April 21, 2025 • 30 mins
Edgar Masmela, Doneka Lang and Angel discuss their respective roles and experiences with Friends of the Children in Seattle, in an extremely inspiring conversation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle, and I am thrilled
right now because joining me now is Edgar Masmela. Edgar
is interim executive director of Friends of the Children's Seattle office.
And Edgar, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
First of all, well, thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I think this is new to me and it might
be new to a lot of our audience, and if
it isn't, I thank everyone who already knows about this
lovely program. I'd like to start by getting an overview
of exactly what Friends of the Children does.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, the best way I can describe it is if
you think about the journey you have taken just a
life or your career, there's always been that one person
or maybe many people for all of us who kind
of helped us kind of take that left or that
right to the point to we're at today. There's those
key people in life that whether they were there for
a brief moment or a long period of time, that
made a huge difference. And that's what Friends the Children
(00:53):
Seattle is all about. What we do is we identify
youth who pretty much have come to some tough town
owners in life, and we identify them as early as
age five. And what's unique about the program is three
different things. Once the child has been identified as early
as age five and enrolled in the program starting in kindergarten,
we pair them up with a paid professional mentor, meaning
(01:16):
that mentor is there in their lives four hours a
week every week, giving them opportunities to explore different things
that hopefully can help them live to the true potential. Essentially,
what's the most important part of the program is once
the child is enrolled in the program, we stay with
until graduation. So we make a commitment to that child
(01:37):
from kindergarten to graduation twelve plus years.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That is fantastic, and it's the same mentor the whole time.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, what's different. What's great about that is that we've
had a great opportunity being around for twenty five years
our Seattle chapter, that we've had mentors who've actually stayed
with their youth from kindergarten to graduation. And the things
that is pretty cool is that, you know, sometimes transitions happened,
and during those transitions, if a mentor was to ever
leave for whatever reason life or new opportunities that we
(02:07):
prepare that child for healthy transitions. So the youth is
typically prepared to be transitioned to a new mentor, which
is great because you know, sometimes our youth face transitions
that they don't get to explore the healthy way, and
this gives them an opportunity to learn and grow from it.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Egger Messmella joining me from Friends of the Children in Seattle,
and I'm wondering, I like to let my audience get
to know the people that I'm speaking with.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
What drew you to be a part of this?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, you know, all my life, I've always been a
part of some type of youth development work, whether it's
a can counselor or a van driver or just even
an after school staff person. And I think that what
led me to this organization is that I used to
work for an after school program and one of the
youth in my program had a professional mentor. And this
(02:57):
professional mentor didn't look anything like this child out or
their family members. But what was important is that how
happy that child would be when that meant to showed up. So,
you know, I asked this mentor like, hey, you know
my name is Dre, I'm the director here, who are you?
And she explained to me what the program is all about.
And I felt the need or the draw to learn
more about the organization, and that technically was about twenty
(03:21):
one years ago. Knocked on the door. Yeah it was.
I knocked on the door and just kind of learned
about the program. I heard they had a position open,
and I applied for it the first time and didn't
accept the job. But then I think like six months later,
they called me back and asked me to talk about
what a program manager position could look like for the organization.
(03:42):
And in my mind, I thought I was just going
to be talking about kind of how to help develop
the program. Little did I know that was my interview
and that was twenty one years ago. I started off
as the first program manager and here I am today
as the interim executive director.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
That is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I always ask my guests and that you probably have
a million of these stories, but uh, I just I
always like to talk about this the Starfish story. It's
a short poem, short story that my mom used to
read me, and essentially it's, you know, a little girl
is on a beach and she there's thousands of starfish,
you know, washed up, they are gonna die on the beach,
(04:17):
and she's flinging them back into the sea one by one,
and an older gentleman walks up and says, what.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Are you doing?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That doesn't matter, it's not you know, you're not going
to be able to do all of this, And then
she flings one into the sea in front of him
and says, it matters to that one. And in one
iteration of that story, the gentleman actually goes and just
starts helping her. And so you recruit, and I'm wondering
if you have one or two of those you'd like
to share in the time twenty one years that you've
(04:44):
been with Friends of the children.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, as you can imagine, we were made a different
hass to many type of nonprofit And everybody knows this.
You know, one day you're the mentor. One day you
could just be the van driver, or you could even
just be the secretary at the front door. But you
get in where you fit in, is what I always say.
But for me, there was this one opportunity where I
had to get to be a mentor for a while.
(05:06):
There was a young man whose mentor was transitioning out
of the program, and he was around the middle school age,
so he was a tough age just in general to
try to connect with the CREED teams. But me and
this youth always had a connection. We always either talked
about cars or building stuff. And when his mentor transition,
we didn't really have a replacement, so I wanted to
just step in and just kind of be a temporary
(05:27):
mentor at the time. And I remember during our first outing,
I asked him what did he wanted to do, And
mind you, this is eighth grader now, and all he
wanted to do was fly a kite. And I was like,
you know what, we're going to research. You know, I
want to find the best kite. I want to find
the best location. I'm checking weather and making sure when
(05:50):
the wind is going to start blowing. And the day
I picked him up, he actually had an incident in
the school where he actually got suspended that day and
I remember him coming to the call and he was
sitting there very upset, didn't want to talk about it,
and I asked him, I said, so, what was the issue.
He told me that he felt somebody was just basically
(06:10):
him and this person just didn't get along and it
turned into a little bit of a fistfight, and he
apologized that he wanted to be able to just go home,
and I said, well, you know, we can go home
or we can actually keep doing our outing. And he
looked at me and said, well, I still get to
go do our outing. I said, look, I want you
to understand, like we planned something for so long, and
that's flying the kite, buying the kite, checking the weather,
(06:32):
and I understand this is a setback, but I'm listening
to you, and I hear why and the reasons why
you did what you need to do. I'm not saying
it's right, but I definitely appreciate how you went ahead
and went to apologize talk to the teacher. And as
we were leaving the parking lote, he noticed that I
wasn't heading home and where I was heading was the
park where we agreed to fly the kite. And I
(06:54):
remember him just being so shocked that he was able
to kind of like understand this process of like, Okay,
if I take accountability, if I own up to what
I did wrong. I'm not saying everything's going to be
bad or great, but at least there's these healthy conversations
that he did learn from. We got to the park
and I remember putting that tied up, and I remember
running up to show with him, and I remember him
(07:16):
getting that tied up so high in the sky. I
remember his goal was to just let it be at
the end of the string and just get it lost
in the clouds. And it was one of those surreal
moments where the type in the air and everything is
just peaceful and quiet.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I probably at that moment.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, And at that moment, I realized, like, this is
why mentoring matters. This is why I needed to be
in this kid life. This is why programs like Friends
of the Children need to be available to You too,
need it the most one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And I'm sorry that brought to hears to my eyes.
