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Five Acres Presents Community Awards, Welcomes New Board Members

Five Acres announced its new board members and recognized its community award recipients at its 133rd Annual Meeting and Board Celebration recently. Hosting the virtual celebration, Five Acres honored community members and volunteers who were unable to be recognized last year due to the pivot to socially distance and work remotely because of the coronavirus.
These individuals have supported the charity’s mission in serving more than 9,000 children and families annually across six counties. The charity offers a full continuum of care for children and families in crisis, including foster care, adoption, deaf services, therapeutic residential care for foster youth and community-based mental/behavioral health programs.
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Margaret H. Sedenquist | Obituary

(1927 – 2021)

Margaret H. Sedenquist

Margaret H. Sedenquist passed away on February 9, 2021, after a courageous battle with COVID-19. She was 94. Trailblazer, entrepreneur, business owner, community leader, philanthropist, and deeply cherished mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, aunt, mentor, and loyal friend, Margaret was loved and admired by everyone who knew her.
Born and raised on a cattle ranch near Douglas, Wyoming, Margaret’s childhood fostered a deep understanding of self-sufficiency, an abiding love of family and community, and the knowledge that individuals working together can accomplish great things. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Wyoming, Margaret worked at General Electric in Schenectady, New York, as a research psychologist. Moving back to Wyoming, she worked as a school teacher in Cody, Wyoming, where she met her husband, Charles Sedenquist, a chemical engineer with Husky Oil. Her three children, Mark, Daniel, and Diana were born in Cody.
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Five Acres Announces New Chief Administrative Officer

Kim Warneke

Five Acres, a foster/adoption, residential and community-based mental/behavioral health nonprofit organization, announced Kim Warneke as its chief administrative officer.
Having joined as Five Acres’ director of training and organizational development in January 2019, Warneke was promoted to lead the human resources and training functions responsible for HR operations, including employee relations, talent acquisition, organizational design, leadership development, training compliance and culture development. Continue reading “Five Acres Announces New Chief Administrative Officer”

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Five Acres Sounds the Alarm: More Foster Families Needed

Jillian and Scott Shriner adopted their younger son through the child- and family-services nonprofit Five Acres, which advocates for foster children to find a permanent home.
Photo courtesy Five Acres
Jillian and Scott Shriner adopted their younger son through the child- and family-services nonprofit Five Acres, which advocates for foster children to find a permanent home.

With the holiday season quickly approaching, people far and wide have begun to gather energies, recipes and vacation days to unite with family, immediate or extended, or take part in a “Friendsgiving” celebration.
But for Annie and her wife, Gail, the holidays are especially poignant: Surrounded by their four young children brimming with energy, love and chatter, the mothers are reminded how they built their family in the nontraditional way, by fostering to adopt through Five Acres, a child- and family-services agency based in Altadena.
Annie reminisces about how each child came into the family fold. Some were easier to adopt than others, while some of the adoptions were filled with nausea and nerves and sleepless nights ahead of court battles.
“I compare the adoption process to me giving birth — as painful as it could be, as soon as it was over and they were ours I was ready to do it all over again,” said Annie, who requested that her last name be withheld to protect her children. Continue reading “Five Acres Sounds the Alarm: More Foster Families Needed”