WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today presented Mag Holland with the 2015 “Angels in Adoption” award for her commitment to foster care and adoption. Wicker nominated Mrs. Holland for the award because of her extraordinary work on behalf of neglected, abused, and displaced children in Mississippi.

“Mrs. Holland has taken in nearly 40 foster children in Mississippi over the past 13 years,” said Wicker, a strong advocate for adoption issues. “She and her husband, Marty, have also generously accepted children into their home for emergency placement at only a moment’s notice. After Hurricane Katrina, they volunteered to turn their home into an emergency youth shelter. Mrs. Holland’s compassion and dedication should inspire us to find a caring family for every child in need.”

Because of the shortage of licensed foster parents able to take emergency placements, Mrs. Holland often accepts upwards of three children at a time, as frequently as every other weekend and at all hours of the night. She and her husband have raised six children. They adopted their two youngest – girls ages 12 and 16 – after caring for them as foster children.

A native of Long Beach, Mrs. Holland works for the Harrison County Board of Supervisors as director for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. She also holds numerous leadership positions supporting adoption and foster care. Currently, she serves on the board of the Mississippi Chapter of North American Council on Adoptable Children and as vice president of the Mississippi State Association for Youth, Foster, Adoption, & Kinship Care. Mrs. Holland is the foster care chairman for the state of Mississippi. She also serves as a board member for the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Harrison County and as president of the Resilience of Coastal Kids, Inc.

The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), which sponsors the “Angels in Adoption” program, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to raise awareness about the needs of children without families and to remove policy barriers that hinder children from knowing the love and support a family provides. CCAI, which does not receive government funding, was established in 2001 as an outgrowth of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption.