Fundraiser approaching for Twin Cities Kids Coalition
Last year Twin Cities Safe Kids Coalition held a Back to School Fair for area students. The Twin City Kids Coalition hopes to bring positive experiences and mentorships leading to a full, healthy adult life.
A craft and vendor show fundraiser for the Twin Cities Kids Coalition is set for Saturday, April 7 from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. at Uhrichsville Foursquare Church's The Lighthouse. A raffle, 50/50 drawing and food will accompany numerous craft vendors for the day.
The Twin City Kids Coalition hopes to bring positive experiences and mentorships leading to a full, healthy adult life for area kids. It is the creation of Wendy Mann, who said she was seeing too many children she knew being lost in early life.
“We began the Kids Coalition in February of 2017,” Mann said. “There were a number of young people in recent years — in their teens or just finished with school, some even younger — who were dead of drug overdoses or suicide, things very much preventable. These were kids I had known since they were in diapers, many of them. They just had no place to go for guidance or in showing a positive direction for their lives.”
The coalition is designed for children in fifth-12th grade.
Mann asked others in the community what they thought of creating a group to provide just such help and intervention and met with plenty of encouragement.
Mann began to do research and reached out for help in creating a nonprofit organization. The problem quickly became finding space for kids to get together, a place for the coalition to focus its efforts and grow.
“We have a temporary home at Uhrichsville Church of the Nazarene,” Mann said. “We have our eye on a building that will work well as a permanent home and have our fingers crossed."
Monday afternoons a Zumba workout class is offered at the church location. Wednesdays brings OSU Extension office advice and help in understanding fitness and nutrition, cooking, and safe food handling.
Friday offers an after-school game night. “We usually see 15 or more kids come out for that night,” Mann said. “And they’re from all over the area: Garaway, Indian Valley and Claymont.”
Once a month a dance is held for the kids at the Uhrichsville Elks lodge.
Mann, who with her husband is an area businessperson, has funded much of the start-up costs for the program. The group also is submitting grant requests and holding fundraisers like the craft show on April 7.
The coalition is partnering with area agencies. “It helps to bring in other speakers, letting the kids hear from people and learn things when they might be unable to get to Dover or New Philadelphia, where it’s more readily available,” Mann said.
The Twin Cities Kids Coalition recently took over another organization, Safe Kids of Tuscarawas County, renaming it Tuscarawas County Safe Kids.
“It had been mainly concerned with things like providing checks for car seat safety,” Mann said. “We’re growing it to help older kids with safe-driving instruction and other things.”
Drake Grimwood and Mitchell Sanders, both Claymont seniors, created a safe-driving video that was the winner of a $100 prize competition.The video demonstrated the dangers of not concentrating on the road ahead.
The coalition is working with area schools and 4-H to create a community garden this summer.
“We’re also helping with teen girls who find themselves becoming mothers,” Mann said. “We’re helping them get checkups and making sure they understand the importance of things like proper nutrition.”
Though the Kids Coalition meets at a church, Mann said the group is not affiliated with any single church or denomination.
“We are affiliated with all the area churches,” she said. “They are all united in their desire to help kids find good, healthy lives.”
The Uhrichsville Foursquare Church is at 1943 N. Water St. Ext., Uhrichsville. The Church of the Nazarene is at 116 N. Dawson St. Find the group by searching Facebook for more information.