For our newest team member, it feels more like a gift than a job

Celeste Childs has joined Kids to Love as a Development Officer, bringing with her a rare combination of professional experience, community involvement, and deeply personal understanding of the foster care system.

Celeste’s career began in development, public relations, and marketing within the medical management field. After stepping away from the corporate world to raise her children, she continued to build her expertise through nonprofit marketing and community volunteer work. Over the years, she remained closely connected to local efforts supporting children in foster care, including long-standing involvement with Kids to Love initiatives such as Christmas for the Kids and More Than a Backpack.

Her connection to the organization spans many years and grew alongside its mission. Celeste first met Kids to Love founder Lee Marshall through community and board-related work and followed the organization’s growth from its early television segments into the broad-reaching nonprofit it is today.

But her commitment became even more personal in 2015, when a friend introduced her to a foster mother caring for a young child with type 1 diabetes. Having already experienced the same diagnosis within her own family, Celeste stepped in to help. What began as informal support quickly grew into fostering—and ultimately adopting—her daughter, Baylee.

That experience reshaped her perspective on foster care, giving her firsthand insight into the trauma many children carry and the gaps that exist in services and support. It also deepened her belief in the importance of comprehensive, trauma-informed care for both children and families.

Celeste says the mission of Kids to Love resonates deeply with her lived experience. From trauma services to long-term support for children aging out of care, she sees the organization’s work as critical to breaking generational cycles and creating new pathways for stability and healing.

In her new role as Development Officer, Celeste is eager to help expand that impact.

“This doesn’t feel like a job,” she said. “It feels like a gift—to be able to go out and advocate for these children and for Kids to Love’s mission.”

Her work will focus on building relationships, strengthening development efforts, and helping connect more resources to the children and families who need them most.