WESTFIELD, Ind. — Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard and his wife Kristin hosted a group of special guests at training camp Sunday.
The couple partnered with Cargo Services, Inc. for "Give Back Sunday." They served breakfast to 35 children in foster care and gave each of them a Books For Youth backpack full of age-appropriate books.
It's a cause that's personal to the Ballard family, who fostered and then adopted two of their own children.
"You take in a child — and we have such a need for foster parents right now — but you take them in, you expect you're going to give them a nice home, go to good schools, you think they're going to love you right back and that's not how it works," Ballard said. "You've gotta earn that. It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort. So understanding what they've been through and being able to give them an experience a couple times a year that just eases life for them a little bit is something that we cherish."
In June, the Ballards hosted a party for 33 graduating high school seniors, also all foster children.
"You have a skill set that most graduates don't have. There's a skillset inside of you of work ethic, work habits, the ability to persevere, the ability to survive," Chris Ballard told the graduates at the party.
In 16 years, Books For Youth has collected nearly 900,000 books and given backpacks to close to 9,000 foster children.
The children and their foster families at Sunday's breakfast also got a chance to meet Colts cheerleaders and the team's mascot, "Blue."