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By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net
Sun City Center – Who would be dumb enough to take a job that requires local travel, often exposes the seamier side of life, starts with background scrutiny, involves considerable paperwork , and, oh, by the way, pays not a dime in salary?
In the prime retirement years, yet!
And, when there are so many, varied, tempting options.
Well, listen to a CEO from D.C., and a research chemist who enjoyed the good life and a social worker with several degrees. For all of them neither potting nor bridge nor golf held much appeal. But, for each of them helping restart a young life is a reward like none other. Listen to Guardians ad Litem whose retirement years are brightened by the unexpected.
Kathryn St. Clair, executive director of a non-profit agency headquartered just outside the nation’s capital, hit her early 60s and felt the tug of family on Florida’s Central West Coast. She settled into Sun City Center, close enough to be on hand if needed by her independent, 90-year-old mother. But, what else is an energetic, effervescent blonde with business moxie to do?
She recalls seeing a newspaper announcement about training for volunteers interested in serving as advocates for minors, many of them victims of abuse, whose situations have taken them into the civil court system. The classes aimed at preparing guardians ad litem or, to be more literal, guardians for the case. Her response: “I can do that.”
That was four years ago. Today, St. Clair talks with a joyful enthusiasm about the challenges and satisfactions her cases have brought to her life. She cites, for example, the recent and remarkable resolution of a case once almost hopeless.
The situation involved two siblings, a brother and sister of elementary school age, just a year apart. St. Clair describes them as “good kids, just good kids” who kept getting bad breaks. Abused by a grandfather, they had been removed from their home by a state agency; the fathers were out of the picture, their mother, in effect, abandoned them. Placed in foster care -- usually only a temporary remedy -- caseworkers looked for a “forever home” for them, hoping to keep them together. Each other, after all, is what they had.
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| KATHRYN ST. CLAIR |
Hope bloomed when placement with another grandfather appeared possible -- until he backed away. And they faced another letdown, another “they didn’t want us” feeling, St. Clair notes. Then, the two siblings joined a group of youngsters available for adoption, allowed to interact with potential parents considering additions to their families through that procedure. Once again, hope blossomed. But, the supply of adoptive parents was exhausted before the number of children, St. Clair adds, and the disappointment of perceived rejection prevailed.
The caring adults, including St. Clair, their Guardian ad Litem, reluctantly began considering separation of the brother and sister, in order to get them into permanent homes. “That was on a Thursday,” she remembers, “and I went home to ask my prayer group from my church to include this situation in their prayers over the weekend.”
The following Monday, the foster mother with whom the little girl lived announced she and her husband wanted to adopt her. But that wasn’t all. The foster mom’s daughter, also a certified foster parent, announced she and her husband wanted to adopt the boy. But that’s still not all. Both foster families live close together on acreage where they keep horses, enjoy a family swimming pool and offer room sufficient for energetic youngsters to grow in.
“It is the perfect resolution,” St. Clair says, adding that the two children will grow up side by side, each having the other to turn to, going to the same school, sharing family and friends. “But I don’t take any credit,” she says happily, “I give that one to God.”
Norm Schuler, the picture of the wise grandparent with abundant white hair, a kindly face and a low key demeanor, is a Kings Point resident similarly hooked on the guardian program. A research chemist with Polaroid for many years, enjoying the rich cultural life of Cambridge, MA home of both Harvard and MIT, raised a family and then retired with his wife to the sub-tropics, intending to “give back.” He joined the SCC Emergency Squad as an EMT, got involved with Good Samaritans, became a deacon in his church - and faced life as a widower.
They had planned to become guardians together. He went ahead; it would have been what she wanted. That was five years ago and as the 80-year-old Schuler looks back over the years and his cases now, one stands out, he says.
It involves a particular eight-year-old, one of five youngsters which could not be kept together. He worked with the situation for years, he recalls and can only describe it as “very bad, just very bad.” The several fathers were unknown; the mother abandoned the children, permanent adoption into different but safe homes was the optimum choice. But, while that may be the choice, it may not necessarily be the reality.
