Move over mothers and fathers. The first Sunday after Labor Day is National Grandparents Day. It’s a time to shine the light on grandma and grandpa and shower them with affection and gifts – at the very least, a phone call. However, there are two grandparents who aren’t expecting a thing from their grandkids – all 100 or more of them. Velma Ferguson and Bill Finch (or, as they are called by the kids and Spring Creek staff members, Grandma Velma and Grandpa Bill) are two volunteers for the Foster Grandparent Program, which is organized through Volunteers of America. The program links senior citizens with at-risk children. The special grandparents share their life experiences with children who need them the most. The children come from childcare centers, schools, hospitals and other nonprofit organizations.Ferguson and Finch volunteer up to 20 hours a week at the Spring Creek Youth Services Center, a 110-bed juvenile detention facility operated by the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections (a Division of the Colorado Department of Human Services) and also connected to School District 11.The facility provides detention services for El Paso, Park, Teller and Fremont counties. In addition, the facility serves as a regional assessment center for 22 counties in southern Colorado. The youth housed in the facility range from ages 10 to 18.Dean Harris, Spring Creek’s facility training and standards officer, said the secure facility looks and operates like a high school. He said the Spring Creek youth have a full 16-hour day that includes a regimented schedule of educational, recreational and other programs designed to help them turn their life around. “Our foster grandparent program supplements the day-to-day grind that the kids are going through,” said Harris. “Sometimes they need a break. Sometimes they need to just sit somewhere and the grandparents provide that.Harris said the foster grandparent program has worked well since he implemented it at Spring Creek five years ago. He has found that the kids respond to the grandparents differently than they do with other adults.Ferguson and Finch have different experiences and many stories to share, but their reasons for becoming a foster grandparent are similar.”Because I like children,” Finch said. “That’s the bottom line.” He also likes to help people, and he said the kids at the center need him the most. Ferguson nodded in agreement, but said she volunteers because she loves kids with whom she can interact and have a conversation with. “I love kids who can talk back to me,” she said.Unlike Finch, who has three sons and two grandkids of his own, Ferguson has no children. “My students in Korea used to ask me, ‘Why didn’t you get married?'” She shared two of the five reasons: “Number one – the guys I wanted didn’t want me,” she said. “And if I’d been married and said, ‘I want to go to Korea,’ he would have said ‘No! You stay home.'” Ferguson said, although she believes in marriage, it wasn’t for her. “I’ve enjoyed my life. No regrets.”Ferguson and Finch agree the foster grandparent program is so important because most of the kids they’ve encountered at Spring Creek do not have families of their own. Ferguson referenced a quote she heard from radio host Dr. Laura Schlesinger regarding troubled teens: “They’ve had sperm donors for fathers and nests for mothers.” “Most of these kids who are into drugs and things like that were introduced to them by their families,” Finch said. “They have no sense of family structure, and this is why it’s so important for foster grandparents.”My first day here … I was scared to death,” she said. “I thought, ‘These are criminals who should be locked up in jail and I’m going to be with them,’ but by the third day I was comfortable being in here and around them.”Before becoming foster grandparents, Ferguson and Finch had to meet certain requirements, which included 40 hours of training. And, in observing their soft-spoken words and warm smiles, as they both interact with the youth and the staff, it appears the requirements have been met and it’s all been worthwhile.The Volunteers of America’s Colorado Web site reports that, this year alone, 160 foster grandparents provided one-on-one attention to 4,200 children in the five metro-Denver counties, and Larimer and El Paso counties. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a foster grandparent or other volunteer programs available through Volunteers of America, visit www.voacolorado.org), call 303-297-0408 or send an e-mail to ccompton@voacolorado.org.
