Richmond Times-Disptach
RICHMOND, Va. — Jason Kerrick was 8 years old when he decided he was going to become a firefighter, hoping to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and save lives.
What he hadn’t foreseen was a series of family problems that often left him hungry, and saw his mother in and out of a shelter for battered women. But a few mentors helped Kerrick, now 44, overcome his childhood struggles, become a firefighter and ultimately discover another calling: helping other children overcome troubled family lives.
“I had people who helped me, and that’s why I’m where I am today,” said Kerrick, a lieutenant with Hanover Fire & EMS. “You’ve got to be an advocate for these kids. And that’s what I’m trying to be.”
Kerrick has provided foster care for 11 children and adopted a young boy, now 2½ years old, who struggled with prenatal drug addiction. And Kerrick recently helped launch an organization, Virginia’s Resource Family Auxiliary, to provide foster care and mentorship services.
Unable to have their own children, Kerrick and his wife, Gail Odell-Kerrick, considered becoming foster parents. He decided to do it after learning about the harsh conditions and abuse some children endure — and reflecting on how a few people had very positive influences on him as a child.
“It’s definitely changed me. It’s opened my eyes,” Kerrick said of his foster children.
On a recent night at the Kerricks’ home, their two foster children wrapped the couple’s 2-year-old adopted son, Gage, in a blanket and pretended he was lost underneath.
After showing off her well-kept room, the couple’s youngest foster child grabbed Jason Kerrick’s leg as he walked and cracked jokes about his bald head.
“He’s helpful, and he’s caring, and he’s loving, and he’s comfy like a pillow sometimes,” said the young child, who must remain anonymous for safety reasons.
The child said Odell-Kerrick is “nice, sweet, loving, caring” and “has a big brain.”
Odell-Kerrick said her husband’s love for people is what has made him both a great firefighter and a caregiver.
“I know this sounds (like a) cliché, but Jason would lay down his life for anybody,” she said, adding that he’s very protective of the children.
Kerrick said his youngest foster child had once been very shy. But on a recent night, the child danced around the kitchen while discussing plans to become an art teacher.
Kerrick said a mentor through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, whom he remembers only as Gary, mentored him as a youth and proved how he could help others.
“As a child, I came from a broken home,” Kerrick said. “My dad was extremely abusive … so I lived in a shelter for a while.”
Kerrick said Gary would pick him up for short periods on weekends to talk, have fun, and eat what was sometimes his only full meal in days.
Kerrick recalled Gary telling him that he could succeed at anything in life.
“ ‘You can do it,’ ” Kerrick recalled Gary telling him. “‘Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you’ll never make it in life.’”
Kerrick, his wife and local social services worker Vickie Ladd are in the process of obtaining nonprofit status for their new organization, Virginia’s Resource Family Auxiliary.
They plan to create a distribution center to collect and distribute items for foster children, including clothes, high chairs and other items. Among other services, the organization is in the early stages of establishing a mentorship program and providing training for prospective caregivers.
Virginia’s Resource Family Auxiliary is accepting donations, including money, clothing, and other items for youth. Organizers say 100 percent of the donations will go toward the program.
The organization is also seeking volunteers, including mentors, as well as building space, to store donations.
Copyright 2013 Richmond Times-Dispatch
All Rights Reserved