like we’re the only people in the room. so…

Travis (18:55.287)
haha

Andrea Forringer (18:59.811)
Yes.

Travis (19:00.747)
haha

Sarah Davis (19:03.39)
She, because of social media, you know, we weren’t able to, you know, kind of keep in touch as we all move. We all grew up in New York, but then moved away as we got older to different States and stuff. And, you know, so with social media and Facebook and stuff, we were able to kind of still watch, you know, Andrea’s family grow and then have Jackson join them and different things would be posted. And, you know, it was always fun to watch and, kind of,

you know, feel like you’re still connected, you know, cause you don’t see each other as much. She’s in South Carolina. I’m in Florida, you know, and you just, have, you know, immediate families and things going on. So, you know, I kind of saw some things over the years with Jackson and always thought, you know, how awesome it is that Andrea and Todd are so willing to give their time to foster, you know, these children and do these different things. And then of course, when I saw, she had posted a few days after he had passed away, which

you know, some of our family had already kind of communicated back and forth to let each other know what was going on a little bit. And, and, you know, I talked to Andrea shortly after, and as many of our family members did, and, and a couple months kind of went by and it just was something that really sat heavy with me over the fact that here you have this foster child that

Andrea Forringer (20:05.828)
Okay. you

Sarah Davis (20:27.394)
has going through one system and then now wants to join the military and is going to go through another government system that are two great system. I wouldn’t say that they’re great systems, but there’s systems set up, but they don’t match well. So they don’t mix well together. So it was something that just, you know, I just kept thinking, wow, this kid is so selfless. You know, he was so, you know,

Travis (20:33.943)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (20:36.515)
Okay.

Travis (20:38.793)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Davis (20:52.076)
wanting, why would you want to serve your country after you’ve been through the foster care system is all what kept going through my head through the whole thing. So it went a couple of months go by, I finally went and my husband was like, what’s the matter with you? He’s like, you’re just quiet, you’re in your head, you what are you thinking about? And I’m like, we have to do something. Like there’s gotta be something we can do, you know, to celebrate his life or to show people that this stuff happens and that these foster kids need.

Travis (20:57.239)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (20:58.179)
Okay.

Travis (21:14.252)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Davis (21:18.348)
you love and advocacy and these different things to help them get further in life and they deserve it. You know, if they’re wanting to serve our country, especially, you know, that was my whole thing. I couldn’t get past. It’s like, how do you have this child that’s been beat up and thrown out and tossed around? And then he’s like, Hey, but I want to give my life for you, you know, before even thinking about him passing. That’s amazing. You know? And so,

Andrea Forringer (21:26.692)
Okay.

Travis (21:33.377)
Mm-hmm.

Travis (21:39.436)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Davis (21:46.477)
I talked to my husband a little bit about it and I said, you know, I want to start something. So I called Andrea and Todd and said, I have this idea. and if you guys don’t want to do it cause it’s too hard, you know, let me know. And I said, but I have this idea. And I said, you know, I would like to do something for foster kids that are aging out and enlisting as he did, even though he was adopted, you know, he was fortunate to have a family that stepped in and helped.

advocated for them and loved him and did these things, but there’s a lot of kids out there that don’t have that. And so our initial process of this was to give a thank you gift to kids that are aging out of foster care and enlisting in the military. And so we’ll be there for them, you know, as much as we can, we would give them a monetary award. Right now it’s $2,500. We’re hoping as we build

You know, we’ll be able to do more and more throughout the years for each kid, you know, but right now we’re giving a $2,500 gift to them if they pass bootcamp. So that’s their only, their two things is they had to be in foster care, aging out of foster care, and they had to graduate bootcamp and they get $2,500 for filling out a one page application. So we try to keep it simple and, you know,

Andrea Forringer (22:49.634)
Okay. you

Sarah Davis (23:07.906)
get our name out there and reach people and show what Jackson did and the light that he’s been through this whole thing in the last two years has been amazing. And we really feel like there’s something pushing us to do this. And everybody says it’s different things. I say it’s Jackson or maybe possibly my mother, but there’s a drive and it’s this like, why is this happening? And it’s just, it needs to happen and it needs to happen and it needs to help.

