Amy Roloff’s 5th Annual Starry Night Gala Raises Funds for Needy Families

Celebrity involvement on local, national and international issues has the power to change lives in a way that would otherwise be extremely difficult or even impossible. Amy Roloff, star of the reality show “Little People, Big World,” is one such celebrity. In 2009, Amy created the Amy Roloff Charity Foundation (ARCF) based in Portland, Oregon to help non-profit organizations raise funds for children and youth who face social, emotional, mental and physical challenges. Working as a facilitator between donors and charities, ARCF works with local, national and international charities that need help raising funds to serve the children and youth in their communities.

In the last 4 years, ARCF has provided support to over 10,000 families in need.

Resources are available for disabled children served by a regional program through the Swindells Resource center- Providence Child Center. ARCF support also includes serving an additional 320 local children participating in an afterschool soccer program for the underserved through Soccer for Success, and Bridge Meadows, an intergenerational neighborhood that brings a higher quality of life for adoptive families with former foster youth and elders. All generations working together, Bridge Meadows creates a successful experience for these kids finally being adopted and out of the foster care system. Smaller organizations such as the ISSA Trust Foundation provide medical equipment and supplies for the kids of the Caribbean who are in severe need.

What makes ARCF unique is its ability to put the funds raised directly back into the community of need?

Donations made to ARCF are not filtered through the bureaucracy before directly benefiting large and small organizations and the communities they serve. These funds are for the children, the families and the communities. Since its creation in 2009, ARCF has partnered with 20 charities and 85 sponsors to raise over $750K in new giving and in kind donations.

The need for a companion organization like ARCF has never been more apparent than in the months following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Roloff and her team arrived in the town of Labadee, navigated the quake-wrecked roads to Port-au-Prince, and established a presence at a local orphanage where they distributed hygiene products, toys and other aid. The mission was also to bring awareness to these children in need, filming was done and the effort televised on an episode of “Little People, Big World”.

In 2011 and 2012, ARCF continued the relief effort in Port-au-Prince Haiti in partnership with Generosity Water by funding 3 clean water wells at the same local orphanage and other close in the areas. Over 1500 children now have daily access to safe clean drinking water.

We are excited to share that we are focusing on a new program for 2014!

Partnering with Portland State University’s Dr. Lisa Aasheim, for creating credible curriculum, the program will include Anti Bullying and Character building, both very important factors needing attention from a local and national level. Having Dwarfism, Amy has had many traumatic life experiences that compel her to create and share this program with our impressionable youth. The vision of this program is to empower and give kids options to deal with crisis situations rather than resorting to suicide and violence.

When you give to ARCF, your donation goes directly to the charities and communities in need to impact kids’ lives. Amy Roloff has chosen to lend her celebrity name, and good works foundation, to the empowerment of children by helping non-profit organizations raise the funds they need to serve these communities.

It takes a team to change a child’s life. Join the Amy Roloff Charity Foundation in its mission to make a “Little difference in a BIG WORLD”.