Harvest House is preparing to host the biggest back-to-school party for the island's 700 foster children, but Executive Director Bethany Taylor said 700 backpacks and water bottles are needed to help ensure the they are ready for the new school year.

Taylor said the number of children has grown exponentially, doubling since 2020, with "one in every 70 children on Guam now in foster care."

"When I started fostering 17 years ago, we only had 80 kids in the foster system ... and every year it rises and ... unfortunately more children are coming into the foster system and now we are at 700 ... it is an all-time high," Taylor said.

She tied the increase to Guam's methamphetamine epidemic and the need to place children in positive, "stable" environments.

"Sadly the drug epidemic on Guam really destroys our families. It's just sad to see any family really break apart. We want our children to be with their families but I think the biggest thing we have seen is our children are becoming neglected with the rise of drug influence in the home," she said.

Harvest House serves as an emergency foster placement system on the front lines of receiving children who must be removed from a home.

"Our children come in and they are dirty, they have lice and they're really malnourished, they're hungry and you can just see they lived a really hard life in a home that was broken," Taylor said.

"Can you imagine being a foster child and having everything ripped from you? Even if it's a horrible living condition, you still love your mom and dad, there's a beautiful tie there and your siblings — and when you go into foster care everything is taken from you," Taylor added.

At times, siblings are placed in separate foster homes, and Taylor said "really nothing goes with that child." Knowing this, Harvest House creates opportunities for foster children to reunite with their siblings.

"It's like their birthday party, it's like, 'you did this for me miss' and then 'I see my sibling' and as they all play, they have a great party together, a great day of fun," she said noting it's a four-hour event.

The end-of-July back-to-school party is one of those treasured events to which every foster child is invited whether from the shelter, in foster placement, or with relatives.

"The wonderful thing about this event is yes, they get a backpack and they get to feel special ... but it has a lot more to do with the character of the child and who they are as a person, letting them know the whole island really cares about you ... how you're ready for the new school year," Taylor said.

The event is aimed at letting foster children know "you are loved."

"When you're a foster child and everything has been taken from you, you feel pretty special and every time you give a foster child a good memory it covers like a band-aid over that trauma," Taylor said, adding that foster children have better outcomes with more positive memories.

At the party, each foster child will receive a backpack and water bottle of their choice, but Taylor said donations are needed to make that happen.

"We need the community to help us. We want to make it special for all 700 kids, so we want to make sure we have enough backpacks for them," she said. "We're asking businesses, nonprofits, churches, schools ... family units."

Donations needed include 100 diaper bags for infants and toddlers, 200 backpacks for preschool and elementary students, 200 for middle schoolers and 200 for high school students in foster care. Donations can be dropped off at Harvest House Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. The deadline to donate is July 22.

Harvest House is also in need of a contractor or handyman to assess and repair its playground, which was damaged during Super Typhoon Bavi.

"We propped it up but it's missing pieces. We actually just had a foster family ask could all the siblings go play on it during the event so they could have a little one-on-one time together. But we're like, sorry, it's broken right now. So if anybody wants to come from the construction side or some handywork and put it together and make sure it's stable again for our kids to play ... we'd love to get that fixed," Taylor said.