That is an amazing story. Ed Gregor musnella who is
the interim executive director for Friends of the Children here
in Seattle. And I know you said that there are
professional mentors. How do you go about recruiting those? I
know you've obviously mentored yourself. How does that process work
and getting people into the program to be a mentor?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just like any other job,
just because you want to make sure that people take
this very seriously, like this is a this is an
opportunity for us to kind of help change the lives
of youth. What's amazing about it is that you know,
we're not kind of restricted to like regular opportunities in
the sense of like huge classroom settings or big group
(08:29):
settings or huge caseloads. It's like it's a one to
eight ratio. One mentor worked with eight kids four hours
a day. Yeah, four hours a week, and it comes
a full time job. And we buy mentors all across,
whether it's community partners, x, teachers, retirees, people who used
to work in healthcare, And it's a great opportunity for
people who all have that same common love of wanting
(08:53):
to make a difference and be the difference that comes
from really just their own personal experience in life. I
want to be that adult to change staff for that youth.
So we've had people, as like I was mentioning, come
from the medical field, the law field, or who's college students,
But these are all people who just want to make
a difference, And for me, that's the first step. Everything
(09:17):
else can be trained, can be supported, can show love,
but at the end of the day, it's about you've
got to have that too, passionate want to make a difference.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I can talk to you for a very long time,
Edgar about this.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Luckily, I am going to be joined by several members
of this organization today and I just want to give
you the opportunity for those who maybe don't have the
degrees to mentor or don't have the time, how can
they get involved in such a wonderful organization such as
Friends of the Children.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, you know, one of the things that I like
to say about the organization is that we're see how
death kept secret. Not a lot of people hear about
what we do, just because we stay focused on what
we do. But we've been around for twenty five years
and you'll hear later from one of our who I've
actually had the pleasure of watching grow up from kindergarten
to graduation to where she's at now in life. And
(10:07):
it's amazing to just kind of be able to tell
our story and share that story. And one of the
best ways to do it is obviously go to our
website Friends Seattle dot org, like if on Instagram at
Seattle Friends. Our Facebook page Friends of Seattle, our Friends
of the Children's Seattle is always there. But the opportunity
to just kind of be involved, tell our story, learn
from us, and just subscribe to kind of hear what's
(10:29):
going on, because the beauty of our organization is that
we're not going anywhere, that we're very stable on what
we do, and the amendment of twelve quest years is
a story that we will continue to tell on every day.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And it looked like there was an opportunity to donate
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, I mean, any nonprofit is always willing to receive support,
and then there's opportunities of our give Big campaign that's
happening now. We're doing a huge birthday celebration where we
want people to kind of one donate to a turning
twenty five years, but most importantly be able to kind
of be champions in the work that we're doing, in
the commitment we make to each of ourties.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, it's amazing work. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Edgar Messmella, who is the interim director of Friends of
Seattle or Friends of Children in Seattle here, and thank
you so much for your time. I look forward to
talking to everyone else after this. You have a wonderful
rest of your weekend, and I'll talk to you hopefully
again in the future.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you again.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
This is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. Now I have the
pleasure of being joined by Donaka Lang, who is the
senior director of K through five Programs for Friends of
the Children in Seattle and Donica, first of all, thank
you for your time today.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Oh it's a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I asked Edgar to introduce himself.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Who I just spoke to Edgar Massmela, who gave me
a really good overview of this entire organization. I'm wondering
if you could introduce yourself to the audience and let
us know a little bit about what.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You do there.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Absolutely so as you say that, i am the K
five program senior program director. I've been with Friends for
almost thirteen years. I started out as a mentor and
then when my kiddos graduated, then I moved into a
leadership position. So now I just am you know, supervising
(12:21):
and just kind of being that point of contact for
the people who are doing the work. That's how I'm
connected now I don't do the direct service, but I.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Support the people who do.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
And also I am just looking at how we can improve
programming and just give our youth a better experience and
then prepare them to go into our team program.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well that's amazing because your boots on the ground, you
know exactly how it worked. What did you learn from
mentoring that helps you in a supervisory position.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Oh that's a good one. I think patience. And it's
weird because you think, like, oh, you work with adults now,
but in a lot of ways, it's like I'm still mentoring.
It just I'm mentoring adults just kind of support them
and just be there for them and you know, get
them the tools that they needed. In a lot of ways,
it's similar to what I used to do. It's just
(13:08):
you know, it' t hapving that secondary impact because I'm
not the one doing the work directly anymore.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Well, you're mentoring to mentor essentially, right, Yes, yes, okay,
So can you take me back to when you started
with Friends of the Children in Seattle?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
What were your experiences like when you started?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
When I started, so it's interesting, I was working with
mostly school age children and my previous job so that
was like five to twelve year olds. And then when
I came to Friends, like I jumped directly into working
with middle school, high school. So that was kind of
a shift in itself, but it was yeah, it was good,
It was it was it was different, and there was
(13:47):
you know, challenging at first because you know, teenage girls
are not known for being super receptive.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Have been one, but can can confirm yes, yeah yes, but.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Over time, like you, you know, you go through a
few silent carses and then one day they start talking
and it doesn't stop and you're like, all right, I
did it.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Oh, I love that. That's so nice.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
What drew you to come work with this awesome organization?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
My background was in I used to work at a
group home for children in foster care, and we were
just kind of there to stabilize them and get them
ready for you know, a traditional foster home or to
be reunified with their families, and that most we had
children there for maybe a year or two, and I
never knew what happened after that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
So when I got to come to Friends, being able
to have that long term relationship and really just watch
these kids grow and be a part of that, and
I'm lucky to still have some connections with the kids,
and even the ones I don't, you know, have the
strongest connections with. If they called me at any time,
I'm there, You're.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
An angel out there.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Donica and Lank joining me senior director of the K
through five Programs for Friends of the Children here in Seattle.
