Rob Scheer, founder of the nonprofit, spoke of empathy and dignity.
 
With the Middle School’s Day of Service approaching in October, the newest members of the Middle School, the 5th graders, were treated to a discussion with Comfort Cases Founder and CEO Rob Scheer.
 
The genesis of the nonprofit Comfort Cases, one of Sidwell Friends’ partners, comes from Scheer’s own experience in foster care, where children were shuttled between houses with nothing but a garbage bag to carry any personal effects. When Scheer then adopted his own children out of foster care decades later, they too arrived with garbage bags. He was mad—mad enough to do something about it. “It’s a matter of dignity,” Scheer said. “Children enter foster care because of choices other people made. They have done nothing wrong.”
 
Comfort Cases launched with the simple idea to return dignity to every child in foster care. Each Comfort Case includes a blanket, a stuffed animal, a journal or coloring book, a book to read, toiletries, pajamas, and two pairs of Bomba socks. The initiative has been a massive success with more than a quarter million backpacks delivered across all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. “Your community is not your zip code,” said Scheer. “It is the human race.”
 
Scheer encouraged the Sidwell Friends students to practice empathy, to sit with the new kid, and to call out bad behavior when they see it. “Be the leader that you know you are,” he said. “Kids helping kids is how our world is going to get better.”