Travis (23:18.103)
Hmm.

Sarah Davis (23:36.527)
the kids out there that need help. And if it’s $2,500 that sits in their bank account till they can grow up bigger, great. If it’s $2,500 that they want to go and spend a week in Disney World or well, probably two days in Disney World nowadays, but $2,500 is not going to get you very far. But you know, we want them to use it for what they want to use it for. So there’s, you know, there’s so many things that could be for

Travis (23:52.286)
All right.

Travis (23:57.463)
Hmm.

Sarah Davis (24:01.708)
you know, paying medical bills, doing different things, know, whatever needs to be done, you know, if they need their car worked on or they want to put a down payment on a car, you know, we have no restriction on how they use that money. Except that they have to pass boot camp and they had to have been in foster care and aging out. You know, we’ve had people ask us if we’re going to be doing it for kids that have been adopted out of foster care and then enlisting and we’ve kind of, it’s

Andrea Forringer (24:17.545)
Okay. you

Sarah Davis (24:31.374)
It’s on our list of things we discuss every couple months, but right now we really just want to try to reach the kids that don’t have anyone and try to be there for them. And, you know, when you’re adopted, most of the time, you know, you have a sincere family that wants to help you and do things with you. And, you know, when you don’t have that, they have nothing. I mean, we’ve met many, many young men that are trying to get in the military and they don’t have anybody to advocate for them. You know, there’s

Travis (24:34.647)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (24:39.461)
So. So.

Travis (24:41.985)
Hmm.

Sarah Davis (24:59.212)
the rules of the military have changed so much over the last few years that it’s more difficult to get in. And, you know, there’s just a lot of a lot of different things. So we’re trying to be an advocate. We’re trying to be changing things if possible down the road, you know, with the different rules and stuff with the military and foster care and hoping we can have a voice in that at some point and just really getting our name out there to get these

Andrea Forringer (25:27.297)
Okay.

Sarah Davis (25:28.354)
these youth to know we’re here to do this. That’s been the hardest part of it, but it is, the whole program is there just to say thank you.

Travis (25:39.871)
I thank you. I love the way you kind of set that up, Sarah, and described these two government systems or kind of large things that have their own stories and are very different, obviously, and then also the parallels. made me think as I was thinking about the resilience he gained, Jackson gained in foster care and sort of a battlefield, if you will, of

Courtney (25:41.677)
Yeah.

Andrea Forringer (25:53.732)
Okay.

Travis (26:07.787)
different deployments to scary places, foreign lands in a way of like what that would have been like. So you can also kind of see how that landscape really did form him probably into being, you know, a Marine that could face tough stuff too. So, but I love that this gift opportunity to sort of merging a connector of these two things, these government systems or structures.

Andrea Forringer (26:13.355)
And.

Andrea Forringer (26:21.472)
Thank you.

Andrea Forringer (26:28.154)
Mm-hmm.

Travis (26:35.819)
Tell us a little bit too of like, so you set that up really well and described it well. What has been kind of the hardest part so far of getting that organization up and running as you’ve kind of launched this thing?

Andrea Forringer (26:37.043)
Okay.

Sarah Davis (26:50.638)
So the thing we’ve run into, okay, well the thing we’ve run into with the military is they have a program now called MHS Genesis, which is Military Health Services Genesis. And it’s where everybody that is a veteran or they’re enlisted in any way, they’re…

Travis (26:50.741)
Neither of you feel free to answer that.

Andrea Forringer (26:56.192)
Okay. Okay.

