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Olympic legend supports Michigan native's new non-profit

Brittney Sherell has been working to collect suitcases and other items for foster children. She recently got a surprise from Simone Biles.

ATLANTA — A Michigan native just got a huge boost in her efforts to help foster children through her non-profit organization "A Suitcase and a Dream."

Sherell was born in Flint and spent part of her childhood in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek before landing in Port Huron, where she aged out of foster care. Statistics for children who age out are not positive, but Brittney is using her success story to help other children.

Often times, Brittney and her siblings were moved from home to home using only trash bags. It's important to her that children going through the foster care system today receive a proper suitcase and survival kits.

A former Olympic director for Coca-Cola set up a suitcase drive to celebrate her own birthday. Brittney was a guest of honor at the party where she received the suitcases on her non-profit's behalf. 

"We had over 41 suitcases donated. We had a U-Haul, and I mean the room was just full of dreams," Brittney said.

Some of those suitcases were signed by Simone Biles, the most-decorated gymnast in world history. Biles, who was a foster child herself, thanked Brittney for her work.

"She signed my book. it said, 'Thank you, Brittney, for everything that you're doing for our community.' And that meant the world to me, the fact that Simone still recognizes the foster care community as her community," Brittney said.

Full story on Brittney:

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