Basketball Team to Help Recruit Adoptive Families at Home Games McLEAN, Va., June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Freddie Mac Foundation is teaming up with the Washington Mystics to help more of our region's 6,000 foster children find adoptive homes. The Foundation and Mystics are starting a partnership to help recruit adoptive families for more of our region's foster children as well as raise awareness of their plight. "The Freddie Mac Foundation is on a quest to find more adoptive homes for foster children. It's a travesty that so many children don't have a family to call their own. As part of our work on this issue, we are teaming up with the Washington Mystics to heighten awareness and move more children into homes," said Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., chairman, Freddie Mac Foundation. "Every child deserves a home and the care of a loving family," said Ms. Sheila Johnson, President & Managing Partner of the WNBA's Washington Mystics. "We hope through our work with the Freddie Mac Foundation we will find homes for the 6,000 foster kids in Washington seeking adoptive parents." Every home game this season will be "Freddie Mac Foundation's Wednesday's Child Game," when foster children and their families will be invited to the game and fans will have a chance to learn more about the plight of foster kids and find out what they can do to make a difference in a foster child's life. Wednesday's Child Mystics games expand on the Foundation-sponsored television program "Wednesday's Child," which for 15 years has profiled children in need of adoption with the aim of finding them adoptive families. The program airs weekly in Washington, D.C., as well as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta, and has successfully helped to find more than 1,000 children permanent homes. In the D.C. region the program is a partnership between the Foundation, NBC4 and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. It airs on NBC4 during the news on Wednesdays at 5 p.m., Thursdays at 10 a.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m., and is hosted by news anchor Barbara Harrison. Children who have been featured on the "Wednesday's Child" program, as well as other children in need of adoption, will be guests at home games and have a chance to meet the players, serve as "ball kids," and interact with the team's mascot. In this way, the partnership will offer foster children a day of fun while reminding our community about the children's need for a permanent, loving home. In addition, fans will have a number of opportunities through in-arena messaging and radio promotions to learn about the issue of foster care and how they can get involved. In addition, the Mystics will host a recruitment fair at the July 28th game so that fans can learn more about becoming a foster and adoptive parent. Also during the season, the Mystics will hold a match party for prospective adoptive parents and foster children with the team. This partnership builds on numerous other Foundation efforts to improve the lives of foster children in the nation's capital and across the country, including partnerships with the Washington Nationals and Washington Capitals. Through grants to nonprofits that support foster children and their families, as well as sponsorship of public awareness and service efforts such as National Adoption Day, the Adoption Expo and the Heart Gallery, the Foundation has invested millions of dollars to improve the lives of children in the foster care system. Created by Freddie Mac in 1991, the Freddie Mac Foundation is dedicated to creating hope and opportunity for children and their families. As the largest corporate funder in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, Freddie Mac and the Freddie Mac Foundation have invested $312 million in organizations serving the community. DATASOURCE: Freddie Mac Foundation CONTACT: Shawn Flaherty of Freddie Mac, +1-703-903-4384 Web site: http://www.freddiemac.com/

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