Sarah Davis (27:16.78)
reserves or their full-time, you know, it doesn’t matter their information goes into this program and the program’s been around a couple of years. It’s not been around as detailed as it is right now. And so that program is a great program because it helps like keep their doctor stuff all organized and it helps keep their prescriptions organized and all their different things. So the problem with for a foster care child is because

with the minute they go into foster care, just about every state in the United States requires them to go to mental health counseling because they’ve been traumatized in some way, which makes total sense, right? So you send them to counseling, try to get as much attention to them and therapy with them to get them through their trauma. But the problem with the MHS Genesis is then red flags any mental health counseling because in the military, they can’t have somebody that doesn’t have a mental health

stable environment in the military. So I say that there’s these two government systems. It’s almost like oil and water. They don’t mix well because of that one mental health issue. Not that it’s a small issue. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be there. But if you have a youth that had a mental health problem when he was 12 or 14, should they be still holding that against them at 18? So

Travis (28:17.175)
Yeah.

Sarah Davis (28:41.44)
A lot of people tell these youth to lie on their applications. You can no longer lie on your application to the military. They will know everything. So that MHS Genesis takes your social security number, pops it in there, and it pulls everything that’s ever touched your social security number. So any kind of counseling that you went to, you most likely filled out paperwork and your health insurance paid for it, right? So that it’s going to hit through their social. So

Travis (28:50.731)
Mm-hmm.

Travis (29:02.327)
Mmm.

Sarah Davis (29:10.102)
It’s unfortunate because, you know, for years, people were told they could lie on their recruit, their, you know, their recruitment applications. Nobody knew anything different. we’re still hearing that. just, just tell them to lie on it. like, you cannot lie. If they, if they, if you lie on it, they’re going to know, and then you’re not getting in. So what are, what we’re trying to do with the youth that we’ve met or trying to educate teachers in different.

Travis (29:25.547)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Davis (29:36.985)
people in the foster care system, like the different caseworkers and stuff, is to try to say, you know, make sure they don’t lie, number one, because they’re going to find out. And when we try to explain to them why and why that thing is there. But now the military gives what’s called a waiver for different things. So like if you go in and you, you know, broke your shoulder and you had to have surgery and you have pins and stuff, you have to get a waiver to say a doctor said it’s still okay for you to go in the military and it won’t hurt anything and you don’t have loss.

like long time effects from it. So the same thing will happen with mental health. So the further away it is from the time that they’re trying to enlist, the better it is for that youth. So if the youth was 17 and he was Baker acted or in trouble, you know, with DDJ or what, you know, one of those places, um, then he is going to have a harder time getting, he or she is going to have a hard time getting in.

because it’s too close to that date. So the further away from the date of their age, that makes sense. the closer to their age, the harder it is to get a waiver, the further time period. So we’re trying to just like inform people of that and letting them know, don’t take no for an answer. There are ways to do it. If your recruiter is not telling you these things or helping you find a new recruiter.

you know, and that’s what we’ve kind of pushed for some with some different youth that we’ve talked to. Um, you know, it’s just don’t take no for an answer. If that’s your, your dream and you want to go in the military and this is where you feel you need to be, then don’t take no for an answer. And so that’s kind of become our motto lately. It seems like a little bit, um, you know, and just push for yourself. And if you can’t push for yourself, find someone that’s going to help you. And, and so we we’ve kind of.

Travis (31:22.283)
Mm-hmm

Sarah Davis (31:32.259)
dealt with some stuff here locally in Sarasota where I’m getting a lot of calls from a group called Safe Children’s Coalition. And they’re looking for mentors and different things like this for these girls and boys that want to go into the military. So we’re trying to find veterans to match up to those individuals so they can go and help them with recruiters. so it’s kind of turned a little bit. Then just saying a thank you gift, we’ve definitely had some more advocacy.

in our program, which is great. You know, we love it and it makes you feel good. know, so, you know, we hopefully will, you know, get our name out there and get the word out there that we’re here to help these kids as much as we can.

Travis (32:06.295)
Mm-hmm.

Courtney (32:17.07)
Yeah. So yeah, the gift is, I just think even just this last weekend, one of my sons who’s in the military, he came home for Thanksgiving and we helped him with a plane ticket and things are expensive and just having family. So the gift, can definitely see how it would really bless young men and women who don’t have that gift of family, don’t have those conveniences that we…

Andrea Forringer (32:37.978)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Davis (32:42.958)
Exactly.

