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Rotaract members spruce up child visitation center.
Members of the Athens Technical College Rotaract Club recently tackled a landscaping project to spruce up a special home
that provides a visitation setting for children in foster care and children involved in parental or familial custody disputes.
The Ralph Stephens Family Time Community Visitation Center at 693 N. Pope St. is named for a Ralph Stephens, a
teacher and children’s advocate who has been a generous supporter of Athens-based nonprofit Children First. The center is run
under the umbrella of Children First that promotes safe homes for children in times of family crisis. The visitation center features a
living room, kitchen, playroom and a playground. The visitation center offers families the chance to interact in a neutral, homelike, family-centered space, maintaining connections and fostering healing and growth.
After hearing a presentation about the center, members of Rotaract — the college’s Rotary-sponsored service club, —
found out the agency was in need, and they were inspired to help, said Jane Brown, Athens Technical College’s director of student
affairs.
“We took (a college) van full of Rotaract members to the site to discuss the center’s needs with the social workers who
work there,” Ms. Brown said. “After seeing the weeds, leaves, and bramble in the front yard, we decided that the best project we
could tackle during this academic year would be to plant flowers and lay sod in the front yard of the home.”
On two different Saturdays, members of Rotaract worked at the Ralph Stephens Family Time Community Visitation
Center and gave the front yard a face lift. On April 21, Kala Jones, Panda Jones and Thomas McNair planted flowers that were
donated to the project. On June 9, Anzio Gartrell, the club’s president, along with Mac Brown, D.J. Spinkston and Jen Ciarochi,
tilled the yard and laid in sod that was donated to the group.
“Now the center has curb appeal and will look more like a “home” when children come to visit,” Ms. Brown said.
Photo caption: Athens Technical College Rotaract President Anzio Gartrell scrapes up weeds and old grass at the Ralph Stephens
Family Time Community Visitation Center as club member D.J. Spinkston stands by to help.
Don Nelson
706 227-5460
http://www.athenstech.edu/Spotlight.cfm?i=378
6/20/2012
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