Community 11BOwasso Reporter

Thursday, December 13, 2007

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• Bottom line is, youthat Lakeside just wantto experience loveBy Ralph Schaefer

Suspicious eyes filled with hostil-ity greeted Karen Kirk on her firstday as a volunteer at Lakeside Chil-dren’s Home.

These young people were theunwilling residents of the facility.They were runaways, some hadproblems with drugs and alcohol,others suffered from abuse orneglect.

Kirk’s cool reception might havebeen anticipated by Lakeside staffmembers, but the neophyte volun-teer didn’t know any of this.

Tulsa District Judge DamonCantrell had recruited the Owassoresident after she very innocentlystated she wanted to help youngpeople.

Kirk is no stranger to the areabecause she grew up inCollinsville.

This was in addition to her threechildren, all teenagers.

Two teenage girls at Lakesidemade it readily apparent they werenot going to open up to thisstranger with blond hair. Theythought she would be there once,then they would never see heragain.

They didn’t count on Kirk’s posi-tive attitude towards them, some-thing they really hadn’t experi-enced in their young lives.

‘‘I felt confident that I could dosomething,’’ she said. ‘‘Peoplewould ask me what I was doing andI would say I am volunteering atLakeside.’’

That naturally would result in thequestion about what Lakeside wasand its purpose.

Kirk would respond that it was aplace for troubled teens, askingwith a laugh about what teenagerisn’t troubled?

In addition, she told her inquisi-tor that even though these are teenswho just can’t go home, they arejust kids.

These same kids come fromhomes where they have horribleexperiences. Lakeside programs

help them deal with drug and alco-hol abuse, anger managementissues as well as personal issuesincluding neglect, sexual abuse.

Part of Kirk’s role would be tohelp with the Moot Court, somethingshe had never heard of. She wasn’talone since many of the studentsalso had never heard about it.

Rebel kids, those with the ‘‘I won’tdo it’’ attitude, were easily identi-fied from their looks when they

were recruited for the program.Moot Court would involve about

15 students, almost half of the Lake-side population.

That initial meeting was intimi-dating, Kirk said. It was the stu-dents, not the adult, who posed thethreat.

‘‘I told them at the initial meetingthat I would be there for them, thatI wasn’t going anywhere,’’ she said.‘‘They didn’t know it at that time,but I had a couple of angles — anda goodie bag.’’

Kirk had to get permission tobring treats to the students, butthat was OK with her. She under-stood that was just part of the regi-men.

Barriers fell the first time thetreats were available. Those stiffhugs became genuine and manytears rolled down students faces ingratitude.

She became known as the team

mom and found her popularityquickly rising.

Students started opening up toher, telling about difficulties theywere facing in life. Some of theirreal life stories were astounding toKirk.

Students soon started placingorders — hot Cheetos, Reeses Cup,Diet Dr. Pepper — and it wasastounding to see their reaction.

This was something that was thestudent’s very own item, Kirk said.They didn’t have to share it withanyone. That single sack of hotCheetos was so appreciated.

So many kids today take theirmoney, run into a QT to get whatthey want without ever thinkingtwice about their purchases, shecontinued. They don’t seem toappreciate what they have justaccomplished.

Kirk also saw barriers breakdown when she started workingwith the Moot Court program.

Learning is intense and two girlson the team weren’t getting along.

‘‘I told them they could have theirdifferences outside the practice,’’she said. But it was vital theyworked together learning theirparts because of the way they wererelated in the script.

The girls ended up talking to eachother as a result of the teamwork.

It was midway through the prepa-ration for competition that one girl,in tears, went to Kirk saying shehad too much to do, that she feltoverwhelmed. She wanted to quit.

Kirk arbitrarily took the leastliked part away and this helpedease the situation. The teen stayedon the team even though she alsowas dealing with other upsettingsituations in her personal life.

Kirk smiled, recalling that thisteenager became ‘‘one of the stars’’on the team.

Even though the 2006 team wasedged out by a very small point dif-ference, Kirk is confident the 2007team will be equal to their prede-cessor.

And as a volunteer, this year shehas a better idea about what toexpect — the unexpected.

She knows one thing that isexpected — all the Lakeside kidswant is to be loved.

Mistrust seen in suspicious eyes

Karen Kirk

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