Courtney (32:43.744)
often have and we don’t realize how much we take those things for granted. So thanks for what you guys do and for setting that up. What are your guys’ hopes and dreams for the future with Jackson’s gift moving forward?

Sarah Davis (32:48.824)
Okay.

Andrea Forringer (32:57.384)
I could start on that one really. I mean, it’s just the way this is all unfolded. Is so Jackson, you know, like Sarah was saying, you know, started as a monetary thank you gift, but we’ve been connecting with people.

And being able to advocate and be a voice. And that’s what Jackson wanted to do. He wanted to advocate and be a voice for these. He knew, he knew what they were going through. He knew, he knew the struggle. lived the struggle and he, you know, he, he was adopted. So he didn’t, he, he was able to have that power to help others because he’s been through what they were going through. And, you know, so that’s the direction that it’s.

Travis (33:29.207)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (33:45.755)
just naturally started going in. So I think that’s really exciting. I really, that’s what I hope continues is just Jackson’s legacy. mean, just knowing that if there’s someone out there that has lived this path of, you were talking about, know, yeah, being in foster care definitely prepared Jackson to be a Marine because

Travis (34:11.735)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (34:12.989)
He said that he was like, you know, I didn’t realize all my life I was getting for I was preparing it was preparing me for these people yelling in my face and me hiding in a ditch He did all those things happen to him before he was at a Marine boot camp. So You know, so it’s just this being a voice so just that’s you know, the direction it’s taking already and just for it to continue and

Travis (34:18.421)
Yeah.

Travis (34:22.039)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Sarah Davis (34:25.91)
Thank

Travis (34:30.827)
Wow.

Sarah Davis (34:32.526)
Thank

Andrea Forringer (34:42.842)
just have Jackson’s mark on it. You know, that’s as his mom, my dream and it’s just that satisfaction of seeing it come to fruition like that. And you know, when we can get, I think when we can get that first young person, that first thank you gift, I think the gates are just going to open and work, cause they’re out there. There are so many people, there are so many young people aging out of the system. You can look at the stats from state to state to state.

They just need to find us and know about us and know that we’re here for them, not just with the monetary gift, but to have that special family connection and give them that hope that Jackson always wanted to give them. So that’s my perspective on it.

Sarah Davis (35:29.934)
And for me, I would say that we just grow, you know, just grow and find these kids and embrace them and give them the gift that we can give them. you know, we’ve we’ve been doing this now for two years.

are we’re officially a 501c3 just this year. We had originally been through the Elks, our local Elks lodges here in Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch Sarasota Elks Lodge. We started there and then we were like, well, we need to do, we need to get more official because, you know, we’ll get more donations. And we were really thinking the donations would be the hard part and it’s not a hard part, shockingly. So we actually have told people

Travis (35:49.441)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (36:07.323)
.

Travis (36:11.009)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Davis (36:15.17)
you know, as far as giving donations, like obviously we take them, but you know, that’s not our biggest concern right now. Our biggest concern is finding these kids and, making sure they understand that when they do enlist, you know, what, what they’re really in store for and what they’re really, you know, allowed to do and not allowed to do, you know, kind of help them in that way because nobody does that. And, and I’m not trying to bad mouth recruiters by any means, but recruiters have a job to do.

Andrea Forringer (36:16.811)
you you

Andrea Forringer (36:43.083)
And.

Sarah Davis (36:44.182)
And if they have 10 kids that come through and are wanting to enlist and that ninth or the, know, nine kids are easy peasy, no red tape. They’re going to push through those nine kids faster than they’re going to push through that one youth that has the red flags. And so you’ll find good recruiters. You’ll find wonderful caseworkers that will jump in and work together. we’ve had a couple of applications. Unfortunately, things have for.

Andrea Forringer (36:52.571)
Okay. Okay.

Travis (36:59.255)
Yeah.

Sarah Davis (37:12.546)
the applications that we’ve had, they have changed their mind or taken a different route to begin with. You know, like one of them decided to go to college first instead of going into the military. The other one is still back and forth and trying to get waivers and you know, different things in his life, trying to, you know, figure things out to get in. You know, it’s just incredible the amount of kids, but they don’t.

