{"id":782,"date":"2019-07-30T09:50:24","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T13:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/?p=782"},"modified":"2019-07-30T09:50:24","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T13:50:24","slug":"vermonters-of-the-month-elizabeth-and-alex-grimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/vermonters-of-the-month-elizabeth-and-alex-grimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermonters of the Month: Elizabeth and Alex Grimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a monthly series in which the Attorney General will feature a Vermonter doing exemplary work in their community. Have someone you think should be featured? Email <\/em>AGO.CAP@vermont.gov<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"TJ
Attorney General T.J. Donovan with Elizabeth and Alex Grimes and their children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alex and Elizabeth Grimes, our July Vermonters of the Month, describe the past six years as a \u201cwhirlwind of emotion.\u201d May 5, 2013 is the day that forever changed their lives when their nearly 5-month-old son Tatum passed away from SIDS. While grieving his loss, Elizabeth found herself the Vermont Department for Children and Families\u2019 website and rediscovered her purpose in life. The Grimes family decided to honor Tatum by becoming foster parents and creating their nonprofit Tatum\u2019s Totes<\/a> in his memory.  Now, the Grimes\u2019 have seven beautiful children and support others in foster care by proving totes with essential and comfort items like blankets, stuffed animals, diapers, toothbrushes, and books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elizabeth says, \u201cLosing Tatum\nis a pain we feel every day, but every day we try to honor him.\u201d Tatum\u2019s Totes\nis dedicated to helping children in foster care one tote at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We visited Alex, Elizabeth and their children at their home in Rutland to hear more about their journey as foster parents and learn more about the impact of Tatum\u2019s Totes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell us a little about yourselves, your son Tatum, and your journey to becoming foster parents. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both\nAlex and I are from Rutland Town, Vermont. Our oldest child, Emma, was four\nyears old when we found out we were expecting our second. On December 7, 2012,\nwe were surprised to welcome a little boy into our family, Tatum James Grimes.\nHe was 8 lbs. 2 oz., 19.5 inches long, and was perfect. Tatum looked grumpy all\nof the time, but when he smiled it was the sweetest little smile. He rarely\ncried. He liked to just sit and watch what everyone was doing. We were so proud\nof him and how well he was adjusting. Sleep was even easy with him. He slept\nperfectly in his own crib. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nfamily was doing well, Emma was enjoying being a new big sister and Alex was\npromoted at work and landed a new day job which allowed for more time with our\nfamily. Everything changed on May 4, 2013. We had family over to help build a\nnew deck and we were outside working while Tatum was napping. A few minutes\nafter checking on Tatum, the crew started up the saw. Knowing this would wake\nTatum, I went back in the house to get him. I saw Tatum\u2019s hand through the\nrailing and I knew something was wrong. Tatum wasn\u2019t breathing. We believe\neveryone did everything they could that day to save Tatum, and while his heart\nstarted again, it wasn\u2019t enough. Tatum was taken off of life support on May 5,\n2013 at 11:00 AM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days\npassed. Weeks passed. I cried. I screamed. I felt like my heart was physically\nbroken. During all of this, I stumbled on the Vermont Department for Children\nand Families (DCF) website and I knew what I needed to do. I needed to become a\nfoster parent. I needed to help children, and love them, and protect them. I\ncalled the Rutland District DCF Office and set up a meeting. I am so thankful\nfor a supportive husband who agreed to do this with me. In his own grief he\nalways knew how to be there for me through mine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight weeks after losing Tatum, I met with DCF and felt I may have a path in life again. It was a path as a grieving mother, but at least I had some sort of direction. Two weeks later, our journey as foster parents began when I picked up two children from the DCF Office and brought them home with me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why\ndid you start Tatum\u2019s Totes? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nidea of Tatum\u2019s Totes came from my first experience as a foster parent. When I\nwent to the DCF Office to meet the two children Alex and I would be caring for,\nwe were greeted by a police officer and a case worker with two small children\nwho had no shoes and tear-streaked faces. Between the two children, ages three\nand one, they had a toy fire truck and a plastic bag with some diapers thrown\nin. That\u2019s all they came with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex and I started Tatum\u2019s Totes four years ago to provide children entering foster care in Vermont with essential and comfort items. The children we serve are given a backpack filled with new items, including blankets, stuffed animals, toothbrushes, pajamas, toys, books, school and art supplies, etc. We try to tailor the bags to different age groups. For babies, we provide diaper bags filled with baby items. For teens, we fill the bags with age-appropriate items and gift cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Has Tatum\u2019s Totes evolved over the years? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our hope is to be able to cover the whole state of Vermont one day, but we are successfully covering eight DCF Districts right now. We have a lot of support from the community, including some wonderful ladies covering different areas of the state, and Green Mountain United Way which covers three Districts in the northern part of Vermont. I myself cover Rutland and Middlebury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been the impact of Tatum\u2019s Totes in the community, and what does that impact mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tatum\u2019s Totes is expanding each year. We run a huge Christmas program where people can buy for a child in foster care. We covered over 500 foster children this past year for Christmas. It grows every year. We have helped pay for summer camps, and have gotten cribs, strollers, and car seats for new foster parents. We have helped struggling parents with new school clothes and so much more. I am proud to be Tatum\u2019s Mommy and proud to honor him. This has helped my and Alex\u2019s broken hearts so much. Giving back to the community is truly our pleasure and I hope we can continue to grow bigger and bigger. Everyone\u2019s support, donations, fundraising events, and positive thoughts are so appreciated. The community has made this possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What advice do you have for other Vermonters looking to make an impact in their community?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have learned over the years that there are so many easy ways to make a difference in this world. Little things really amount to big things. Finding a passion and advocating for it, spreading the word and teaching people about it, including more people and asking for help can make any little idea a success. Whether it\u2019s foster care, rescuing animals, supporting our veterans and so many other things, if everyone just did a little it would make this world a better place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Alex
Alex Grimes with two of his children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Elizabeth
Elizabeth Grimes holding one of her children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"TJ
Attorney General T.J. Donovan getting a tour of Tatum’s Totes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"TJ
Attorney General T.J. Donovan with Alex Grimes speaking with one of the Grimes’ children<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a monthly series in which the Attorney General will feature a Vermonter doing exemplary work in their community. Have someone you think should be featured? Email AGO.CAP@vermont.gov. Alex and Elizabeth Grimes, our July Vermonters of the Month, describe the past six years as a \u201cwhirlwind of emotion.\u201d May 5, 2013 is the day that forever… Continue reading Vermonters of the Month: Elizabeth and Alex Grimes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[495066,505445],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-tj-donovan","tag-vermonter-of-the-month","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}