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Eckerd Youth Alternatives celebrates 40 years of success
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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![[Image]](/content_images/052108_cit-01.jpg) |
| Photo by ALEXANDRA CALDWELL |
| Nancy Eckerd-Hart, stands next to a picture of her parents, Ruth and Jack Eckerd, who founded Eckerd Youth Alternatives in 1968. The program helps children and teens with social and behavioral problems. Eckerd-Hart spoke at the 40th anniversary celebration of the program May 16. |
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CLEARWATER – Melissa Jones of Ocala rebelled after her sheltered childhood. She drank, stole and did drugs.
Samantha Keys of Crystal River, came from a rough family and faced her problems with fists and screaming.
Allyson Reid, a freshman at Seminole High School, had a hard time coping with her parents’ divorce and her father’s remarriage.
And in 1971, Jackie Jarvis refused to go to school.
All of these women said they’re afraid to know where they would be today if they hadn’t attended the outdoor therapeutic programs of Eckerd Youth Alternatives. It changed their lives.
These women shared their stories at Eckerd Youth Alternatives’ 40th Anniversary May 16 at the Clearwater headquarters.
The nonprofit program was founded in 1968 by Jack and Ruth Eckerd. After making a fortune with Eckerd drug stores, they wanted to give back to the community.
“He wanted to invest some of that money back in Florida, and he thought kids were a great way to do that because they are the future,” said Nancy Eckerd-Hart, Jack and Ruth’s daughter and member of the board of directors for Eckerd Youth Alternatives.
Jack founded a wilderness camp in Brooksville in 1968 to help troubled boys. Back then, Eckerd-Hart said, the main problems were truancy, trouble with their parents or maybe a stolen car. The next year, a girls camp followed called E-Nini-Hassee in Floral City. In 40 years, the program has exploded: It’s in nine states, has helped about 80,000 young people and has more than 40 programs ranging from alternative day schools and day treatment programs to early prevention services and the outdoor therapeutic programs.
In the outdoor therapeutic programs, kids live in tents in the woods for months with counselors and other campers to overcome their behavioral problems.
When Samantha Keys first arrived at E-Nini-Hassee eight years ago, she hated it.
“At first it was the bugs,” Keys said. “And then talking about my issues. Working with everybody. I was never really open to anyone before.”
Before going to camp, Keys would get so angry she said she would blackout and not remember the fights she had. Eventually it got so bad she was forced to take home-schooling. But this made things even worse since she already didn’t get along with her mom. Keys said she got scared after she tried to kill herself with a pain killer overdose and asked to go to E-Nini-Hassee before it was too late.
Eventually she let down the walls she’d built and shared her feelings with her counselors and fellow campers. At camp, if one kid acts up, everyone in the small group of 10 sits down to discuss the problem and how it affected the other kids and counselors. Now she can voice her concerns, and if her feelings are hurt, she said she’ll talk about it rather than yell or “get crazy.” She doesn’t want to know where she’d be if it hadn’t been for the program.
“I’d probably be in prison or not on this earth anymore,” Keys said. “It was that serious. I’m a completely different person now.”
Keys is a certified nursing assistant and plans to move to Ocala in the fall to become a registered nurse. She also hopes to speak to troubled teens about her experience to help them find a way out of their situations.
In 1971, Jackie Jarvis arrived at E-Nini-Hassee as an 11 year old who wouldn’t go to school. In her two years at the camp, she floated 1,300 miles down the Mississippi River from Iowa to New Orleans on a raft that the 10 campers and three counselors built themselves.
There wasn’t official schooling in the camp in those years, unlike today. But they learned history as they stopped at historical sites, and they learned math and measurements as they chopped down trees. They learned teamwork as they worked together, and they learned how to talk about their problems.
When Jarvis graduated from the program at age 13, she couldn’t go back to a traditional school. She’d learned so much in the program that she’d tested into 11th grade.
“I never wanted to leave,” Jarvis said. “I went there kicking and screaming and I came out kicking and screaming. We became very close. Everything I know today, and everything I am today, I owe to them. I had a wonderful family, don’t get me wrong, but I learned so many things at camp.”
One of her favorite visitors while at camp was Louie Barrington, known to campers as Chief Lou. Barrington visited the camp after a friend told him about Eckerd Youth Alternatives. He fell in love with it and gave his word to work with the kids for two years. That has turned into nearly 27 years.
“I always tell my counselors, God has the power to create life, but he gave us the job of shaping it, training it, and developing it,” Barrington said. “That’s our job to bring a child up in the woods.”
Barrington believes that the program creates good people, good communities and a good nation.
“When we have good people in families, we have good families,” Barrington said. “Good families make for good communities. Good communities make for good cities. Good cities make for good states, which make for a good nation. So the quality of life we find helping a child find better ways to do things, to be a productive citizen, is a win-win-win for everyone. And it doesn’t happen one time. I pass it on to her and she passes it on to her children and their children.”
Like Jarvis, Melissa Jones of Ocala, said she has a good family, but she was sheltered. She went to a private school until ninth grade and then rebelled. She was heavily into drugs, alcohol and parties. A line of arrests brought her to Eckerd Youth Alternatives.
“I was disrespectful to my parents,” Jones said. “I didn’t care about them at all. I didn’t care about myself.”
Once at E-Nini-Hassee, the hardest thing for Jones was to overcome her denial and learn about herself.
“Camp taught me to believe in myself and to have self-confidence,” Jones said. “To be independent but still ask for help when I need it.”
The counselors accomplished this by treating her like a human and like she meant something to someone, she said. Now she’s studying psychology at Central Florida Community College and thinks about volunteering at camp someday to help kids like her.
In the next 40 years, Eckerd-Hart looks forward to helping many more children.
“My dad used to joke that it would be great to one day come to the office and say we have to close our doors because there are no more kids who need our help. They’ve all been helped now,” Eckerd-Hart said. “But realistically we know that’s not going to happen, so the goal is to help as many kids as we possibly can.”
Eckerd Youth Alternatives will soon help even more children. It’s expected that it will take over the foster care program for Pinellas and Pasco counties by July.
To learn more about Eckerd Youth Alternatives, go to www.eckerd.org or call 1-800-554-4357. Also, the organization is selling cookbooks for $20 with recipes from people involved with or friends of Eckerd Youth Alternatives. All proceeds go toward the program.
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Article published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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