8 Simone Biles’ Time In Foster Care Ended When Her Grandparents Adopted Her
Five-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles was 6 when she and her sister were adopted by her grandfather and his wife after spending three years in and out of foster care. The gymnast’s mother, Shanon Biles, struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and she was declared unfit to care for the children. Biles’ experience caused her to support Mattress Firm Foster Kids, which supports foster families.
“I was so young, I didn’t quite understand what was going on,” Biles told People magazine of her experience in the system. “But I recall some of the kids coming to the foster home with only the clothes on their back and a backpack.”
7 Darryl “DMC” McDaniels Was 35 When He Found Out He Was a Foster Child
Darryl “DMC” McDaniels’ spent the first five years of his life in foster care, which he found out while writing his autobiography at 35.
“I was hurt, confused … it felt totally unreal,” he told the New York Daily News of learning about his beginnings. “At the time it meant that [my adoptive parents] are not my mom and pop.”
The revelation spurred him to start two organizations to support foster kids, which he detailed in a 2013 Children’s Rights blog. The Felix Organization/Adoptees For Children gives enriching experiences to children growing up without parents and Camp Felix is a summer camp for foster children. DMC has also partnered with Children’s Rights, an organization that defends the rights of foster children in court.
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