Child Saving Institute (CSI) has provided life changing services to children and families for over 130 years and with our recent merger with Children’s Square in Council Bluffs, we have a combined 275 years of supporting kids and families across Nebraska and Southwest Iowa. The impacts of these programs can be seen in the moment. Their true power often unfolds over lifetimes—and sometimes across generations.
For the Schneider family, CSI’s influence spans three generations.
Baby Walter’s arrival is being anxiously awaited by his mom, Sara. When Walter is born, he’ll be cared for at the A.W. Clark Child Development Center. Sara works upstairs at CSI as a donor engagement coordinator. One day, Walter will learn that long before he was born, before even his parents were born, CSI helped launch his grandpa John’s life story.
John Schneider was born in August of 1965. His biological mother, a young woman seeking support and stability, found both in CSI’s maternity home. This was an essential resource for vulnerable mothers and would remain open until 1971. When John was two months old, he was adopted by the Schneider family. Two years later, they returned to CSI to adopt his younger sister.
As he grew up, John said he didn’t spend much time thinking about the part of his life that came before adoption. That changed decades later, when CSI unexpectedly reentered his world.
In 2024, John’s daughter-in-law Sara accepted a position on CSI’s development team.
“When she said she was getting an interview with CSI, I had to remind her that’s where I was adopted from,” John said. “I thought it was pretty cool.”
Soon, Sara and her husband, Landon, were expecting their first child together—baby Walter. Suddenly, the connection to CSI deepened.
“I picture Grandpa John coming to pick up Walter from daycare one day,” Sara said. “What a moment that will be for John—to step foot in this facility as the grandparent of a child who’s in daycare, who would not have existed had John not been adopted through here.”
John, humble by nature, recognizes how extraordinary it is for one organization to play such a meaningful role in three different chapters of one family’s history.
“It’s a full circle moment,” John said. “Something from my past actually materialized in the future. It’s exciting to know that Walter will be there with the childcare now.”
For Sara, the Schneider family’s story demonstrates the heart of CSI’s ongoing mission.
“It shows how CSI is not a one and done kind of organization,” Sara said. “I think our family shows that through time, this organization has withstood a lot and offered families throughout generations different types of programs.”
The Schneiders are just one testament to how CSI has always been an organization that puts the needs of the community first. What was once a single mother’s dormitory and orphanage with primarily infant adoption services, is now a comprehensive organization with diverse program areas to meet children and families where they’re at, when they need them most.
For centuries, CSI has been here for children and families. Sometimes, as in the Schneider’s case, for multiple generations—creating brighter tomorrows that ripple far beyond what anyone can see today.