Andrea Forringer (37:22.715)
Okay.

Sarah Davis (37:38.807)
you know, they don’t have the advocacy and that’s what they need. They need a friend, a mentor that can help them, you know, go through it. I can’t imagine trying to be at 18 years old and having a Marine recruiter sit in front of me and tell me they’re going to give me the world. You know, and you believe everything, of course, and then you go and you’re like, wait a minute, but what about all these things? So that’s, you know, it’s tough and, you know, it’s just something that we’re hoping that we can.

Travis (37:41.761)
Mm-hmm.

Travis (37:53.953)
Mm, right.

Andrea Forringer (38:01.147)
you

Sarah Davis (38:07.852)
you know, get the word out there more and more, on both for the foster care kids and probably other kids that want to go in, you know, if they run across us, you know, and so we’re trying to get some veterans that are helping us, you know, that kind of aren’t, they’re like retired and they’re wanting to give advice and different stuff like that too. you know, I just hope we grow and I hope we find these kids and we can give a lot of money away and make somebody feel good.

Andrea Forringer (38:22.139)
Okay. you

Sarah Davis (38:37.974)
You know, that’s really all we want to do.

Courtney (38:40.334)
Mm-hmm.

Travis (38:42.689)
So how often do you… Yeah.

Andrea Forringer (38:42.9)
They need to know someone cares. You know, they need to know someone cares. And that Jackson said that, you know, all he ever wanted was someone to love them the way he could give love. just to, know, foster care is a big mess. I mean, it’s not a good thing that there is. If you’re in foster care, your life’s a big mess. So, you know, that follows you. And so.

Courtney (38:45.709)
Yeah.

Andrea Forringer (39:10.766)
You know, have a hard time trusting people. You know, you sometimes make impulsive decisions. So, you know, this, this definitely is, like I said, an addition to the monetary. Thank you. It is definitely a place we hope that young people can find that there’s, there is hope and there is somebody who cares. And Jackson, if Jackson was here in front of you right now, he’d help you. He was, he would care and he would help you. And so we want to do that.

Travis (39:37.089)
Mm-hmm.

Andrea Forringer (39:40.27)
to continue his dream.

Travis (39:43.799)
Yeah. Well, well said as a close to that and, uh, appreciate everything you guys have said and shared with the story I was going to add. So to that point of, we close this out, um, practically like you guys have the, the website and we’ll share this in the show notes would walk us through the best. So you hop on the website, which we’ll share. So go ahead, Sarah, if you want to describe the best way to sort of then connect on this.

Sarah Davis (40:08.824)
So there’s multiple ways you can donate. We’re on Facebook or just find us even, you know, Facebook, we’re on TikTok, we’re learning TikTok. I’m not the best at it, but I’m trying. Instagram, Twitter, I know. I’m like, it’s more social media than I’m used to for sure. I still work during the day, so when I get home at night, I’m like on my phone and trying to figure things out. It’s been fun, it’s been interesting, but.

Andrea Forringer (40:16.057)
I don’t do too tough.

Travis (40:28.727)
Alright.

Travis (40:32.842)
Duh-hah-hah.

Sarah Davis (40:37.4)
The website is probably the best for most of the information. We have our email is info at Jackson’s gift.org. Anybody can email us. You can also email us on Jackson’s gift at Yahoo. We have like everyone we can possibly find. We tried to nab, know, we’re dot com dot org dot net, all that stuff. So they should be able to find us just by putting Jackson’s gift in.

Travis (40:52.279)
Mm-hmm. That’s right.

Travis (41:04.247)
Okay.

Sarah Davis (41:05.528)
You know, I never personally got to meet Jackson. I feel like I know him from doing all this. I feel like, you know, the, the stories Andrea has told me has made me feel like, you know, I’ve like live next door to him. you know, he sounds like an amazing kid. And the one thing I’m going to say is that all of these kids are amazing kids because I’ve talked to multiple now and I have to say they’re

Andrea Forringer (41:09.148)
Mm hmm. Okay.

