WINTER PARK, Fla. – Lauren Steinberg, owner of CycleBar of Winter Park, is this week's Getting Results Award winner.
Steinberg helped raise over $6,000 for the Foundation for Foster Children by opening her cycle studio to members and guests. It was a block party to celebrate the businesses one year anniversary and it was all for a good cause.
"It's pretty much a party on the bike," Steinberg said.
She called her business a premier indoor cycling studio, and on a recent night it was packed with riders, filling every seat in the spin class,clipping in and donating the registration fee to the nonprofit.
The party atmosphere included a raffle to add to the donations.
Foundation for Foster Children uses the funds to help kids in foster care participate in extracurricular activities.
"We provide personalized support," said the nonprofit's executive director Betsey Bell," We kind of fill in the gaps for the normal, typical childhood activities that kids usually can participate in but when you're in foster care there's just very limited funding."
Bell said foster parents receive $16 a day as a stipend.
Foundation for Foster Children helps pay for activities ranging from tutoring to sports. They also help with costs associated with aging out of foster care and into adulthood.
"There's a lot of needs that kids would normally, in a family, have the support as they go off to school or get their fist apartment but our kids often don't have that kind of support," Bell said.
Steinberg and her husband have fostered 14 children in the last three years and she said she's seen the benefits of Foundation for Foster Children first hand.
"When these children are removed from their home they're taken away from their family their siblings, their pets, as well as any activity that they participate in," Steinberg said. "So the transition to a foster home is tough on so many levels and the fact that they're able to continue these activities that make them who they are and help them dream about the future. I think it's incredibly important. It helps define who they are."
Steinberg said she wanted to hold the charity event so the foundation can continue to support extracurricular activities and add to the stipend for families that are already sacrificing so much. All of the money that is added will stay in Central Florida.
"These are our kids in our community who need all of us to come around them." Bell said. "Everybody can't foster but everybody can do something and so we really encourage everybody to find their something that they can do to help our communities foster children."
If you would like to learn more about the Foundation for Foster Children, you can donate and get involved at their website.