The 12 year-old girl came in wearing her mother’s underwear pinned to fit her small frame. She was shy and downcast. The workers at Menomonie’s Wisconsin Foster Closet encouraged her to shop for new clothes. Anything she wanted she could have. “But I don’t have any money,” she said. You don’t need to buy anything here, they told her. Everything is free.

After some convincing, the girl started to shop. She told the volunteer workers that she had never gone shopping before. She had never been to Walmart or anywhere. Eventually, she began to look through the clothing and picked out some outfits, tried them on and looked at herself in the mirror. A smile appeared on her face.

This true story is one of many that Tammy Wood-Garr, director and founder of the Wisconsin Foster Closet in Menomonie, can tell of how the organization has put smiles on the faces and clothes on the backs of hundreds if not thousands of children who have walked through its welcoming doors. More than 600 children have been served since July of 2025.

Children who are placed in foster homes typically leave their home of origin with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Sometimes this exodus is in the middle of the night. It’s too late to take them shopping. But someone from the Foster Closet will meet with the family and the child or children, sometimes a group of siblings are removed from the home, at their time of need whatever the hour.

The children not only go away with smiles but a week’s worth of clothing including socks, underwear and shoes, and a new suitcase to put them in. “No child should have to put their belongings in a plastic garbage bag,” Wood-Garr said. They also receive a Welcome Bag backpack with a blanket, stuffy, age appropriate hygiene items, a journal (or coloring book) pencils or crayons. If it is their birthday or within a week of it or if their arrival at the foster home is within a week of Christmas, the foster parent gets to choose a birthday or Christmas present for the child.

Wood-Garr, who has fostered more than 100 children over the last 15 years in her home, had a dream of how to address the needs of children entering foster or kinship care and in 2013 saw her dream come to fruition. She opened The Wisconsin Foster Closet in her basement. Five years later, the organization became an offi cial non-profit, and in 2020 she moved her budding organization into its present home on Kothlow Avenue in Menomonie. The nonprofit serves foster and kinship families in 14 counties in Wisconsin but accepts any foster/kinship child in the state. A kinship family is a family who is related to the child placed in its care and eligible for the same benefits and programs as children in foster care.

From her own experience as a foster mom, she knew the needs of foster families and the children who suffer trauma in being removed from their home.

The Wisconsin Foster Closet is operated by a Leadership Team, aka volunteer staff. No one gets paid. All of the items available to the children are donated. Except for underwear and socks, donated items can be new or used.

Their mission is to “support families, restore dignity to children and inspire goodwill in our communities so that others may be encouraged to do the same.”

How can a community member help?

• Donate items (donation box outside the bldg)
• Be a financial donor or sponsor
• Be part of the School Supply Event
• Sponsor a child at Christmas
• Volunteer at the site – laundry, sorting through donations, cleaning, organizing
• Participate in the Annual Car & Bike Show Fundraiser on Sat, August 8 (see details on Facebook)

Wood-Garr is still dreaming.

When children in foster care turn 18, they have aged out of foster care and may be asked to leave the foster home. They no longer have support. “They are expected to secure housing, maintain employment, manage fi nances, and navigate adulthood – often without guidance or stability,” Wood-Garr said.

Her dream is for transitional housing for these young adults. The transitional model would include: 8-10 furnished efficiency or one-unit apartments; community room for education and supportive programming; shared kitchen for life skills instruction; laundry room; staff office space; small on-site resource closet; and 24/7 on-site staff support.

The Foster Closet is located at 3375 Kothlow Ave, Ste 40, Menomonie. Hours are Mon, Wed, Fri from 9am – 3pm. There is a box outside the building for donated items.

For more information: website: www.wifostercloset.org, Facebook page, email: [email protected], Phone: 715-330-3303.

Hannah Munro Flom has lived in Knapp for over three decades. Growing up in California she’s also lived in Michigan, Illinois, Washington, Cuba and Nigeria.