(Credit: Whitpain Township)
A West Ambler nonprofit founder is helping disadvantaged children by giving back to her own community
The Whitpain Township Board of Supervisors took time out of its July meeting to hear from an important organization in the community, the Fruitful Children Foundation (FCF).
“Our Mission Moments are an important part of what we do here,” said Chair Scott Badami while opening the floor to the organization’s leadership. Brooke Williams, president of FCF, started the nonprofit in 2004.
“This will be going into our 20th year,” said Williams, who described the nonprofit as being in West Ambler. “Over the years, I’ve nurtured over 200 kids that have came through my program. This year I have 40 kids that came through my program.”
Williams said that her organization attempts to utilize her dance education degree and background to provide children with a fun, healthy activity.
“We bridge the gap for children who are unfortunate, are having trouble finding the things they need in life,” she said. “When I started this program, I was in college. I would come home, and I would do dance seminars in the summertime.”
From these humble beginnings, Williams said, she opted after college to return to her hometown
“I had opportunities to keep going other places,” she said. “But I felt like my community needed it here because they didn’t have that opportunity growing up.”
She said from her own lack of accessible programs in her childhood, she formed a strong desire to work with children from her own community.
“No longer was it a summertime opportunity,” said Williams of her post-graduation work. “This is an all-year opportunity.”
Williams said that she started to run specialized workshops where she saw the need.
“They needed uplifting,” she said of the children in her area. “They needed people to come in and teach them how to be different entrepreneurs, other than what they see on their everyday life.”
The nonprofit pioneer said that, while West Ambler is only made up of about a three-block area, she feels strongly there is a need there for helping hands.
“That is a community that is forgotten, at times,” Williams said. “That is a community that needs people to uplift them from time to time.”
She said sometimes, even where the community is located confused her students and adults.
“A lot of my kids know we live in Ambler, but they don’t know they live in Whitpain,” she said. She explains the students often attend Shady Grove Elementary School, which is a part of the Wissahickon School District.
Shady Grove serves around 670 total students in grades kindergarten through fifth. It is one of six elementary schools in the district. She said her students often get confused about those living in Blue Bell versus those living in Whitpain or Ambler.
“You live in the same district as them,” she explains to the students. “You have the same opportunities as them. We have access to the same park.”
She said she wants students in West Ambler to know they have equal access and opportunity as all students in the Wissahickon School District and are able to do the same things as Blue Bell-based students.
Williams brought her board members along, to introduce them to the Whitpain supervisors.
“I thought I’d get at least eight to ten kids,” she said of her first attempts at summer sessions. “That first summer, I had 28 kids. I didn’t know it was going to be that massive.” Williams said her program helps those of school ages, 5 to 17, and that the program has grown each year becoming more and more popular.
She says that, while the workshops are educational and fun, it is the bigger picture lesson she hopes the students take home.
“We live in West Ambler,” said Williams. “We are Whitpain. I want you all to take care of your community. Take care of your neighborhood.
Programs run from September to June, while students also attend school. She said the future classes have requested planting trees and flowers in the community, to not only beautify the area but to make a lasting mark.
“They want something that says I was with a group of children in 2024, and I planted this flower,” Williams said of her students’ requests for fall. “This flower is going to forever grow.”
She said she is always seeking options to grow.
“It is so much sunshine for the girls to see how they can grow,” said Williams. “I just want to see their eyes bright.”
Williams said that, though she has had chances at other career options, her heart is always going to be a part of West Ambler.
“I want to do this because nobody did it for me,” she said. “My mother couldn’t afford that.”
While her former collogues are dancing on Broadway and in Los Angeles, she is excited to give back to the kids in her neighborhood. She is glad she can do things for those growing up just how she did. Williams even presented a student from her first year of dance, who is now 28 years old.
“She’s my first class,” she said of Kiana, a former student of FCF. “She went to school. She graduated college, and she’s now a fourth-grade math teacher, and she came back my program, to teach my kids. We’re putting it back into the community.”
Charlene Tate, another former FCF student who attended around age 10, said she loves seeing the returning faces.
“We have five dance instructors,” said Tate. “All of them went through the program as teenagers or they were 5 years old.”
She said with some of this year’s past sessions, which included 42 students, they had a wide variety of presentations, including having a Wissahickon principal come talk to the students about “advocating for ourselves,” while another spoke on “the power of reading.” Tate said that the students want to learn everything from what is an IEP to how to find professional careers to how to style their hair.
Tate said the students this year have told her, coming to FCF makes them feel heard, powerful, excited.
“I feel like I can do anything,” she relayed from her students. “None of our children have not graduated from high school. None of our children have gotten pregnant. All of our kids have gone to college or trade school.”
Tate called the program a “blessing.” Another mother spoke, stating she had such pride in the students coming back and giving back.
To learn more about the West Ambler nonprofit, visit https://fruitfulchildrenfoundation.org/. To make a donation to FCF, visit the GoFundMe page here.
The FCF is also sponsoring a “White Party” on Sunday, Aug. 4 from 2 to 6 p.m. at 300 Maple Tree. The event is designed to “bring the community together.”
Whitpain Supervisor and Vice-Chair Kimberly Koch said that she was very happy to hear of Williams’ efforts.
“It is more than important to Whitpain Township that we celebrate the people like you, who are truly enriching the lives of our residents, of our children, of making things better,” said Koch.
She said as the township approaches budget season, she is hopeful they will find a place for FCF.
“I am inspired by hearing your talk and your presentation,” said Badami. “You are a part of Whitpain Township, and it will happen."