And I would imagine that it's not the kids that
you have an impact on, Tanaka, I would imagine that
the families as well, because a kid who needs mentoring
probably you know, they're going through something at school, maybe
they're going through something at home.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
How is the interaction with the families.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
The interaction with the families, it could kind of go
a variety of ways. You know, when you're first coming in,
you're like, Hey, I'm gonna hang out with your kid,
which is not the most appealing thing initially, totally understand. So, yeah,
so you have to come in and you're you know,
you're building that relationship with the family and it could
be slow, but some families will take to you right away.
(15:36):
But the ones that you have to like, really work
for it are probably the most valuable ones.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
For me.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I've had, you know, kids I've dropped off at the
door and one day I made it into like the
entryway of the house, and I was like, oh, I've
made it okay inside. But you know, looking at it,
sometimes we're the parents or the caregivers only other adult
contact and just being able to kind of provide that
support to them and build community with them. And whether
it's like just in those mentor interactions, or if they
(16:03):
come to like our family engagement events so they can
connect other families and other mentors and just continue to
build their own community.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's wonderful. I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And the patience that you had mentioned in building trust,
I feel like someone who is in a situation like
I had said, who goes to your program, the trust
factor is probably not as high as someone who's in
a consistently stable school and home environment. I mean, you have, obviously,
from what you've said, has shown a ton of trust.
(16:35):
How do you I mean, I'm not going to ask
you to talk about all of your background and everything
when it comes to education and how you got here,
but what kind of steps should people know to take
in patience when it comes to building trust.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
For our program especially, it's really about the consistency. So
it's knowing that we're going to show up week after
week and see your child and give them really great
experience and some days, you know, the experiences might not
be great, but we're still showing up. And where it's
that consistency piece. I think that helps to start build
the trust. And then you hope that the kids will
(17:10):
go home and say really good things about you. Further, yeah,
you kind of hope that that'll help build, you know,
bridge the rest of the gap.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
That makes a ton of sense. It's hard. It is hard.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I mean I come from a pretty privileged at least
when it comes to a stable family environment. I am
privileged enough to have grown up with that, and trusting
is hard even for me, and so I would imagine
that that could be pretty difficult. It's Donica Lang joining me,
senior director of K through five programs of Friends of
(17:43):
the Children here in Seattle, and jessam Man McIntyre and
this is Seattle Voice. Now I ask this to Edgar,
and I always like my guests who have an impact
on the community to maybe share a story. You don't
have to if you don't want to. But my mom
always read this short story to me growing up. It's
called the Starfish story. And there's a girl with you know,
on the beach and there's thousands of starfish washed up
(18:06):
and she's chucking them back into the sea one by one.
They're all going to dry up. And a gentleman comes
over and says, what are you doing.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
That doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
You're not going to save them all, And she throws
one into the sea and says, it matters to that one.
And that has stuck with me through my entire life.
And if you could just do one good thing for
one good person, impact one good anything in your entire life,
every day or every chance that you get, I find
that to be extremely valuabue. Now you have like a
ton of them, obviously, and I'm wondering if you have
(18:36):
one or two that maybe stick out to you that
you might want to share.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
I think I just, you know, because Angel is the
one I probably still have the strongest relationship with, and
just you know, I came into her life not too
long after her mother had passed away, and then you know,
some years later she had written me this car that
I still have, and she was just talking about like
how important our relationship was and how she hadn't felt
(19:02):
so close to somebody in that long time as she
did with her mom, and.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I felt that.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
I was like, you know, I don't have to do
anything else like that was I I made a difference
with this kid, and knowing that we still have a relationship. Yeah,
I feel truly grateful.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
I would too.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That makes all the difference sometimes is just knowing that
you can be there for someone. I one hundred percent agree. Well, Donica,
it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Thank
you so much for joining and for all that you
do for those that want to get involved. I know
when Edgara explained to me, obviously these are highly trained
people who are the mentors.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
But are there are other ways.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
For people in the community to get involved with Friends
of the Children.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Absolutely, you can. You know, donating to our cause is
always great, keeping us doing the great work. You can
also volunteer too, if you want to host job shadows
or any career based activities with our youth, or you
want to teach them a life skill, you want to
come and bake, We can pretty much make anything work.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And how do people find you?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
You could find us at Friendsseattle dot org and our
office is located in the Columbia.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
City neighborhood Beautiful. I love Columbia City. It's a great neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, Donaga, thank you so much for joining us, and
I am really excited to talk to Angel next.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I really appreciate your time and everything that you do.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Justin then it's a pleasure again.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Thank you for listening to Seattle Voice, your community Voice,
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. And now I have the pleasure
of being joined by Angel, who is an alumna from
Friends of the Children in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Angel, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
This is great because I've already learned so much and
so have our listeners about Friends of the Children, and
you went through the program. And I always like for
listeners to get to know the people that I'm talking
to without me just talking about them. So how did
you get involved in What has the program done for you?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
I got involved straight out of kindergarten. I remember a
couple of people coming to observe the classroom and I
was wondering what they were doing. And then they were
at my house for an interview with my mom. A
couple of weeks later, they did tell me like it
was a program, that I would be meeting with someone
once a week and that I'd be doing different kinds
of activities.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And throughout my entire career.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
From kindergarten to high school, I've been within that program
and it has helped me personally exponentially. I've had the
opportunity to do classes. I've had the opportunity to do snowboarding.
I used to do poetry slam through them. They had
camping trips, they had workshops, So we were allowed access
to a lot of opportunities and experiences that you aren't
(21:44):
usually granted in those kind of environments. Because I grew
up with a lot of siblings and we were struggling financially.
Only one parent was working, and so there wasn't that
bright of a future for me. But when friends of
the children stepped in, it allowed me the opportunity to
see outside of what I was raised in and it
changed how my future went.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
So you started right out of kindergarten, those are amazing
opportunities and experiences that a lot of children don't get
to go through, and especially that early in life that
is pretty amazing. What kept you going because you know,
I talked to Donaka earlier and she had talked about
the patients that takes when it comes to keeping kids
in the program or even reaching their families, and so
(22:29):
what kept you going back?
Speaker 5 (22:32):
For me, my life with my family at the time,
we had gone through a lot, and I had been
through two mentors before I had met Donica, And at
that time that I met Donica, my mother had just
asked I had moved up north, and there was a
lot of concern regarding staying within the program because while
I was in Seattle, it was a lot easier for
them to commute to me versus coming all the way
(22:53):
up to Lynwood, which is a twenty to thirty minute drive.
