Most teen girls love shopping for stylish clothes and trendy accessories. But that is often an unaffordable dream for young girls who live in foster care. Many were taken away from their families because of abuse, abandonment or neglect. In this report by Faiza Elmasry (read by Faith Lapidus), we learn of a teenager in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who reached out to foster care girls in her community and offered them not just a shopping spree, but hope.
十几岁的女孩儿大都喜欢买时髦的衣服和饰品。但是，对那些生活在寄养家庭的女孩来说，流行衣物通常是一个不可能实现的梦想。她们中许多人因为受到家庭暴力、被父母遗弃、或因被父母疏忽而被社会工作者从家里领走。
Lindsay Giambattista was only 14 when she learned about girls in foster care and had a chance to help them.
琳赛.吉亚姆巴蒂斯塔听说了生活在寄养家庭女孩的事情后，觉得正好有机会帮助她们。那年她只有14岁。
"I needed community service hours for high school," she recalls.
她说：“我需要完成高中要求的社区服务钟点数。”
To fulfill the school's volunteer service requirement for graduation, Giambattista collected and donated used clothes to foster care children. But she thought she could do more, so she contacted Pastor Doug Sauder, president of 4Kids of South Florida, an organization that supports and helps foster children.
为了完成高中毕业所需要的志愿者服务定额，琳赛为寄养家庭女孩儿收集并捐出一些旧衣服。不过，她觉得自己可以做的更多。于是，她跟道格.绍德牧师取得联系。绍德牧师是南佛罗里达“为了孩子”组织的总裁，这个组织为寄养家庭的孩子提供支持和各种帮助。
"I thought that was quite unusual for a 14 year-old girl to schedule an appointment with me," he says. "But she walked in, sat down in my office. She said, 'I really love to shop. I love clothes. I've also heard of girls in foster care and met a few of them. I know that a lot of them have to wear second hand clothing. I want to bring a little joy, a little hope into their lives by giving them a brand new outfit, a really nice one.'"
他说：“我觉得一个14岁女孩约时间跟我见面，这很不寻常。她来了，在我的办公室坐下。她说：‘我真的很喜欢购物。我喜欢各种各样的衣服。我听说过生活在寄养家庭的女孩儿的事，还跟几个人见了面。我知道她们中很多人不得不穿别人的旧衣服。我想让她们每人有一套崭新的衣服，还要特别好看，给她们带去一点喜悦和一点希望。’”
With Pastor Sauder's help, Giambattista began taking steps toward creating a store just for foster girls in his organization's building.
在绍德牧师的帮助下，琳赛开始着手准备在“为了孩子”组织的办公楼里专门为寄养家庭的女孩开办一个商店。
"Lindsay made a presentation to the corporate board in RCC, a company that builds shopping malls," he says. "RCC decided to donate $50,000 just to build a nice, wood floor, beautiful store. We donated the space."
绍德牧师说：“琳赛在RCC公司董事会陈述她的计划，RCC是一家专门建造商城(shopping mall)的公司。RCC 决定捐款5万美元，正好可以开一家不错的商店。场地是我们捐的。”
Giambattista called the store Taylor's Closet, after her twin sister who died at birth.
琳赛给这个服装店起名叫“泰勒衣橱”。 泰勒是她孪生姐妹的名字，可是她在出生时夭折了。
"Then, we had this beautiful store, but we had no clothes in it," she says. "So I started contacting family and friend. We first got personal donations from people. Then, I started contacting fashion designers, retailers and wholesalers. We started getting designer clothing, brand names with tags on it. We just started getting tons of clothes."
她说：“我们有了这家美丽的小店，但是里面没有一件服装。于是，我开始跟亲朋好友联系。我们先得到的是个人捐赠。接着，我又跟时装设计师、零售商和批发商联系。我们开始收到时装，品牌服装、我们开始收到好多、好多的服装。”
Since Taylor's Closet opened its doors in December 2006, more than 350 girls in the foster-care system have come in to browse through its racks of clothes. Each girl can get up to six garments a month, for free.
泰勒衣橱2006年12月开张以来，接待了350多名领养系统的女孩儿，她们从衣架上选衣服。每个人每月最多可以免费得到6件衣服。
The store is open two days a week, Tuesdays after school, and Saturdays. Giambattista, now 17, runs it with the help of friends like Meghan Burke. She says Taylor's Closet is more than just a humanitarian effort.
服装店每星期营业两天，每星期二放学后和每个星期六。琳赛今年17岁了，她得到梅根.博克等朋友的帮助。博克说，“泰勒衣橱”不仅仅是一项人道主义努力。
"Yes, we're called to clothe the naked," she says. "but I really didn't see the vision behind it until I actually was a part of seeing the girls and how they regain a sense of confidence in themselves and feel beautiful, feel good about who they are."
她说：“我们为缺衣少穿的女孩捐衣服，但是直到我切实看到这些女孩儿，看到她们对自己重新有了信心，才意识到做这件事的意义。”
Their clients, Burke says, also find Taylor's Closet a safe place, where they can come in, talk and feel loved and supported.
博克说，“泰勒衣橱”的顾客也认为，这个服装店很安全，她们在店里可以聊天，有被爱和得到帮助的感觉。
"You get to know them after a while," she says. "They begin to open up a little more and just share a lot of their stories. These girls are dealing with depression, anger, loneliness, the feeling of rejection and abandonment. You can hear it in their voices and their hearts, they struggle with these things."
她说：“你很快就跟她们熟了。她们开始愿意向你敞开心扉，讲她们的故事。这些女孩儿的问题包括抑郁、愤怒、孤独、感觉被排斥和被抛弃。从她们发自内心的述说中你可以感受到，她们正努力摆脱这些困扰。”
Doug Sauder of 4Kids of South Florida is delighted with the success of Taylor's Closet. He calls it an example of what teenagers can do to help other teens. More importantly, he adds, it shows that young people can help solve problems in their communities.
道格.绍德领导的南佛罗里达“为了孩子”这个组织为“泰勒衣橱”的成功感到欣慰。他认为，“泰勒衣橱”为青少年帮助同龄人做出了榜样。绍德还说，更重要的是，这表明年轻人可以帮助解决所在社区的问题。
"A lot of times, when there is a problem in society, we only offer opportunities for adults to get involved," he says. "A lot of us leave kids out and say 'they are the future, the future community leaders.' Lindsay says, 'No, I'm a leader right now. I'm just a young leader.' She found a way to make a difference even at 14."
他说：“很多情况下，当社会有了问题，我们总是让成年人帮忙解决，而不考虑让孩子参加。我们说：‘他们是我们的未来，他们是未来社区的领袖。’而琳赛说：‘不对，我现在就是领袖。我是青年领袖。’她在只有14岁的时候就找到了发挥自己能力的途径。”
Lindsay Giambattista's dream doesn't stop here. She hopes Taylor's Closet will move into a bigger space where they can also have a warehouse and a café. She'd also like to see similar stores open, eventually, across the country and all over the world.
琳赛的梦想并没有就此停止。她希望把“泰勒衣橱”搬到更大一点的地方，这样就可以有库房和一个小咖啡馆。她还想看到在全国各地和世界其它地方也出现类似的商店。 |