Assistance League of Temecula Valley accepts its first truckload donation from Every Child’s dream Foundation. from left, Denie Lanier, Dorcas Shaktman, Sue Sampson, Joan Price, Wendy Bradshaw and Tasha-Nicole Terani. Paul Bandong photo
Tasha-Nicole Terani’s life began as a newborn baby in a box in an alley in the third-world country of Tehran. She didn’t even have a blanket, abandoned and left to die by her birth mother. Today she heads a worldwide organization, Every Child’s Dream Foundation headquartered in Los Angeles, dedicated to helping children. Her journey is an inspirational one and that journey recently led her to Temecula.
On Friday, April 22, Terani was in Temecula, making the first of many planned donations to the Assistance League of Temecula Valley. The two organizations have formed an informal partnership, ECD will provide product donations for children’s programs and ministries and [Assistance League] will distribute them locally through its many programs.
On her first trip to the Temecula offices of the Assistance League, Terani brought over $10,000 worth of donated products, motivational writing journals as well as designer pencils, pens and pencil sharpeners. Terani heard of the Assistance League’s need for school supplies to fill 200 backpacks for locally underserved children and decided to help. She filled a truck with over 16,000 products and brought them personally to Temecula.
Every Child’s Dream Foundation started by delivering teddy bears and handmade blankets to orphans worldwide. They will be providing these in the future to the Assistance League for local needs. Paul Bandong photo
The donations were accepted by Sue Sampson, Assistance League President; Dorcas Shaktman, former Assistance League President; Denise Lanier, incoming Vice President of Philanthropic; Wendy Bradshaw, Operation Foster Youth; and Joan Price, public relations chairman of the Headstart Program.
“We have provided assistance to over 24,000 kids throughout southwest Riverside County’s economic development region,” said Lanier, “this is a great opportunity to help with distribution.”
On Monday, May 9, those donations were used by Assistance League volunteers to fill 200 backpacks.
Counselors working with foster youth, homeless and at-risk students in the Temecula Valley Unified School District received 280 inspirational journals. The rest will go to foster family agencies and group homes. Over 2,600 students will receive two pencils each, 768 children will receive pencils, sharpeners and pens. Extras will go to the Community Mission of Hope and the St Vincent de Paul Society.
“Every Child’s Dream Foundation, a passion that comes from a very deep place,” said Terani.
Terani’s life story as an abandoned baby, adopted and abused child, supermodel, and now role model moved the Assistance League volunteers.
“I got lucky,” said Terani, “a local sheriff rescued me and brought me to an orphanage where I stayed for two and a half years. I shared a rusty metal crib with four other abandoned babies. We ate porridge and were hosed down for cleaning. After two and a half years there, I was adopted and brought to the United States, but it didn’t work out. I was abused. I went from one purgatory to another and finally left home at age 13.”
Terani became an international supermodel for over 20 years. In the U.S., she has been featured in Sports Illustrated as well as Time magazine. But it was not the fulfilling lifestyle generally perceived.
“Not only did I find no reward in modeling for myself, I also found it provided little benefit for others as well. I knew there had to be more to life,” she said.
Just months after leaving her successful modeling career, Terani, also a gifted athlete, broke several world records and is currently a five-time Guinness World Record Holder in “Soccer Ball Control.” She was featured on NBC’s Today Show and soon thereafter was selected to be the United Nations Special Envoy for International Youth Soccer, a position she has held for 10 years.
Terani is also the creator of the No. 1 best-selling soccer training DVD on Amazon, the “TNT Soccer Training System” for children, parents and coaches. She has also created the “TNT Touch” Soccer Ball and soon to be released Athlete Flash cards. She has trained and mentored tens of thousands of children, including an impressive list of celebrity clients that include race car drivers and pro football players, worldwide for the past 10 years.
But even with all that success and fame, Terani still longed for a missing part of her life, her family. She felt ashamed to be an orphan, denying it and lying about it for years. She quickly realized that all abandoned and orphaned babies, once grown, will have a similar journey and need.
Terani’s journey toward healing led her to start Every Child’s Dream Foundation to provide emotional, financial and physical support for the 300 million orphaned and abandoned children in the world. The organization also provides support to families, babies and children for disaster relief, emergency and traumatic situations. She started with teddy bears and blankets handmade by senior groups.
Terani hopes that her foundation and her life story will help and inspire and liberate others, especially the millions of orphaned and abandoned and adopted. She is dedicated to helping others accept who they are and where they came from and to believe they can achieve great things in their lives.
Terani’s ECD Foundation does no selling. Terani writes grant letters to companies for product, not for money. Among her biggest donors are Gymboree as well as K.I.D.S/Fashion Delivers.
The organization Kids In Distress Situations was founded in 1985. Fashion Delivers was created by adult apparel and fashion designers in 2005. The two merged in 2014 to better serve families in need, fighting “poverty and tragedies through the gift of new products, including apparel, accessories, shoes, home furnishings, toys, books, school supplies and other items.” Terani has partnered with these organizations to distribute the products worldwide.
“Donations go directly from me to a cause,” said Terani.
As of 2016, ECD has provided care packages to orphaned and abandoned babies and children through schools, hospitals, clinics, and other organizations to every state in the nation and in 92 countries around the world.
“I have dedicated myself to a life of giving,” said Terani, “and I am looking for other like-minded and fiscally responsible organizations to help me help children. With the work they have been doing in local communities, the Assistance League of Temecula Valley will be a great distribution partner.”
The Assistance League of Temecula Valley, one of 120 chapters in the United States, is an all-volunteer organization and has been serving local communities for over 26 years. Assistance League of Temecula Valley was chartered in 1992 and is a nonprofit, nonsectarian, nonpolitical organization dedicated to serving the needs of families in southwest Riverside County. Last year chapter members volunteered over 31,000 hours of community service on behalf of local families in need. Their eight major philanthropic programs are completely self-funded through grants, fundraising events, community and business donations, and sales from their thrift shop.
Their programs provide teddy bears for hospitalized, injured or traumatized children; goods and services for emergency situations; evening gowns for underprivileged students for formal events; duffle bags of essentials for foster youth and emancipated youths in transition; scholarships for students and teacher enrichment programs; new clothing for qualified K-12 students; financial literacy classes for targeted youths; and partnerships with other nonprofits to provide needed community services.
Just last week, Terani made her second donation trip to Temecula — $22,000 of Babies and Children’s clothing – for the Assistance League Foster Care program. The donation is sponsored by Every Child’s Dream Foundation and K.I.D.S. Foundation in New York.
“We look forward to an ongoing and growing relationship with Every Child’s Dream Foundation,” said Shaktman, “together we can impact the lives of many children!”
