Published in The Lima News on July 14, 2021

By Trevor Hubert – thubert@limanews.com

LIMA — In Alex Butcher’s line of work, things rarely stop or slow down. There will always be kids and teenagers in need of adoption, but those who make it possible are often overlooked in those feel-good stories.

On Tuesday, Butcher was officially recognized as a recipient of the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids Recruiter of the Year Award for her work with Allen County Children Services. She becomes one of three recipients of the award for 2021 out of nearly 500 recruiters across the United States and Canada.

“I am really honored to have my work recognized,” she said. “I’m really fortunate to work with such an amazing foundation as well as agencies that support this recruitment and permanency for the kiddos in the foster care system that need it most.”

Butcher specializes in helping put kids from foster care into their forever homes. Oftentimes, they are medically fragile, have behavioral issues or are teenagers past the desired adoption age. These groups are in need of the most help in getting adopted, which is where Alex comes in.

“Child-focused recruitment method can help make children up to two times more likely to be adopted,” she said. “We look at not only adoptive families, but we also look at people that children already have relationships with, and we try to recruit permanent families that already have an existing relationship with that child.”

One of her most rewarding moments came when she was working with a teenage girl who was in residential care. She was able to track down one of the teen’s former teachers, who eventually became a licensed foster parent and ended up adopting the teen, thanks to the support of the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program.

“WWK was able to support him through the licensing process,” Butcher said. “She would have been one of the kiddos that would have aged out if it weren’t for us being able to identify (her teacher).”

Butcher’s impact is not only felt by families in Allen County but the other five counties that she serves in western Ohio.

“Honoring and recognizing Alex’s work is so important to our agency to see how hard and how passionate she’s been to ensure children have permanency and have families,” said Children Services executive director Sarah Newland. “A lot of times, these are thankless jobs, and we don’t do this work to get awards, but when we do get recognized, it’s just a great reflection of the hard work we do here.”