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U.S. Department of Education Heart Gallery Kick Off

Thank you, Assistant Secretary Monroe for the kind introduction.

I'm delighted to be at the U.S. Department of Education to help raise public awareness about the plight of foster children in our area who are in need of permanent, loving families. And I think it's wonderful that you had a panel discussion and shared information on adoption right before this ceremony. I personally can tell you of the joys of adoption [Boyd relates his personal experience adopting two children from foster care].

Standing here, near our nation's capitol, it's hard to believe that more than half a million kids in this country are growing up in foster care. We have 6,000 children in foster care locally – with nearly 600 of them in immediate need of a place to stay. Pictures of these children could fill this entire building.

That's why what we are doing here today – launching the Freddie Mac Foundation Heart Gallery – is so important. It's one of the best ways we know how to bring public attention to this national problem. And to help make sure these kids can find the home and family they so desperately want and need.

This Gallery is truly a labor of love – as dozens of local photographers donated their time and talents to create these portraits. I think you would agree that they managed to capture the soul, the spirit and the light that exists within these children – a light that is too often dimmed by insecurity and waiting.

And if these children do not get adopted, they will age out of care without a family to support them: which translates into no mother or father to call … no place to go to on the holiday … no shoulder to lean on during difficult times.

I don't think any of us here today have all the answers, but the Freddie Mac Foundation Heart Gallery is helping to make a real difference in the lives of hundreds of local foster children waiting for adoption. Since the Gallery was launched, nearly two-dozen of these children are in the process of being adopted, or have already found permanent homes.

Overall, this gallery serves to remind us that all of these children are more than just numbers – they're beautiful kids, with hobbies and talents and dreams of their own.

And it's my hope – all of our hopes – that members of the Department of Education family will step up and consider opening their hearts and homes too to these very special children. And if not through adoption, then by becoming a foster parent.

Now, why is Freddie Mac – a major player in the secondary residential mortgage market – involved with children, especially foster kids? Just as our business goal is to increase homeownership, the Freddie Mac Foundation's goal is to make sure that these homes are happy, healthy places. And that foster children have a place too in these homes.

It's why we sponsor Wednesday's Child (a national televised campaign to find adoptive homes) … National Adoption Day … and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, assisted nearly 4,000 foster children displaced by the storm.

This Heart Gallery will soon move on to another D.C. location. But I hope that its impact will stay far longer at the Department of Education, and all who come to visit.

Thank you again, Assistant Secretary Monroe and everyone here this afternoon for helping us make home possible for our region's foster children.

Let's now cut that ribbon and open the exhibit!