And Donica, my favorite person in the world, did it
every Friday without hesitation. She was always there. And for me,
I don't know about anyone else, but for me personally,
it was the light at the end of the tunnel.
It was a day where I knew I could get away,
I could talk about things that I could get away
for a bit and have that safe have And so
(23:15):
for me, it really was like a safe place that
was where I was able to relax and know, Okay,
things are going to be Okay. You have this break,
you can make your future different. And I had the
opportunities to see programs while I did that, so I
was constantly focusing on trying to just do better and
take as many options for experiences as I could so
that when later in life, I had more experience on
(23:36):
things and it would help me move up in my
job and career.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Can you take us from just out of kindergarten to
where you are right now?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
We'd love to learn more about what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah. So I was.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
In kindergarten in Seattle when I started in the program.
They were fairly new when I started as well, so
I watched them go from house to house for like
a so how do I explain it for kind of
like a base where everyone went.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I got to grow up.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
With a lot of people that were in my own
schools and community. And one thing that really was big
for me is I was in a lot of the
poetry sessions they had, So I've been writing since I
was in kindergarten, and that's one of my biggest hobbies.
I'm now a clerk for a municipal court here in Washington.
And part of what got me there is the amount
(24:26):
of experiences that I had writing poetry, being able to
write essays. We actually had a couple of times where
our poems were published in a book, and I believe
the Friends of Children has all of those editions. And
so writing got me into a number of things, and
I tried everything. I went from construction to boeing, to caregiving,
to owning a business doing insurance sales, and now I
(24:47):
work at the court and writing up anything I can
regarding court hearings.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It sounds like Friends of the Children taught you that
Skuy was lomit exactly.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
It was one thing I learned is you miss a
hunt sort of percent of the opportunities you don't take,
and at the very least you can give it a
try and see if you like it.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I love that again.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Angel is joining me here, who is an alumna from
the Friends of Children in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
This is Seattle Voice with jessm and McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Do you have any really formative moments that while you
were going through the program, Obviously you were there for
a long time.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
You were in the program for a long time.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I don't make it mean it to sound like a
school like you were there the whole time, but you
were in the program and you stayed through. Do you
have any formative memories from.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
That From the program? A lot?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I learned one. I don't like camping. We should do
camping trips.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
A lot, and I do not not for everybody at all,
But those moments really taught me a lot about myself.
You had the opportunity to learn yourself outside of your family,
and for me, I'm a very nosy person, so to speak.
I'm very curious, and they allowed me to do anything.
There'd be time where some some other children weren't able
(25:57):
to make it because their family had other plans going
on with WHI was another part of keeping kids in
the program, and sometimes the family wasn't as cooperative with
keeping kids in.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
The family and the program.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
But my parents were very let her have everything, and
so there was a lot of times where they would
just see if I wanted to be picked up, if
I was willing to go, and the answer was always yes.
So there's times I've been snowboarding, There's times I've gone
to water parks, there's times I've gone the workshops, I
went to college trips with them. So they actually came
and picked us up and took us all to Western Washington,
(26:27):
and so I got to see what the college was like.
You know, the auditorium was my favorite portion of is
the auditorium in there.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
It's like exactly where I wanted to give speeches.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
And so I got to see a lot.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
And it was always with Donna and Donnaka would tell
me about, you know, other people she's met, and like
other career stances. We would watch different movies, so I
got to see life in its fullest.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I basically got.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
A large panorama of life every time I was with them,
And I do think it has to you have to
require a certain mindset in order to try to find
something in every day. But they were really good about
trying to open up the eyes of those they were
working with into knowing there is more than.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Just what you see.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yes, that is absolutely amazing. I wouldn't have thought of
that part of it. But you know, you learned that
you don't like camping, but you still went camping to
learn that.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Right, Yes, you have to go to learn, don't you. Yes, exactly.
You're a fascinating person. Angel. This is really awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
But you know, do you think that you would have
been as curious in life if you hadn't experienced what
friends of the children have done.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I believe this program is one of the best things
that Washington could have. I really think that the whole
nation should have for me. I can't thank them enough
for what they've done. I have friends who have I've
been friends with since I was in kindergarten, and I've
seen the difference between our lives. Right as my mother
had passed, I had moved up north and friends and
(27:55):
children kept with me that kept trying to encourage me.
They've stayed with me and a great eating portions because
I was twelve when she passed. Meanwhile, my friends back
home both had children that same year at the age
of fifteen. So there was a huge difference in the
way my life was. Because I had somebody in my
ear wanting the best for me, hoping for the best
for me, willing to do what they could to make
(28:17):
it happen. I wasn't afforded that opportunity within my family.
That's why it was a saving grace. Every week I
knew I was going to see that person. It was
like a light at the end of the tunnels. If
I could just get through this week, I can see
Donavan thinks they're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
It's unbelievable that someone can be like that for you,
who isn't a family member and is someone who came
into your life. But for a reason, I believe in
that kind of thing. I would think that you do too.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I do.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Donica is now family to me. I still see her
even after graduating from the program. We get together every
couple of months or so to just get dinner and
catch up. So Friends for Children is really for life,
because truly you never you never truly leave, but you
never want to. I always want to be involved with
them and helping them spread the information. Tell people anywhere
(29:01):
I am about it when they ask me about organizations
that are close to my heart as Friends of the
Children as the top of the list.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
And it is rapidly climbing mine.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
To be honest, I work with various charities and I
hadn't been aware. A friend of mine at work has
a friend who's a board member and directed me here,
and I wanted to hear your stories, so I can't
thank you enough for sharing yours and your time. I
know you're busy, you're probably at work at the courthouse
right now, so very very much enjoyed talking to you.
Thank you, Angel, and I hope to reconnect in the
(29:31):
future to tell more stories like yours.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Of course, thank you for having me. I'm really happy
that I was able to participate in this and that
somebody is sharing the story of friends with the children,
because it's one that everyone needs to hear.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
One hundred percent amazing stories from some amazing people. This
is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your community voice,
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle and Remember. For show ideas or
to find out how your voice can be heard, email
Seattle Voice at iHeartMedia dot com.
This is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle, and I am thrilled
right now because joining me now is Edgar Masmela. Edgar
is interim executive director of Friends of the Children's Seattle office.
