Kids treated to splashing good time
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The organization was formed in the spring of 2001 when Judge Larry Ross, along with youth service officers Barry Dishman and Paula Smith, began to look for a way to provide adult supervised activities for at-risk kids and give them a chance to interact with positive role models in the community.
According to program coordinator Shay Ashford, the group now serves around 150 children, 117 of which showed up for the party, which was co-sponsored by the McMinnville Noon Exchange Club. The organization provides an average of two supervised events per month for the children, such as trips to the fair, physical activities like skating and rappelling, dances and parties, and educational trips to area attractions. The group also does community service, like picking up trash. Ashford reports the kids have picked up around 250 bags of trash over the summer.
Ross says Kids of the Community has evolved far beyond anything organizers ever expected.
?It started out as a way for us to do things with kids who don?t get to do things like go to swim parties, go skating or to the fair,? Ross said. ?In fact, that was our first event, a trip to the fair. So we just started raising money to work with kids who are at risk, delinquent kids, foster kids, to give them a chance to go places.?
Ross said he and his colleagues found it frustrating to see kids come through the court system they felt could be helped if only someone would take the time to reach out to them.
?The overriding reason for all of this is not just to give them the chance to do things they normally wouldn?t do, but to be able to do it with responsible people from the community,? Ross said. ?People who go to work and have jobs in the community, people who go to college, so they can be introduced to those kinds of role models. That?s the reason we have police officers there, and teachers and judges and lawyers. That?s how it started out, and it?s just continued.?
Though the group started out working with kids who had been in the system, these days the focus has changed to include at-risk kids.
?We want to reach them before they wind up in the system,? Ross said, ?This is probably our biggest segment now.?
Ross says he is gratified with the reaction from the community, which has been behind the program from the start.
?We couldn?t have done it without the support of the community, individuals and businesses,? Ross said. ?We really appreciate all their help.?