"If you have nobody, you have yourself." Lillian Colon

When Lillian Colon shared that phrase above with Rob Scheer when he interviewed her recently, there was a pause in the conversation as those words hit home. Reflect on them for a moment.

On today’s episode of Fostering Change, Rob interviews Lillian Colon, who spent more than a decade in a strict New York City orphanage because her father “thought it would be best” to separate from the mother she adored. With restrictions all around her, she strove to be someone better than anyone ever believed she could. Lilly never knew the care and loving attention of a stable family, but she didn’t let obstacles and family tragedies stand in the way of her dreams.

As a child, after the nuns who ran the orphanage took her to Radio City Music Hall to see the famed “Rockettes, “Lilly was driven to become a dancer. A graduate of New York’s prestigious High School of Performing Arts (if you’ve ever seen the movie Fame,” you’ll understand), Lillian became the first Latina Rockette.

Lillian achieved so much more in her career, having performed with some of the great names in Hollywood and on Broadway, including the legendary Chita Rivera. Most recently, she was the oldest dancer in the Hollywood adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights!”

We celebrate this achievement on the last day of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Lillian shares all this in her memoir Lilly: The First Latina Rockette. This is a truly lovely conversation with a wonderful, good human. We know you will enjoy her growing-up stories and her performance success.

To find out more about what Lillian is up to, please visit her website: https://www.lilliancolon.com/

You can purchase her book here: https://www.lilliancolon.com/product/lilly-book/

Thank you for listening! Of course, if you have any questions or comments about today’s episode or a suggestion for a guest for Fostering Change, please reach out to us at info@comfortcases.org.

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It’s October! Comfort Cases held our annual fundraiser event this past weekend, a “Farm-to-Table Feast.” It was a memorable event, with inspirational speakers, including our keynote speaker, Cowboy Jax, our emcee, the fabulous Jen Lilley, and our founder and host of Fostering Change, Rob Scheer. There’s still time to donate or contribute your most valuable asset - your TIME - to Comfort Cases. Please visit www.comfortcases.org to find out more!

We recorded our show today several weeks ago but intentionally posted it today, as we are featuring not one, not two, but THREE Good Humans: Rob’s special co-host Jill Ross, who is also the President of Comfort Cases’ Board of Directors, and Parker Lopez and Ashley Baker, who were both recent recipients of academic scholarships presented by Comfort Cases at previous fundraiser events.

Parker and Ashley share how these scholarships have profoundly impacted them and how they could advance their academic pursuits.

Beyond academics, they also are giving back to the community:

Parker is involved with “First Star” Academies (https://eoss.asu.edu/access/first-star-academy) a long-term college-prep program for high school students in foster care, while Ashley works with “It’s On Us” (www.itsonus.org) a non-profit campaign in the United States aimed at raising awareness about sexual assault and promoting a culture of consent.

Jill also shares more about Comfort Cases’ Pathway Program, which is designed to provide additional resources to our scholarship recipients. You can learn more about Pathways by visiting https://scheerfocus.com/pathways-program/

We hope you feel inspired and hopeful after listening to these fantastic young people. It is people like them who will make all of our futures brighter.

If you have any questions or comments about our interview with Jill, Parker, and Ashley or have a guest suggestion, please feel free to email us at info@comfortcases.org.

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Welcome back to Season 6 of Fostering Change!

We hope you enjoyed our first episode of the season with Andrew Bridge. This is a reminder that if you order his book before its publication date, a portion of the sale will go to CASA chapters nationwide. Please visit AndrewBridgeAuthor.com and select the CASA chapter of your choice.

In today’s episode, we have two exceptional guests - one is making her second appearance on our show. Donna Biase co-founded BEST FOOT FORWARD Foundation, a Florida-based organization whose mission is to empower foster care and at-risk youth to become self-sufficient adults and positive contributing members of society through academic achievement.

Having survived the deadly and horrific earthquake that ravaged his home country of Haiti, Elie Merisier was in the foster care system in High School when Best Foot Forward reached out to him to provide assistance with his academic studies. We’ll let you listen to the show for more details, but you should know that despite attending five different high schools, Elie graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in accounting. Today, he is a licensed real estate agent.

We hope you enjoy today’s episode of Fostering Change as much as we think you will. Of course, if you have any questions or comments about our interview with Elie and Donna or have a guest suggestion, please email us at info@comfortcases.org.

More about Donna and Elie:

To learn more about Elie, please follow him on social media:

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092082848694

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/elie_merisier/

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/eliemerisier/

To learn more about Best Foot Forward:

Facebook

facebook.com/bestfootkids

Instagram

instagram.com/bestfootkids

Twitter/X

twitter.com/bestfootkids

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