The Forgotten Ones is a non-profit organization that helps the aged out foster children, who they lovingly call the Forgotten Ones; get a second chance at a life they deserve. The Forgotten Ones Project was started by 4 sisters and their beloved bother, who believe that every child deserves to have a loving and nurturing life full of love and laughter. Some of the Forgotten Ones never get this cha
nce in life, but with your help and support it can become a reality. These 4 sisters are now in this without their beloved brother, for he passed away in November 30, 12012. They look for historical older homes, buildings, or campuses that can be utilized to help these awesome kids, by turning them into a place that the Forgotten Ones can call home. This in turn gives both the Forgotten Ones and these amazing pieces of history a second chance they all, so desperately need and deserve. Right now they have focused their efforts on Wyckoff Castle aka, Carleton Island Villa located on the Thousand Islands of New York, In the Town of Cape Vincent, NY. We chose this home because it represents the brokenness that is inside most of these children’s hearts. Just as a many of these children’s normal lives were disrupted at an early age, so was this home’s. She was built for the wife of the Re*****on Arms, Co. William Ozmun Wyckoff, which he lovingly named for his beloved wife, Wyckoff Castle. Wyckoff was also known for the invention the Re*****on Typewriter. This castle later became known as the Carleton Island Villa. This home has been an icon of the community of the Thousand Islands of New York since she was finished July 10th, 1895. Wyckoff wanted this home to be forever filled with love and laughter, but this was cut short with the death of his wife Frances V. Ives Wyckoff, just a few months before the home was finished. Then when Mr. Wyckoff was found dead the morning of July 11th, 1895 their dreams of growing old in their castle watching their grand children grow, was now never going to happen. It would be left up to their sons to fill the home with the love and laughter their parents wanted it to be filled with. This too was short lived. Now she stands there waiting just as these children do with what dignity, honor, integrity, and grace she has left waiting for the day she is saved once again by he faithful knights. Just as she deserves a second chance at life, so do the nearly 30,000 children that age out of our nations Foster Care System each year. WyckoffCastle aka Carleton Island Villa needs a lot of TLC just as the Forgotten Ones do. We have been told that under new ownership there are organizations that will donate time and funding to restore this amazing piece of history. Once she is completely restored she will partly become a bed & breakfast with a small restaurant on the lower level. The other part of the 60+ room home will be utilized to house nearly 100 of the Forgotten Ones a year. By helping restore these amazing pieces of history we are also able to restore the Forgotten Ones. With our help they will be able to learn many different trades to obtain the jobs they will need to succeed past our program. Among some of these trades are Electrical, Architectural Engineering, Landscaping, Maintenance, Culinary Arts, Hospitality, and how to run a successful business on their own. Also they will learn the basic life skills they need to succeed in the real world. There are nearly 30,000 of the Forgotten Ones that are released every year out into the real world with no where to call home. The Forgotten Ones are released at the tender age of 18 years old to fend for themselves in the real world. They are not even taught the basic life skills they need to survive in the real world. Things like how to cook for their selves, balance a checkbook, where to get health insurance, etc. What the Forgotten Ones get for their birthday as a gift from the state’s foster care system, is a plastic bag or box to place their belongings in. They are then taken from the only place they call home and taken to a homeless shelter and left there. Some of the Forgotten Ones don’t even get that courtesy. These children have the potential be some of this nation’s finest minded people that just need a fighting chance to succeed in becoming the great people they were trying so hard to become before they lost everything. Half of the 30,000 Forgotten Ones, that age out of the state’s foster care system don’t even get to finish high school and get their diploma. Out of the 30,000 of those children 1 in 4 are left to commit crimes to try and survive, causing them to be placed in jail or prison with in 2 years of their release from states custody. Within a one year 1 in 5 of the girls that are released not only end up pregnant, but many of them end up having to sell their bodies to survive or end up on drugs. This all happens because no one has the heart to reach out and truly protect, nurture, and mold the Forgotten Ones into the great people they can be. During our time working with the Forgotten Ones we have yet to hear a positive story of their time in state’s care. These children have been sexually, physically, mentally, and emotionally abused by not only their parents or care givers, but their foster families they were placed with. When this abuse happened and they reported it they would just get moved to one foster home after another. Some of the Forgotten Ones have been moved more than 20 times during their time in State’s Foster Care System.
