Saving Imagine Adoption

Saving Imagine Adoption
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MP'S FIRM LINKED TO ADOPTION GROUPFAMILIES CONSIDER BAILOUT OF FAILED ADOPTION AGENCYEDITORIAL: ADOPTION OVERSIGHTFAMILIES LEFT IN LURCH AS AGENCY FOLDSPARENTS BEG PROVINCE TO FINISH ADOPTIONSWOULD-BE ADOPTIVE PARENTS TAKE ACTIONFamilies left in limbo by agency's bankruptcy cheer plan to hire new management team

Jul 31, 2009 04:30 AM
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BRIAN CALDWELL
WATERLOO REGION RECORD

KITCHENER–Families are buoyed by a plan to try to save a bankrupt Cambridge adoption agency by bringing in new management.
If successful, it would mean hundreds of clients who invested months of time and up to $20,000 would still be able to adopt children from overseas.
Would-be parents were devastated when Kids Link International Adoption Agency, which operated as Imagine Adoption, collapsed July 14. But they left a Kitchener meeting in good spirits yesterday after about 200 creditors voted unanimously to pursue a restructuring effort outlined by bankruptcy trustees from BDO Dunwoody.
"I've never seen so many people in one room agree on something so quickly," said Ingrid Phaneuf of Etobicoke, who is trying to adopt an Ethiopian child. "It was fantastic."
Under the plan, about six people with the necessary expertise would take over the non-profit agency. The plan would require approval from the provincial government, which licenses international adoption organizations.
Bankruptcy trustee Susan Taves said the plan will be explored and developed over the next two to four weeks to see if it can work.
"I think it's really probable – a high percentage of success here," she said after the meeting.
Companies, church groups, individuals and affected families have contacted trustees with offers to help salvage the agency.
"This is a really unique file," Taves said. "In 20 years of doing this work, I've never had people call and say they'll give money to keep an organization going."
The effort also has an ally in Kitchener lawyer Ted Giesbrecht, who went to Ethiopia this month to ensure children at an agency transition home were properly cared for.
Giesbrecht, who is working for free, said staff at the home – where children matched with Canadian families are housed – hadn't been paid in six weeks.
While helping to complete adoptions that had reached the matching stage, he also reduced expenses at the home from more than $50,000 to $17,000 a month.
If the agency is restructured, Giesbrecht said, that will help stretch the money Imagine still had in the bank when it went bust.
 
David and Holly Guistini of Kitchener paid $14,000 in fees to Imagine and were waiting to be matched with a child in Ethiopia.
They were encouraged when a landscaper sitting next to them at the creditors' meeting told them he'd write off the money he is owed if the agency can be salvaged.
"He said, `You getting your child is more important than us getting our money,'" David said. "I was blown away."
Families have filed claims nearing $3 million. Imagine had $500,000 in cash left, plus about $150,000 in receivables and office equipment. The collapse affected 415 families, with more than 200 in Ontario.
Waterloo Regional Police are conducting a fraud investigation after two directors of Imagine alleged senior staff made more than $300,000 in questionable purchases with corporate credit cards.