SIOUX FALLS, SD, October 15, 2026 — The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has granted $15,000 to The Foster Network, which provides clothing, essentials, support and hope for children and families navigating foster care.
Staff from Helmsley’s Sioux Falls office volunteered at The Foster Network’s office on Thursday, Oct. 15, helping staff sort donated clothing items and Halloween costumes ahead of an evening event.
“The Foster Network provides essential resources to help local foster families thrive, and Helmsley’s Sioux Falls staff is honored to support that mission,” said Walter Panzirer, a Helmsley Trustee. “The Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives through health and select place-based initiatives. Part of that commitment involves giving back to the communities we call home.”
The Foster Network regularly receives clothing donations and recently accepted a large gift of new costumes from a Los Angeles-area agency. The organization will display the costumes on Thursday night, inviting foster kids and their families to browse the selection to choose outfits for Halloween.
“Volunteers are so essential to the work that we do at The Foster Network. We are excited to have the Helmsley Charitable Trust team working with us to provide fun costumes to the foster children we serve,” said Stacy Stahl, Executive Director of The Foster Network. “Children deserve to participate in these fun experiences without additional financial burden to the families that have accepted the call to take them in and provide a safe and caring home. We are proud to provide essential services to families, and bring the fun too! We are so appreciative to the Helmsley team for volunteering with us, but also providing grant funding to help us sustain our operations to continue to serve this community well into the future.”
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About The Foster Network
The Foster Network (https://www.thefosternet.org/) exists to support families and children across every stage of the child and family journey—from prevention and stabilization to foster care, kinship placements, and reunification. Their mission is simple: to step in wherever there is a gap and ensure that every child and caregiver has access to the resources, support, and community they need to thrive. At the heart of their work is the foster closet, where families can access essential items like clothing, hygiene items, shoes, and seasonal gear. Whether it’s an emergency placement or ongoing needs as children grow, their aim is to remove the financial and logistical barriers that often come with caregiving. This is not a one-time service—rather they provide ongoing and continued support to the families they serve. The organization also provides access to support groups, events, scholarship opportunities, and bedroom furniture. Since the organization began in 2012, The Foster Network has supported local foster families in Sioux Falls, SD, and the surrounding area. What started as a small grassroots effort has since become a formal 501(c)3 with two full-time and one part-time staff member. The Foster Network relies 100 percent on donations and financial support. Sadly, the need for foster care placements has grown while the number of available foster families has declined. The Foster Network is an essential resource to those called to provide foster care and for the children they serve.
About the Helmsley Charitable Trust
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based programs. Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $4.9 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $900 million to organizations and programs in the states of Hawaiʻi, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and two U.S. Pacific territories, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.