And Edgar, thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
First of all, well, thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I think this is new to me and it might
be new to a lot of our audience, and if
it isn't, I thank everyone who already knows about this
lovely program. I'd like to start by getting an overview
of exactly what Friends of the Children does.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yeah, the best way I can describe it is if
you think about the journey you have taken just a
life or your career, there's always been that one person
or maybe many people for all of us who kind
of helped us kind of take that left or that
right to the point to we're at today. There's those
key people in life that whether they were there for
a brief moment or a long period of time, that
made a huge difference. And that's what Friends the Children
(00:53):
Seattle is all about. What we do is we identify
youth who pretty much have come to some tough town
owners in life, and we identify them as early as
age five. And what's unique about the program is three
different things. Once the child has been identified as early
as age five and enrolled in the program starting in kindergarten,
we pair them up with a paid professional mentor, meaning
(01:16):
that mentor is there in their lives four hours a
week every week, giving them opportunities to explore different things
that hopefully can help them live to the true potential. Essentially,
what's the most important part of the program is once
the child is enrolled in the program, we stay with
until graduation. So we make a commitment to that child
(01:37):
from kindergarten to graduation twelve plus years.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That is fantastic, and it's the same mentor the whole time.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, what's different. What's great about that is that we've
had a great opportunity being around for twenty five years
our Seattle chapter, that we've had mentors who've actually stayed
with their youth from kindergarten to graduation. And the things
that is pretty cool is that, you know, sometimes transitions happened,
and during those transitions, if a mentor was to ever
leave for whatever reason life or new opportunities that we
(02:07):
prepare that child for healthy transitions. So the youth is
typically prepared to be transitioned to a new mentor, which
is great because you know, sometimes our youth face transitions
that they don't get to explore the healthy way, and
this gives them an opportunity to learn and grow from it.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Egger Messmella joining me from Friends of the Children in Seattle,
and I'm wondering, I like to let my audience get
to know the people that I'm speaking with.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
What drew you to be a part of this?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, you know, all my life, I've always been a
part of some type of youth development work, whether it's
a can counselor or a van driver or just even
an after school staff person. And I think that what
led me to this organization is that I used to
work for an after school program and one of the
youth in my program had a professional mentor. And this
(02:57):
professional mentor didn't look anything like this child out or
their family members. But what was important is that how
happy that child would be when that meant to showed up. So,
you know, I asked this mentor like, hey, you know
my name is Dre, I'm the director here, who are you?
And she explained to me what the program is all about.
And I felt the need or the draw to learn
more about the organization, and that technically was about twenty
(03:21):
one years ago. Knocked on the door. Yeah it was.
I knocked on the door and just kind of learned
about the program. I heard they had a position open,
and I applied for it the first time and didn't
accept the job. But then I think like six months later,
they called me back and asked me to talk about
what a program manager position could look like for the organization.
(03:42):
And in my mind, I thought I was just going
to be talking about kind of how to help develop
the program. Little did I know that was my interview
and that was twenty one years ago. I started off
as the first program manager and here I am today
as the interim executive director.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
That is absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I always ask my guests and that you probably have
a million of these stories, but uh, I just I
always like to talk about this the Starfish story. It's
a short poem, short story that my mom used to
read me, and essentially it's, you know, a little girl
is on a beach and she there's thousands of starfish,
you know, washed up, they are gonna die on the beach,
(04:17):
and she's flinging them back into the sea one by one,
and an older gentleman walks up and says, what.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Are you doing?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
That doesn't matter, it's not you know, you're not going
to be able to do all of this, And then
she flings one into the sea in front of him
and says, it matters to that one. And in one
iteration of that story, the gentleman actually goes and just
starts helping her. And so you recruit, and I'm wondering
if you have one or two of those you'd like
to share in the time twenty one years that you've
(04:44):
been with Friends of the children.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah, as you can imagine, we were made a different
hass to many type of nonprofit And everybody knows this.
You know, one day you're the mentor. One day you
could just be the van driver, or you could even
just be the secretary at the front door. But you
get in where you fit in, is what I always say.
But for me, there was this one opportunity where I
had to get to be a mentor for a while.
(05:06):
There was a young man whose mentor was transitioning out
of the program, and he was around the middle school age,
so he was a tough age just in general to
try to connect with the CREED teams. But me and
this youth always had a connection. We always either talked
about cars or building stuff. And when his mentor transition,
we didn't really have a replacement, so I wanted to
just step in and just kind of be a temporary
(05:27):
mentor at the time. And I remember during our first outing,
I asked him what did he wanted to do, And
mind you, this is eighth grader now, and all he
wanted to do was fly a kite. And I was like,
you know what, we're going to research. You know, I
want to find the best kite. I want to find
the best location. I'm checking weather and making sure when
(05:50):
the wind is going to start blowing. And the day
I picked him up, he actually had an incident in
the school where he actually got suspended that day and
I remember him coming to the call and he was
sitting there very upset, didn't want to talk about it,
and I asked him, I said, so, what was the issue.
He told me that he felt somebody was just basically
(06:10):
him and this person just didn't get along and it
turned into a little bit of a fistfight, and he
apologized that he wanted to be able to just go home,
and I said, well, you know, we can go home
or we can actually keep doing our outing. And he
looked at me and said, well, I still get to
go do our outing. I said, look, I want you
to understand, like we planned something for so long, and
that's flying the kite, buying the kite, checking the weather,
(06:32):
and I understand this is a setback, but I'm listening
to you, and I hear why and the reasons why
you did what you need to do. I'm not saying
it's right, but I definitely appreciate how you went ahead
and went to apologize talk to the teacher. And as
we were leaving the parking lote, he noticed that I
wasn't heading home and where I was heading was the
park where we agreed to fly the kite. And I
(06:54):
remember him just being so shocked that he was able
to kind of like understand this process of like, Okay,
if I take accountability, if I own up to what
I did wrong. I'm not saying everything's going to be
bad or great, but at least there's these healthy conversations
that he did learn from. We got to the park
and I remember putting that tied up, and I remember
running up to show with him, and I remember him
(07:16):
getting that tied up so high in the sky. I
remember his goal was to just let it be at
the end of the string and just get it lost
in the clouds. And it was one of those surreal
moments where the type in the air and everything is
just peaceful and quiet.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
I probably at that moment.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah, And at that moment, I realized, like, this is
why mentoring matters. This is why I needed to be
in this kid life. This is why programs like Friends
of the Children need to be available to You too,
need it the most one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And I'm sorry that brought to hears to my eyes.
