Progress Energy has partnered with the Safe Children Coalition to build families through adoption, in another demonstration of the company's commitment to the communities it serves.

The Progress Energy Heart Gallery of Pinellas and Pasco counties features portraits of foster children who are up for adoption. Their own voices can be heard on recorded messages next to their photographs, talking about their hopes of finding a family.

The traveling exhibit display schedule is as follows:

January 2007

James P. Gills Family YMCA
8411 Photonics Dr.
New Port Richey, Fla.

February 2007

Tyrone Square Mall
6901 Tyrone Square
St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Progress Energy Heart Gallery shows the faces of 78 of the 500 foster children available for adoption in the two counties through the Safe Children Coalition, which oversees foster care in Pinellas and Pasco counties through a contract with the state Department of Children and Families. The exhibit is modeled after a concept that debuted in 2001 in Santa Fe, N.M., and spread to most of the 50 states. A similar exhibit that tours museums and malls in Tampa has helped more than 40 children find homes in less than two years.

Taken by local photographers who donated their time, the Pinellas and Pasco pictures show the children smiling, laughing and thinking. Some are in black and white, others in color. The children in the exhibit are among 4,000 in the local foster care system. The parents of those in the exhibit, and the others available for adoption, have had their parental rights terminated because of abuse or neglect. Many of the kids have been in numerous foster homes. The children selected for the Progress Energy Heart Gallery are considered the hardest to adopt because they are older, are minorities, have mental or physical disabilities or are part of a group of siblings who want to stay together. One family of six is included in the exhibit.