Marcus, the namesake of The Marcus Project charity organization, is not a real person. Founder Shannon Rosenberg dreamed as a teenager that she would adopt a boy and name him Marcus, but she found in adulthood that adopting wasn’t so easy.
She and her husband, Michael, adopted a child five years ago with a great deal of help from others. The adoption process is filled with barriers that many people never expect, Rosenberg says, and The Marcus Project aims to help prospective parents in any way it can.
“Our mission statement, on paper, is to help children and families in need by creating opportunities, sourcing necessities and building a feeling of significance,” Rosenberg says.
Rosenberg’s own dream came true when she and her husband adopted Lincoln. As much as she still appreciates the name “Marcus,” her children are named Lily and Luca, and she was advised by her social worker to continue the “L” naming convention for the newest member of their family.
“I also didn’t want to stand up a nonprofit that one of our children felt like was very much about them,” she says. “It’s about him, but not about him, Lincoln, as a person. It’s about the concept.”
The name “Marcus” now represents all of the children the organization supports with adoption resources.
“If there’s a barrier for a family, our job is to work to remove it,” Rosenberg says, “so that that family has the chance to adopt their Marcus, too.”
The Marcus Project connects families with resources and mentorship that can guide them through the process of adoption, which requires a great deal of diligence and patience. Rosenberg loves getting calls from families looking to adopt, seeing it as a great opportunity to connect future parents with children in need of homes.
The Marcus Project’s second pillar, sourcing necessities, manifests in a few different ways. For one, the organization teams up with South-Western City Schools and Columbus City Schools for coat fitting events.
“We’ll sort of get a sense of how many (and) what sizes,” Rosenberg says, “and then we go with a whole inventory of coats and the teachers shepherd kids through. They try on a coat, they maybe get to pick out a color, then we get to see them … wear their coats back to class.”
Attendance in Columbus City schools, in particular, is especially low in the winter months, and Rosenberg hopes that having a warm coat encourages kids to leave the house when they must wait outside for the bus.
The organization’s coat drives are hands-on events for many volunteers, some of whom come from local fire departments. That includes Michael, a Columbus firefighter who saw the community’s needs during his time stationed in Linden.
“My husband and one of our board members (are) both firefighters, so we’ve had a great connection point with them … and, of course, kids love to see firefighters,” Rosenberg says. “It is not a one-man show. It is very much driven by volunteers who just want to help us.”
Rosenberg emphasizes the positive impact on a child’s psyche when they’re helped into a coat that truly fits them, and how that component helps fulfill the organization’s third key goal of making children feel significant.
“A coat isn’t just a coat to keep you warm. … It’s a brand-new coat, it’s just yours, and we make sure it fits,” Rosenberg says, “and it’s all yours because you are significant enough to have it.”
Home Base
Though the family recently moved out of Grove City, Rosenberg had lived here since she was 3 years old. The Marcus Project was founded here, and officially remains here.
“We still have board members in Grove City, (and) it’s still the center of our operations,” Rosenberg says. “That’s where it’s home-grown. That’s where the need was felt.”
Grove City represents the full spectrum of needs for a central Ohio community, she says. Marcus Project volunteers keep an ear to the ground to let the organization know where there are needs.
The organization gave more than 700 coats to South-Western and Columbus City students last year, and was strategic about distributing to locations where needs were felt the most. Though South-Western schools have an equal distribution of resources, Rosenberg says, the distribution of needs is uneven.
Marcus’ Future
Marcus Project organizers are constantly gathering information and finding new locations that need resources, as well as constantly accepting new donations and volunteers. Donations directly fund the resources and events that the project coordinates, rather than side expenses such as postage and gas, to ensure donors know that their contributions are truly making a difference.
Rosenberg hopes to expand into in-school food pantries that can help children get through the day without feeling hungry.
“For me, it is very much children in need,” Rosenberg says. “If it is about helping children in need and not necessarily knowing how or where or when, then I think the Marcus Project helps
do that, because we are all so passionate about it. We are going to be excellent stewards with those dollars.”
Though her job as a data strategist at Nationwide Insurance keeps her busy, as do the family’s three children, Rosenberg remains committed to providing for children in need throughout central Ohio.
“If you don’t know where to give or how to give it, or you feel compelled to start something like this for your own passion, do it,” Rosenberg says. “I’m some schmoe who works in insurance and data and has nothing to do with the nonprofit sector, or the public sector, but it can be done … so we can ultimately help the community.”
Tyler Kirkendall is an editor for CtyScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at tkirkendall@cityscenemediagroup.com.