As time went by, adults concerned with this situation, including Schuler, wondered if even one of the five could get a permanent home. “I prayed for this family,” he says softly.
Then, quite unexpectedly, a father materialized from another part of the state after seeing a legal advertisement and recognizing some of the facts. “He didn’t know there had been a child” born of the relationship he once had had with the youngster’s mother, Schuler notes, “and he seems to be a really great guy.” He has a stable home, a young family and a wife who wants to add the new child to their brood, Schuler adds.
In all probability, he’ll never see that child again, Schuler acknowledges, but carries with him nonetheless the warming knowledge that one eight-year-old is going to get another chance to grow to constructive adulthood and realize full potential. That, he indicates, is strong motivation for a guardian.
Not every case assigned a guardian, of course, has a happy ending.
During the 13 years that Ellie Sherwood, a SCC resident, has been involved in guardian programs, she has seen both good results and sad outcomes, she says. Now in her 70s, Sherwood has devoted a lifetime to working with and for people. Equipped with advanced degrees in social work, she pursued a career in social services, eventually becoming a disabilities examiner for the U.S. Social Security Administration, before relocating to Florida from Lansing, Michigan.
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| NORM SCHULER |
While one of the most desirable characteristics of a successful and useful guardian is ability to maintain emotional distance, Sherwood, a soft-spoken gentlewoman, remembers with sadness one of her first cases. “The boy had been on the streets since he was about four years old,” she recalls, “and when I met him he was 12. He was a good kid; he needed mothering, that’s all, just mothering.”
Mothering, however, was not Sherwood’s assignment at the time. Her job was to advocate for him in the legal system of another county. But, before she could accomplish much, he ran away from the group home where he had been placed. When she asked about conducting a search for him, “I was told there were no resources for that,” she says. He never was seen or heard from again. “He’d be in his 20s, now,” she adds almost inaudibly, “I still think of him.”
These are the kinds of cases that guardians-to-be review when in training. Instruction about court operations, the various agencies that can become involved in a case, the role of the guardian and role playing all are part of the six to eight weeks of classes conducted to prepare guardians, says Charlie Nelson, the program’s regional director.
The objective is to train the volunteers to perform competently the two primary functions of a guardian: investigation to compile a complete record and advocacy on behalf of a child or children as part of a team including an attorney. On the other hand, “guardians are not big sisters or big brothers,” Nelson emphasizes. Plus, they have no vested interest beyond the welfare of the child and their complete impartiality in all other matters is what gives them credibility with the court, he adds.
Advanced education is not a pre-requisite, but good communications skills and a flexibility in attitude are assets in the guardian role, Nelson adds. Guardians produce the reports, based on their investigations, that become part of the record as a court considers the best course of action for a minor child and it’s important to recognize that “people do change,” he says.
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| ELLIE SHERWOOD |
Following graduation, when new guardians take an oath of confidentiality and responsibility, they well may be paired with a more-experienced, mentoring guardian to help them get started. And, there is an auxiliary non-profit group, Voices for Children, which underwrites toys and gifts for youngsters in the program. Children who “age out” or attain the age of 18 before leaving foster care also receive college scholarship assistance, providing their grades are acceptable.
At the present time, there are 2,900 youngsters in the foster care system in Hillsborough County and about 2,150 are included in the guardian program, Nelson says. “This means there are about 850 children without a guardian advocate right now,” he adds.
The next training classes begin June 29. Training is scheduled in Brandon on successive Saturdays during July and in Tampa during evening hours. Program details also are available on the website, www.guardianadlitem.org.
And new graduates may find themselves working alongside St. Clair, Schuler and Sherwood, all of whom affirm they have absolutely no intention of giving up the best non-paying jobs they’ve ever had.
©2009 Melody Jameson
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