SAN ANTONIO — It is as easy as looking at photos of kiddos to see if your heart might be open for adoption.
"We have about thirty youth in the Heart Gallery," said THRU Project Heart Gallery Director Emily Marcotte. "We've had more than ten from the gallery in the last seven months who have already found permanent placement which is really really great," she added.
The Heart Gallery has historically been a traveling photo gallery that features foster youth looking for adoptive homes.
This week the San Antonio nonprofit, THRU Project, launched their wing of the gallery featuring children from Region 8A (Bexar County) and Region 8B (27 surrounding counties). The grand opening event was held at San Antonio's Botanical Garden and featured Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott along with other local dignitaries.
"It is just such a momentous occasion to be able to celebrate together with our community," said Marcotte. "Bringing the Heart Gallery to life and bringing collaboration to life through this important initiative,' she continued. 'I'm really excited and I know lots of people are. We are ready to keep moving the work forward."
THRU Project CEO Courtney Laverty made countless trips to Austin meeting with Heart Gallery officials to make sure the endeavor was right for THRU.
"It was clear that it very much did," she said. "Now to be able to celebrate this milestone with our community in bringing the gallery back to our community after ten long years is really wonderful."
Laverty told us the goal is to have multiple galleries between Region 8A and 8B.
"The more eyes that we have on these pictures the more families that may open their hearts and homes to the possibility of adoption," she said. "We can finally unite them with loving families."
You can see all the 'Heart Gallery' pictures at thruproject.org.