Heart Gallery of America Inc.(R) Launches Nationwide Effort to Raise Awareness of Children Awaiting Adoption

Child placed through Heart Gallery featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show(TM)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 3 /PRNewswire/ — Today is a special day for adoption advocates nationwide, as Heart Gallery(TM) founder, Diane Granito, announces the once state-based organization’s national presence is being taken to a new level.

“We have been fortunate to work with many dedicated child advocates in nearly every state in the nation to place foster children in loving homes through the Heart Gallery programs around the country,” said Diane Granito. “With the establishment of a national 501(c)3 organization, Heart Gallery of America can raise even more awareness about the nearly 120,000 foster children available for adoption.”

In 2001, as a foster and adoptive parent recruiter in her home state of New Mexico, Granito implemented an idea to work with talented photographers to create inspiring portraits of older children and sibling groups who were waiting for adoption. Currently, nearly 125 Heart Galleries have opened in 48 states, and it has been instrumental in helping thousands of deserving foster children find loving families.

On March 3, The Oprah Winfrey Show featured the story of Dani. Known to many as “the girl in the window,” Dani’s is a touching and unbelievable story about a feral child who was placed in a loving home through the Tampa Bay Heart Gallery.

As a nationwide adoption program that encompasses almost all states and child welfare systems in U.S., the Heart Gallery of America offers a unique opportunity for citizens to have access to adoption information about children across the country. Through the volunteer efforts of some of the country’s most talented photographers, portraits are taken that help capture the individuality and spirit of each foster child who is eligible to be adopted. These photographs are then shared via Heart Gallery websites and through gallery exhibits in the hope that potential families will be moved to inquire about adoption.

“We know the Heart Gallery concept works and has resulted in transforming the lives of thousands of children by linking them with their new family. Our goal is to expand from the 120 Heart Galleries to over 300 across the United States in the next 3 years. It works, it really does,” says Matthew Straeb, President of the Heart Gallery of America.

For more information about Dani, please visit www.danisstory.org.

About Heart Gallery of America(R)

The Heart Gallery of America provides public awareness of the need for adoptive families, and more importantly helps find permanent families for individual children. Volunteer professional photographers take portraits of children waiting for adoption for family recruitment purposes. Their photographs allow the children to advocate for themselves; the result – many children have been adopted.

SOURCE Heart Gallery of America