That is an amazing story. Ed Gregor musnella who is
the interim executive director for Friends of the Children here
in Seattle. And I know you said that there are
professional mentors. How do you go about recruiting those? I
know you've obviously mentored yourself. How does that process work
and getting people into the program to be a mentor?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's just like any other job,
just because you want to make sure that people take
this very seriously, like this is a this is an
opportunity for us to kind of help change the lives
of youth. What's amazing about it is that you know,
we're not kind of restricted to like regular opportunities in
the sense of like huge classroom settings or big group
(08:29):
settings or huge caseloads. It's like it's a one to
eight ratio. One mentor worked with eight kids four hours
a day. Yeah, four hours a week, and it comes
a full time job. And we buy mentors all across,
whether it's community partners, x, teachers, retirees, people who used
to work in healthcare, And it's a great opportunity for
people who all have that same common love of wanting
(08:53):
to make a difference and be the difference that comes
from really just their own personal experience in life. I
want to be that adult to change staff for that youth.
So we've had people, as like I was mentioning, come
from the medical field, the law field, or who's college students,
But these are all people who just want to make
a difference, And for me, that's the first step. Everything
(09:17):
else can be trained, can be supported, can show love,
but at the end of the day, it's about you've
got to have that too, passionate want to make a difference.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I can talk to you for a very long time,
Edgar about this.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Luckily, I am going to be joined by several members
of this organization today and I just want to give
you the opportunity for those who maybe don't have the
degrees to mentor or don't have the time, how can
they get involved in such a wonderful organization such as
Friends of the Children.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, you know, one of the things that I like
to say about the organization is that we're see how
death kept secret. Not a lot of people hear about
what we do, just because we stay focused on what
we do. But we've been around for twenty five years
and you'll hear later from one of our who I've
actually had the pleasure of watching grow up from kindergarten
to graduation to where she's at now in life. And
(10:07):
it's amazing to just kind of be able to tell
our story and share that story. And one of the
best ways to do it is obviously go to our
website Friends Seattle dot org, like if on Instagram at
Seattle Friends. Our Facebook page Friends of Seattle, our Friends
of the Children's Seattle is always there. But the opportunity
to just kind of be involved, tell our story, learn
from us, and just subscribe to kind of hear what's
(10:29):
going on, because the beauty of our organization is that
we're not going anywhere, that we're very stable on what
we do, and the amendment of twelve quest years is
a story that we will continue to tell on every day.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And it looked like there was an opportunity to donate
as well.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, I mean, any nonprofit is always willing to receive support,
and then there's opportunities of our give Big campaign that's
happening now. We're doing a huge birthday celebration where we
want people to kind of one donate to a turning
twenty five years, but most importantly be able to kind
of be champions in the work that we're doing, in
the commitment we make to each of ourties.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Well, it's amazing work. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Edgar Messmella, who is the interim director of Friends of
Seattle or Friends of Children in Seattle here, and thank
you so much for your time. I look forward to
talking to everyone else after this. You have a wonderful
rest of your weekend, and I'll talk to you hopefully
again in the future.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you again.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
This is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your
community Voice, presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. Now I have the
pleasure of being joined by Donaka Lang, who is the
senior director of K through five Programs for Friends of
the Children in Seattle and Donica, first of all, thank
you for your time today.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Oh it's a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
I asked Edgar to introduce himself.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Who I just spoke to Edgar Massmela, who gave me
a really good overview of this entire organization. I'm wondering
if you could introduce yourself to the audience and let
us know a little bit about what.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
You do there.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Absolutely so as you say that, i am the K
five program senior program director. I've been with Friends for
almost thirteen years. I started out as a mentor and
then when my kiddos graduated, then I moved into a
leadership position. So now I just am you know, supervising
(12:21):
and just kind of being that point of contact for
the people who are doing the work. That's how I'm
connected now I don't do the direct service, but I.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Support the people who do.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
And also I am just looking at how we can improve
programming and just give our youth a better experience and
then prepare them to go into our team program.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well that's amazing because your boots on the ground, you
know exactly how it worked. What did you learn from
mentoring that helps you in a supervisory position.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
Oh that's a good one. I think patience. And it's
weird because you think, like, oh, you work with adults now,
but in a lot of ways, it's like I'm still mentoring.
It just I'm mentoring adults just kind of support them
and just be there for them and you know, get
them the tools that they needed. In a lot of ways,
it's similar to what I used to do. It's just
(13:08):
you know, it' t hapving that secondary impact because I'm
not the one doing the work directly anymore.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Well, you're mentoring to mentor essentially, right, Yes, yes, okay,
So can you take me back to when you started
with Friends of the Children in Seattle?
Speaker 3 (13:23):
What were your experiences like when you started?
Speaker 4 (13:26):
When I started, so it's interesting, I was working with
mostly school age children and my previous job so that
was like five to twelve year olds. And then when
I came to Friends, like I jumped directly into working
with middle school, high school. So that was kind of
a shift in itself, but it was yeah, it was good,
It was it was it was different, and there was
(13:47):
you know, challenging at first because you know, teenage girls
are not known for being super receptive.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Have been one, but can can confirm yes, yeah yes, but.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Over time, like you, you know, you go through a
few silent carses and then one day they start talking
and it doesn't stop and you're like, all right, I
did it.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Oh, I love that. That's so nice.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
What drew you to come work with this awesome organization?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
My background was in I used to work at a
group home for children in foster care, and we were
just kind of there to stabilize them and get them
ready for you know, a traditional foster home or to
be reunified with their families, and that most we had
children there for maybe a year or two, and I
never knew what happened after that.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
So when I got to come to Friends, being able
to have that long term relationship and really just watch
these kids grow and be a part of that, and
I'm lucky to still have some connections with the kids,
and even the ones I don't, you know, have the
strongest connections with. If they called me at any time,
I'm there, You're.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
An angel out there.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Donica and Lank joining me senior director of the K
through five Programs for Friends of the Children here in Seattle.
