HONESDALE, PA — On May 9, the Wayne County Commissioners proclaimed May as Wayne County Foster Care Month.

According to the proclamation, Wayne County Children and Youth Services (C&Y) is currently providing safe, secure and stable homes for 29 children. Of those, 17 are in agency-approved, local foster-care homes and 10 are with relatives in “kinship homes,” according to resource family supervisor Kimberly Marcyoniak.

She said the numbers show “we are able to service the majority of children who need out-of-home care” within the agency. The primary goal is to return children to healthy homes; if not with their birth families, then through adoption. The agency did seven adoptions in the past year, Marcyoniak said.

Renee Joyal, a new caseworker at C&Y, said she has “learned and become aware” during her first four months. “It’s rewarding… It makes you feel good at the end of the day,” she said.

The proclamation also recognizes the “foster, kinship and adoptive families, who open their homes and hearts and support children whose families are in crisis, play a vital role in helping children and families heal and reconnect, thereby launching young people into successful adulthood….”

As they do annually, the commissioners expressed admiration and appreciation for the work the agency staff does. “Your service is second to none in placing and overseeing our children,” said commissioner Brian Smith as he spoke to the difficulties of their work. “I don’t know how you walk away on the weekend to your own families.”

In his former law practice, commissioner Wendell Kay worked with the agency for 27 years, “as a guardian, sometimes as your solicitor, sometimes as attorney for a child. There were hundreds of difficult decisions to make, bringing someone to a new family and their accepting them. We did it, and you do it, the right way. You should all be proud of that heritage,” he said.

For more information about Wayne County Family Services, call 570/253-5102.

In other business, the commissioners finalized the $124,731 Department of Community Economic Development, Local Share Monroe County grant funding construction of the Newfoundland Food Pantry.

They noted the “Focus on Lyme and other Tick-Borne Diseases” program scheduled at The Cooperage in Honesdale for Friday, May 17 at 7 p.m.  The commissioners are co-sponsoring this program.