Summer Miracles Program Featured in The Observer

By Tom Allegra

Her humanitarian efforts have spanned generations.

It began with her participation in Big Brothers Big Sisters while she attended college in the late 1980s, when she mentored a child in need of guidance and support.

It continued with her five-year stint as director of the Gift of Life program, during which the number of children brought to Suffolk County from outside the U.S. to receive life-saving corrective heart surgery every year increased from 20 to 60—not to mention hosting their families from Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, and even Africa.

It culminated with her adoption of a six-week-old child from Guatemala, who is now a recent college graduate (see related story, below).

And this month, Northport attorney and psychic medium Winter Brook Ryan continues her altruistic efforts as the host of a 13-year-old child from Columbia as part of the non-profit KidSave’s “Summer Miracles” program.

The goal of the non-profit’s five-week summer program is to find adoptive families for Colombian orphans and foster children ages 12 to 15 who will soon be ineligible for social and family assistance programs in the impoverished South American country. According to Ms. Ryan, only 24 percent of Colombian children in this age bracket not sponsored by a program like KidSave will ever be adopted.

“Being the mother of two girls, that pulled on my heartstrings,” the 1985 Northport High School graduate said during an interview with The Observer at her Northport Village office on Monday, July 8. “But once the children participate in this program, their chances of being matched to finding a forever family increases to close to 80 percent.”

The exact figure is 76 percent, according to KidSave In-Country Director Carolina Moreno, who joined the interview by phone as an advocate and interpreter for the soft-spoken and somewhat shy Nicolle (an assumed name used to protect her identity as required by KidSave and the Colombian government).

“The most important thing is finding the right family and the right match for the child,” said Ms. Moreno, noting there currently are 9,000 Colombian children waiting to be selected for the Summer Miracles program. “Sometimes we bring kids who have been waiting for this opportunity for a very long time.”

So far, Ms. Ryan’s family appears to be the right match for Nicolle… and Nicolle the right match for the Ryans. They’ve enjoyed visiting the Northport Library together to take out the romance novels Nicolle enjoys as well as easy reading material to help her learn English. They’ve spent time on the couch watching the teen-centered Disney show “Soy Luna,” which features English subtitles so that Ms. Ryan and her 22-year-old daughter, Dakota, can improve their Spanish. They’ve learned the difference between American and Colombian cuisine—and how it’s still the traditional Latin American cooking style Nicolle prefers. They’ve attended a Long Island Ducks game, where Nicolle witnessed fireworks for the first time in her life. They’ve acclimated Nicolle to having pets inside the home (a dog and seven cats), because animals typically are kept outdoors in Central and South American countries. And this week they visited Mystic, Connecticut via the Orient Point ferry.

“We’re making a difference for all the children who are able to participate and hopefully find a forever family,” Ms. Ryan said of the Summer Miracles program, which brought a total of 29 Colombian children to the U.S. this July. “And the goodwill is going to spread so that when they return home, they can say they were treated kindly by individuals in our country.”

The ultimate goal, though, is to keep these visiting children inside the U.S., because once the program ends on August 1 and the children return home, contact between the children and their host families is forbidden.

“But in my case,” Ms. Ryan said, “I am open to converting my hosting to a formal arrangement.”

Whereas Ms. Ryan first would need to be approved by KidSave, social workers, and an adoption agency, amongst other requirements, Nicolle already is hoping she can stay here.

When asked about her dreams and aspirations, she said “to find a family in the U.S.”

Perhaps she already has found the one.

“I’m having a wonderful experience,” Ms. Ryan said. “I would encourage people, whether they are looking to expand their family individually or they are looking to just help a child in need and can host for a month… they’ll make a difference in that child’s life and enable KidSave to continue their program and even grow it.”

For more information about KidSave and/or hosting a child as part of the Summer Miracles program, visit www.kidsave.org.

Allegra, T. (2024, July 18). Mi casa, su casa. ​https://www.kidsave.org/Observer-stories-Tom-Allegra-2024.pdf