And I would imagine that it's not the kids that
you have an impact on, Tanaka, I would imagine that
the families as well, because a kid who needs mentoring
probably you know, they're going through something at school, maybe
they're going through something at home.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
How is the interaction with the families.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
The interaction with the families, it could kind of go
a variety of ways. You know, when you're first coming in,
you're like, Hey, I'm gonna hang out with your kid,
which is not the most appealing thing initially, totally understand. So, yeah,
so you have to come in and you're you know,
you're building that relationship with the family and it could
be slow, but some families will take to you right away.
(15:36):
But the ones that you have to like, really work
for it are probably the most valuable ones.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
For me.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I've had, you know, kids I've dropped off at the
door and one day I made it into like the
entryway of the house, and I was like, oh, I've
made it okay inside. But you know, looking at it,
sometimes we're the parents or the caregivers only other adult
contact and just being able to kind of provide that
support to them and build community with them. And whether
it's like just in those mentor interactions, or if they
(16:03):
come to like our family engagement events so they can
connect other families and other mentors and just continue to
build their own community.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's wonderful. I think that's great.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And the patience that you had mentioned in building trust,
I feel like someone who is in a situation like
I had said, who goes to your program, the trust
factor is probably not as high as someone who's in
a consistently stable school and home environment. I mean, you have, obviously,
from what you've said, has shown a ton of trust.
(16:35):
How do you I mean, I'm not going to ask
you to talk about all of your background and everything
when it comes to education and how you got here,
but what kind of steps should people know to take
in patience when it comes to building trust.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
For our program especially, it's really about the consistency. So
it's knowing that we're going to show up week after
week and see your child and give them really great
experience and some days, you know, the experiences might not
be great, but we're still showing up. And where it's
that consistency piece. I think that helps to start build
the trust. And then you hope that the kids will
(17:10):
go home and say really good things about you. Further, yeah,
you kind of hope that that'll help build, you know,
bridge the rest of the gap.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
That makes a ton of sense. It's hard. It is hard.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
I mean I come from a pretty privileged at least
when it comes to a stable family environment. I am
privileged enough to have grown up with that, and trusting
is hard even for me, and so I would imagine
that that could be pretty difficult. It's Donica Lang joining me,
senior director of K through five programs of Friends of
(17:43):
the Children here in Seattle, and jessam Man McIntyre and
this is Seattle Voice. Now I ask this to Edgar,
and I always like my guests who have an impact
on the community to maybe share a story. You don't
have to if you don't want to. But my mom
always read this short story to me growing up. It's
called the Starfish story. And there's a girl with you know,
on the beach and there's thousands of starfish washed up
(18:06):
and she's chucking them back into the sea one by one.
They're all going to dry up. And a gentleman comes
over and says, what are you doing.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
That doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
You're not going to save them all, And she throws
one into the sea and says, it matters to that one.
And that has stuck with me through my entire life.
And if you could just do one good thing for
one good person, impact one good anything in your entire life,
every day or every chance that you get, I find
that to be extremely valuabue. Now you have like a
ton of them, obviously, and I'm wondering if you have
(18:36):
one or two that maybe stick out to you that
you might want to share.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
I think I just, you know, because Angel is the
one I probably still have the strongest relationship with, and
just you know, I came into her life not too
long after her mother had passed away, and then you know,
some years later she had written me this car that
I still have, and she was just talking about like
how important our relationship was and how she hadn't felt
(19:02):
so close to somebody in that long time as she
did with her mom, and.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
I felt that.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
I was like, you know, I don't have to do
anything else like that was I I made a difference
with this kid, and knowing that we still have a relationship. Yeah,
I feel truly grateful.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
I would too.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That makes all the difference sometimes is just knowing that
you can be there for someone. I one hundred percent agree. Well, Donica,
it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Thank
you so much for joining and for all that you
do for those that want to get involved. I know
when Edgara explained to me, obviously these are highly trained
people who are the mentors.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
But are there are other ways.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
For people in the community to get involved with Friends
of the Children.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Absolutely, you can. You know, donating to our cause is
always great, keeping us doing the great work. You can
also volunteer too, if you want to host job shadows
or any career based activities with our youth, or you
want to teach them a life skill, you want to
come and bake, We can pretty much make anything work.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
And how do people find you?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
You could find us at Friendsseattle dot org and our
office is located in the Columbia.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
City neighborhood Beautiful. I love Columbia City. It's a great neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
All right.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Well, Donaga, thank you so much for joining us, and
I am really excited to talk to Angel next.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
I really appreciate your time and everything that you do.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Justin then it's a pleasure again.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Thank you for listening to Seattle Voice, your community Voice,
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle. And now I have the pleasure
of being joined by Angel, who is an alumna from
Friends of the Children in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Angel, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
This is great because I've already learned so much and
so have our listeners about Friends of the Children, and
you went through the program. And I always like for
listeners to get to know the people that I'm talking
to without me just talking about them. So how did
you get involved in What has the program done for you?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
I got involved straight out of kindergarten. I remember a
couple of people coming to observe the classroom and I
was wondering what they were doing. And then they were
at my house for an interview with my mom. A
couple of weeks later, they did tell me like it
was a program, that I would be meeting with someone
once a week and that I'd be doing different kinds
of activities.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And throughout my entire career.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
From kindergarten to high school, I've been within that program
and it has helped me personally exponentially. I've had the
opportunity to do classes. I've had the opportunity to do snowboarding.
I used to do poetry slam through them. They had
camping trips, they had workshops, So we were allowed access
to a lot of opportunities and experiences that you aren't
(21:44):
usually granted in those kind of environments. Because I grew
up with a lot of siblings and we were struggling financially.
Only one parent was working, and so there wasn't that
bright of a future for me. But when friends of
the children stepped in, it allowed me the opportunity to
see outside of what I was raised in and it
changed how my future went.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
So you started right out of kindergarten, those are amazing
opportunities and experiences that a lot of children don't get
to go through, and especially that early in life that
is pretty amazing. What kept you going because you know,
I talked to Donaka earlier and she had talked about
the patients that takes when it comes to keeping kids
in the program or even reaching their families, and so
(22:29):
what kept you going back?
Speaker 5 (22:32):
For me, my life with my family at the time,
we had gone through a lot, and I had been
through two mentors before I had met Donica, And at
that time that I met Donica, my mother had just
asked I had moved up north, and there was a
lot of concern regarding staying within the program because while
I was in Seattle, it was a lot easier for
them to commute to me versus coming all the way
(22:53):
up to Lynwood, which is a twenty to thirty minute drive.
