Press Release: Nia Vardalos Confirmed as 2009 National Adoption Day Spokesperson

The Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated My Big Fat Greek Wedding writer and actress is an advocate for U.S. foster care adoption. She recently took her cause to the public arena when she and her husband, Ian Gomez, adopted their daughter from foster care in 2008.

"My goal is to raise awareness about foster family agencies who can connect prospective parents with the 129,000 legally free children waiting for a family," Vardalos said. "I am pleased to spread the message that American foster care, while maintaining the highest level of screening, does not discriminate against applicants for reasons of income level, marital status or sexual orientation."

Vardalos is active with the adoption organization, AdoptUSKids, aimed at recruiting and connecting foster and adoptive families with waiting children throughout the United States (www.adoptuskids.org). She also has blogged about her own adoption journey as a guest columnist with The Huffington Post.

Vardalos will help kick off the 10-year anniversary of National Adoption Day (www.nationaladoptionday.org) at the national celebration event and press conference in Los Angeles on Friday, November 20, beginning celebrations across the country the following day.

"The National Adoption Day Coalition is honored to have Nia as our national spokesperson," said Rita Soronen, executive director of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a founding sponsor of National Adoption Day. "Nia has selflessly used her celebrity to generate awareness for foster care adoption, and her personal story of adoption is both heartwarming and encouraging."

This year on November 21, communities in all 50 states will hold courtroom celebrations to finalize more than 4,000 adoptions of children from foster care, bringing the total number of finalized adoptions as part of National Adoption Day activities to more than 25,000. Hundreds of judges, attorneys, adoptions agencies, adoption professionals and child advocates volunteer their time to finalize adoptions of children from foster care and celebrate all families who adopt.

Los Angeles, the city where National Adoption Day began in 2000, leads the country with innovative and successful programs to promote foster care adoptions, annually completing about 5,000 of these adoptions throughout the state.

Since 1987, the number of children in foster care has nearly doubled, and the average time a child waits for an adoptive family is more than three years. Through no fault of their own, these children enter foster care because of abuse, neglect and/or abandonment. Many move to different families more than three times while in the system and are separated from siblings. Each year, nearly 26,000 of these youth will end up leaving the system when they turn 18 with no family to support them in the future.

About the National Adoption Day Coalition

National Adoption Day is sponsored by a coalition dedicated to improving the lives of children, including The Alliance for Children's Rights, Casey Family Services, Children's Action Network, The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Freddie Mac Foundation. The National Adoption Day Coalition works tirelessly throughout the year with hundreds of communities and thousand of volunteers to dispel the myths about adopting from foster care and to raise awareness about the 129,000 children in need of adoptive families. For more information about the events taking place locally and foster care adoption, please visit www.nationaladoptionday.org.

Source: National Adoption Day Coalition