By Preston Patterson
“I recall two of my mother’s brothers and one of my cousins living with us as young adults...this was formative for me as it literally brought home the idea of helping others get started somewhere new even if it involved housing and feeding them.” Sally chuckled as she reminisced on her upbringing, brushing her fine, auburn hair, and brandishing a smile ranging from ear to ear.
Sally Masters described this event as her first sense of calling to what would become the focal point of her later career. A native of Jefferson, Georgia, Sally graduated from Georgia Southern with both a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1982, as well as a Master of Business Administration in 1986. During her working years, Sally spent time as an RN, physician practice manager, and medical device salesperson for Johnson & Johnson. Sally and her family moved to Blue Ridge permanently in 2017.
Since moving to Blue Ridge, Sally has become a CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care. She became a founding member of an organization called
Fannin Foster Families in April 2022, serving on they executive board since that time. The
Masters family also supports the University of North Georgia Blue Ridge campus by providing “Lunch in a Crunch,” which gives UNG students and faculty meals and snacks at no cost to them.
As a CASA, Sally has participated in three adoptions. “These have been happy days for all involved as children who have been in foster care – some as long as five years – are now part of a safe and loving forever home. To know that you have been a part of that is very gratifying.”
Sally describes her organization, Fannin Foster Families, as a non-profit created by three Fannin County CASAs who came together because of concern about the number of children being housed outside of the county. Some of these children were brought from as far away as Macon and Brunswick, three and six hours away, respectively. These CASAs also knew there were services desperately needed by foster families and children which were not met by the Georgia Division of Family & Children Services (DFCS).
For Sally, the organization’s mission is twofold: “To recruit, support and retain foster families in Fannin County so that our community’s children who are taken into care can remain in their communities, as well as to financially support those families with uncovered services that may arise.”
For example, Fannin Foster Families would like to make it possible for seniors in high school to have class rings, senior portraits, graduations, college visits, and senior prom costs covered at no cost to the foster family or the child. “Our goal is to bridge that for them financially so that foster children are able to have the same access to medical, educational, social, athletic and recreational opportunities as a child who is not in foster care.”
To achieve these goals, Sally also speaks with a desperate tone of the need for foster families in Fannin County. “It is very traumatic for children to be removed from their birth families. Imagine being taken from your parents... now imagine being taken away from your parents and being moved one-to-four hours away and living with people you do not know. Imagine changing schools, churches, baseball teams, dance groups... imagine being pulled away from friends and neighbors.”
This is the exact situation that over 58% of foster children in Fannin County are experiencing at this very moment. As of March 14, 2023, Fannin County has 50 children in foster care. Only 21 of these children are housed in Fannin County. “We need to find more foster parents locally so that our children can remain in our community and are not further traumatized by being removed from and in many cases cut off from everything that they are familiar with.”
Sally and fellow members of Fannin Foster Families also agree that there is a general lack of communication between the agencies and foster families. “I have had foster families threatened with having children they have cared for and love deeply moved because of a disagreement with DFCS.”
Foster parents sometimes must wait months to get medical appointments with specialists, then have to drive or arrange transportation or children to get to these appointments. Sally sighs, “I had a foster mother who had scheduled a doctors appointments thinking the foster child would be at a visitation only to have to cancel own appointment because a transporter couldn’t come.”
Despite so many difficulties, Sally takes extensive pride and gratitude in her work. “We have identified a need in our community and have secured the proper paperwork to receive our
Letter of Determination from the IRS to be a 501 (c)3 — no small task given that none of us have a background of starting a non-profit... and we did it for a very nominal fee. We have a Facebook page (‘Fannin Foster Families’—we need more in our community to ‘like’ the page) -- but it is up and running and we can receive donations via this page. Our goal is to have no admin fees so that all of our donations will go directly to our families with needs.”
Sally noted that she is grateful to live in a community that responds quickly to donate specific needs like diapers, wipes, and specific clothing needed for babies and children.
“Our non-profit has only existed since late 2022, but in December 2022, we were able to help a 67-year-old great aunt who had received her great nephew as a foster placement in August 2022. She had not received a stipend for that child since he was placed with her. Her adult son died of suicide during the fall — which created tremendous additional stress and a financial burden to her. We were able to donate clothing, diapers, wipes, gift cards, and were even able to pay her (subsidized) rent for three months to give her a bit of cushion. This woman was thankful for our help.”
Fannin Foster Families has also been able to help with Christmas expenses by giving gift cards. More recently, the organization supplied three cases of diapers, wipes, a baby gate and play pen to two different families.
Sally stresses that the main need for the organization, as well as Fannin County as a whole, is more families willing to open their home to fostering. “There is good in the world when someone is willing to raise a child other than their own, and I see the love in their actions and the despair when they believe a child they love may be removed to return home. It is a risky proposition, being a foster parent, and they willingly take on the chance of loving a child who may not remain with them, as well as work within a system that is beyond difficult and unresponsive.” Fostering children may be an incredibly challenging task, but the impact made on those children outweighs every cost.
Sally continues to strive to make a difference in the Fannin community, but she needs fellow members to join her cause. She said an immediate need for Fannin Foster Families is a secure space to house and organize all their donated goods so that foster parents can come as needed to secure supplies. “We have the word out that we are looking for this free space. I am sure it exists, but we don’t have it yet.”
Sally and fellow board members are also looking to work with existing non-profits in the area. For example, the organization would like to work with Fannin Family Connection to coordinate specific things. She described their coat and glove drive that was organized late last year, saying that it would be nice to merge efforts to help each other out.
Another ask for Sally and fellow members is for help securing an approved visitation center in Fannin County so that children do not have to travel, making it easier for their biological parents to visit them, or for assistance in getting a website up and running. The Digital marketing class at UNG has helped, but Sally notes the need is great for a dedicated person.
Check out the Facebook page for Fannin Foster Families. If you would like to mail in a check to donate, the organization’s mailing address is P.O. Box 141, Blue Ridge, GA, 30513.
Sally Masters can be reached at sallyannstewnyahoo.com or (404) 663-9887.
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of personality profiles written by students in Jodi Williams’ English 1101 class at the University of North Georgia Blue Ridge campus. Each story is a first hand account of a local person who has made an impact on the author. As you read these stories, you will hear of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.)