And Donica, my favorite person in the world, did it
every Friday without hesitation. She was always there. And for me,
I don't know about anyone else, but for me personally,
it was the light at the end of the tunnel.
It was a day where I knew I could get away,
I could talk about things that I could get away
for a bit and have that safe have And so
(23:15):
for me, it really was like a safe place that
was where I was able to relax and know, Okay,
things are going to be Okay. You have this break,
you can make your future different. And I had the
opportunities to see programs while I did that, so I
was constantly focusing on trying to just do better and
take as many options for experiences as I could so
that when later in life, I had more experience on
(23:36):
things and it would help me move up in my
job and career.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Can you take us from just out of kindergarten to
where you are right now?
Speaker 3 (23:43):
We'd love to learn more about what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah. So I was.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
In kindergarten in Seattle when I started in the program.
They were fairly new when I started as well, so
I watched them go from house to house for like
a so how do I explain it for kind of
like a base where everyone went.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
I got to grow up.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
With a lot of people that were in my own
schools and community. And one thing that really was big
for me is I was in a lot of the
poetry sessions they had, So I've been writing since I
was in kindergarten, and that's one of my biggest hobbies.
I'm now a clerk for a municipal court here in Washington.
And part of what got me there is the amount
(24:26):
of experiences that I had writing poetry, being able to
write essays. We actually had a couple of times where
our poems were published in a book, and I believe
the Friends of Children has all of those editions. And
so writing got me into a number of things, and
I tried everything. I went from construction to boeing, to caregiving,
to owning a business doing insurance sales, and now I
(24:47):
work at the court and writing up anything I can
regarding court hearings.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It sounds like Friends of the Children taught you that
Skuy was lomit exactly.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
It was one thing I learned is you miss a
hunt sort of percent of the opportunities you don't take,
and at the very least you can give it a
try and see if you like it.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I love that again.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Angel is joining me here, who is an alumna from
the Friends of Children in Seattle.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
This is Seattle Voice with jessm and McIntyre.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Do you have any really formative moments that while you
were going through the program, Obviously you were there for
a long time.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
You were in the program for a long time.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
I don't make it mean it to sound like a
school like you were there the whole time, but you
were in the program and you stayed through. Do you
have any formative memories from.
Speaker 5 (25:30):
That From the program? A lot?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
I learned one. I don't like camping. We should do
camping trips.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
A lot, and I do not not for everybody at all,
But those moments really taught me a lot about myself.
You had the opportunity to learn yourself outside of your family,
and for me, I'm a very nosy person, so to speak.
I'm very curious, and they allowed me to do anything.
There'd be time where some some other children weren't able
(25:57):
to make it because their family had other plans going
on with WHI was another part of keeping kids in
the program, and sometimes the family wasn't as cooperative with
keeping kids in.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
The family and the program.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
But my parents were very let her have everything, and
so there was a lot of times where they would
just see if I wanted to be picked up, if
I was willing to go, and the answer was always yes.
So there's times I've been snowboarding, There's times I've gone
to water parks, there's times I've gone the workshops, I
went to college trips with them. So they actually came
and picked us up and took us all to Western Washington,
(26:27):
and so I got to see what the college was like.
You know, the auditorium was my favorite portion of is
the auditorium in there.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
It was beautiful.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
It's like exactly where I wanted to give speeches.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
And so I got to see a lot.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
And it was always with Donna and Donnaka would tell
me about, you know, other people she's met, and like
other career stances. We would watch different movies, so I
got to see life in its fullest.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
I basically got.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
A large panorama of life every time I was with them,
And I do think it has to you have to
require a certain mindset in order to try to find
something in every day. But they were really good about
trying to open up the eyes of those they were
working with into knowing there is more than.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Just what you see.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yes, that is absolutely amazing. I wouldn't have thought of
that part of it. But you know, you learned that
you don't like camping, but you still went camping to
learn that.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Right, Yes, you have to go to learn, don't you. Yes, exactly.
You're a fascinating person. Angel. This is really awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
But you know, do you think that you would have
been as curious in life if you hadn't experienced what
friends of the children have done.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Absolutely not.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I believe this program is one of the best things
that Washington could have. I really think that the whole
nation should have for me. I can't thank them enough
for what they've done. I have friends who have I've
been friends with since I was in kindergarten, and I've
seen the difference between our lives. Right as my mother
had passed, I had moved up north and friends and
(27:55):
children kept with me that kept trying to encourage me.
They've stayed with me and a great eating portions because
I was twelve when she passed. Meanwhile, my friends back
home both had children that same year at the age
of fifteen. So there was a huge difference in the
way my life was. Because I had somebody in my
ear wanting the best for me, hoping for the best
for me, willing to do what they could to make
(28:17):
it happen. I wasn't afforded that opportunity within my family.
That's why it was a saving grace. Every week I
knew I was going to see that person. It was
like a light at the end of the tunnels. If
I could just get through this week, I can see
Donavan thinks they're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
It's unbelievable that someone can be like that for you,
who isn't a family member and is someone who came
into your life. But for a reason, I believe in
that kind of thing. I would think that you do too.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I do.
Speaker 5 (28:40):
Donica is now family to me. I still see her
even after graduating from the program. We get together every
couple of months or so to just get dinner and
catch up. So Friends for Children is really for life,
because truly you never you never truly leave, but you
never want to. I always want to be involved with
them and helping them spread the information. Tell people anywhere
(29:01):
I am about it when they ask me about organizations
that are close to my heart as Friends of the
Children as the top of the list.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
And it is rapidly climbing mine.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
To be honest, I work with various charities and I
hadn't been aware. A friend of mine at work has
a friend who's a board member and directed me here,
and I wanted to hear your stories, so I can't
thank you enough for sharing yours and your time. I
know you're busy, you're probably at work at the courthouse
right now, so very very much enjoyed talking to you.
Thank you, Angel, and I hope to reconnect in the
(29:31):
future to tell more stories like yours.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
Of course, thank you for having me. I'm really happy
that I was able to participate in this and that
somebody is sharing the story of friends with the children,
because it's one that everyone needs to hear.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
One hundred percent amazing stories from some amazing people. This
is Jessman McIntyre, your host of Seattle Voice, your community voice,
presented by iHeartRadio Seattle and Remember. For show ideas or
to find out how your voice can be heard, email
Seattle Voice at iHeartMedia dot com.
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