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Gifts overwhelm boys at youth shelter
By WILL VAN SANT BROOKSVILLE -- Sometimes people do pay attention to what they read in the newspapers. After the Times ran a brief story a week and a half ago about the New Beginnings youth shelter's being short on donated food and gifts as Christmas approached, Jennifer Biernat, owner of Windy City Grille in Spring Hill, decided to act. Along with friends and others associated with Windy City, Biernat approached Spring Hill businesses, going door to door with the article and asking whether there was an interest in helping out. "After reading that story, I just said, 'What the heck, let's just get it together,' " she said. The fruits of that effort were on display Christmas afternoon when Biernat and about a dozen others arrived at New Beginnings with five carloads of food and presents, bent on making the day a bit more cheerful for children without families to spend the holiday with. New Beginnings shelters youths ages 10 to 17 who have run away from home or who are involved in the state foster care system. Some juvenile offenders who cannot return to their families are also referred there. "We have the physically abused, sexually abused, emotionally abused or those who are abusers," said shelter coordinator C. Ray Wallace. "You get the same story lines, but every case is unique." The shelter has 18 beds: 10 for girls and eight for boys. Usually between 10 and 12 beds are filled at any given time, Wallace said, but the number varies, and on Christmas Day only four youths were there. All of them were boys ranging in age from 11 to 16. They were treated to a Santa all their own (Biernat's neighbor John Urzo in disguise), a truly stupendous pile of presents and a meal of roast beef, pasta, meatballs, sausage and apple pie. Among them were three brothers, ages 11, 13 and 14. The brothers have been wards of the state for the past several years, Wallace said. Even as food was eaten and gifts such as Frisbees that light up when thrown were ripped from wrapping paper, the brothers and their 16-year-old shelter mate were subdued. Wallace explained that, for them, such attention could be a bit overwhelming. "Where they come from, stuff like this? It doesn't happen," he said. The 14-year-old said he was grateful to the Windy City crew and the other businesses that had stepped in to make a Christmas for him and his younger brothers. "They are doing a lot for us," he said. "There are some kids who are not having any Christmas right now." He said he would have preferred, however, to spend the day with his uncles and mother, "but this is where God put me. I'm grateful to be here." Wallace said that there were likely to be some leftover presents, which was fine by him. It means, he said, that there will be something to offer those children whose birthdays coincide with their time at New Beginnings. -- Will Van Sant covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com .
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From today's Hernando Times |