Okay. Okay.

Sarah Davis (41:34.051)
grown beyond their years because they’ve been forced to be. And they’re just selfless. We have one young kid that we were speaking with, the one that I said decided to go off to college. And at one point he said to me, why are you so nice to me? Like you’ve never met me, why are you so nice to me? I’m like, why shouldn’t I be nice to you? Like you deserve people to be nice to you. And so I’ve talked to him, we text every once in a while and he’s off to college right now.

having a hard time needing a mentor, very lonely. And we just try to reach out to them and say, how you doing? And just try to be there for them. And it’s important. we have the sign up on our page to join our different pages. And if you’re ever interested in being a mentor, especially locally here in Florida, I can get you to a lot of places. Andrea’s working on South Carolina. We’re working on New York, a couple different places.

Andrea Forringer (42:23.384)
Yeah.

Sarah Davis (42:31.886)
where we can get contacts. If we don’t have one, we will get one. We will definitely push to find whatever we can to help them. I don’t know if that answered more of your question, probably more than you needed.

Travis (42:37.783)
Mm-hmm.

Travis (42:43.223)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then you expounded on the mentoring part. That’s huge. That’s, that’s amazing too, to keep growing that part. So I was just going to add to, for those listening that are foster parents and, or just maybe you’re not a foster parent, but you listen to this podcast and you, you might know of another family who, know, this, this Jackson’s gift could be a great opportunity for, or would be eligible for share with families. And another thing I’m thinking is, is child welfare. have child welfare, uh, folks that listen in on this podcast and

Andrea Forringer (42:48.089)
Yeah.

Sarah Davis (42:48.866)
and

Travis (43:12.321)
To me, seems like they would be a huge resource for those listening to share this with them. And then through their channels can really, cause we want to help you guys grow this across the country. And hopefully just being on the podcast is another catalyst for that.

Sarah Davis (43:16.109)
Right.

Courtney (43:27.256)
Yeah.

Sarah Davis (43:28.238)
Yeah, we hope so. And the more we do this, the more information we can get out there. If it helps one child, that’s what we want, and just make it grow and get ourselves out there. like I said, we’ve had money coming in left and right, so we have money to give away. We just need the kids to give it to. And we have a process that we go through. They have to fill out the application.

Andrea Forringer (43:29.464)
So. you

Andrea Forringer (43:53.912)
Okay. Okay.

Sarah Davis (43:54.67)
They they it goes before our board our board reviews it and makes decisions and then they have to obviously graduate, you know and Get through different levels that well, so I wanted to make a point too that I think we forgot about was They don’t have to just now be great like aging out It could have been three years ago that they aged out and they’re in the military. They can still fill out an application. It doesn’t have to be Happening, you know, like guys were going it’s it’s one of those if you went

Travis (44:11.817)
Okay.

Sarah Davis (44:22.446)
three or four years ago and you can show that you are in foster care and then fill out an application and get it to us because we’re happy to help you in any way even if you’re well beyond military and you were aged out foster care. We’re not holding that against anybody that they’re not in it right now, if that makes sense.

Andrea Forringer (44:39.159)
Okay.

Courtney (44:41.218)
Yeah.

Travis (44:41.431)
That’s a great clarifier. I was just gonna ask about that, so it’s great.

Courtney (44:48.386)
Well, you do thank you for sharing, Andrea. Thank you for sharing what Jackson and again, we’re sorry about your loss and been so thankful that he had you that your family and and felt that sense of belonging. You know, it just helped him to get through boot camp to get through those those years and to know that he had you guys. So we hope that for all kids, right? We want all these kids in care to feel that have people to feel that there’s a community behind them.

Andrea Forringer (44:51.658)
Thank you.

Thank you. Yes.

Courtney (45:15.32)
You know, like you said, the things that they’re doing for our country, their sacrifice and their willingness should not go unnoticed. So thank you guys for stepping up, for doing what you’re doing and sharing this on our podcast.

Sarah Davis (45:28.098)
Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Travis (45:30.465)
Yeah.