Heraldnet.com
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010 6:42 pm
ADVERTISEMENT

LocalNorthwestNation & WorldPoliticsSpecial ReportsPhotosColumnistsMultimedia 
Blog
Midday Snacks
HBO's ‘Treme,' 'Boardwalk Empire' trailers are here!
Your town news
Julie Muhlstein
Columnist Julie Muhlstein's take on life in Snohomish County.
•Latest: Hear musical firefighters on bagpipes and drums for St. Patrick’s Day
Kristi O'Harran
Columnist Kristi O'Harran writes about people in Snohomish County.
•Latest: Tourism director knows Camano’s hidden gems
Latest gallery

Summit Academy
March 8. 2010 (10 photos)
[More Herald photos]
 
WEEK IN REVIEW
Tuesday


Local beef — lots of it
16-year-old girl convicted in Sultan gang murder
Lawmakers start haggling budget, again
Monday


A gift for a gifted kid
An early start to allergy season
Students to have their first look at ‘WAS...
Sunday


Stillaguamish Tribe carves a link to its long-l...
Paine Field results delayed by months
The Hub, a Snohomish institution, closes
Saturday


Shock at fish killings in Mill Creek
Former Snohomish County planning director charged
Murder suspect James Fryberg back in custody
Friday


Told there's no buyer for pea crop, farmers adjust
Everett courts water-bottling company
Alcohol, marijuana cited in fatal wrong-way crash
Thursday


Special session likely to finish budget, tax in...
County to pay builders $1.7 million to settle s...
Cut through solid-white lines and it could cost...
Wednesday


New high-tech tool aids searchers after avalanches
Boeing to boost output of 787s
Everett routinely sees people break anti-dumpin...
 

ADVERTISEMENT

Local News   Print This Article  Email This Page  Subscribe Now! facebook digg reddit del.icio.us fark stumble

Kristi O’Harran / The Herald  (click to enlarge)
Jim Richards (left) volunteers for Vision Quest Family Services in Arlington. Maddy Krygier is executive director of the new program that aims to raise money for a teen center.
 
ADVERTISEMENT

 
 
CONTACT THE HERALD
Robert Frank, City Editor
frank@heraldnet.com
 
Published: Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Arlington dreams big with teen center-skate park

Bored teenagers can get into mischief.

Rather than wring hands about kids with too much time and idle hands, there’s a plan in motion in Arlington to occupy the little dears.

They’re aiming high.

Hopes are to lease a building large enough to create both a family center and a teen dream — an indoor skateboard park.

The ball got rolling in May when Maddy Krygier of Marysville became executive director of Vision Quest Family Services to help foster teens and their families. She has been a foster mother for 20 years and shares her home with American Indian foster teens ages 14, 16 and 17.

Krygier has experience as a crisis mental health worker, case manager in a treatment foster program and a supervisor in a juvenile residential treatment program.

“I believe the most effective way to reach youth is to open your heart and show you care,” she said.

Vision Quest headquarters is at The Bookshelf at 102 E. Division St., Arlington. The used book shop in Arlington is managed by volunteer Jim Richards of Camano Island. He hopes to interest teens in reading.

“I try to tell them there is another world in books, right in your home,” Richards said. “Reading itself is a joy.”

Richards and Krygier share a small office at the store. It’s one of the drop-off points for the Vision Quest foster child gift drive that continues through Dec. 18.

It isn’t just to gather things for under the tree. They hope to keep some gifts in a closet. Krygier knows how kids feel on lonely birthdays. She would like keep presents on hand throughout the year.

Deliver goods for foster children and teens at The Bookshelf; Three Peas in a Pod, 314 N. Olympic Ave., Arlington; Windmill Espresso, 931 Stevens Ave., Sultan; or The Klothing Vault, 20308 77th Ave. NE, Suite B, Arlington.

For more information, call 360-474-9998 or e-mail visionquestyouth@aol.com.

In the spring, they hope to open the Vision Quest Teen & Family Community Center in Smokey Point. They have a lead on a warehouse.

“Vision Quest Family Services has been very blessed,” Krygier said. “We are still negotiating the lease and trying to secure funding.”

She knows it takes many hands to create a teen center.

“If we do it together, we are stronger,” she said.

But don’t foster families get plenty of state money to amuse teens?

She chuckled.

Krygier receives about $400 per month to provide for each youth, she said.

One of her boys wants to go snowboarding this winter, but there isn’t any money for that, Krygier said. She has enough trouble keeping him in skateboarding shoes that constantly wear out.

She said she hopes to make the teen haven fly with age-appropriate activities.

“If they think it’s corny and hokey, they won’t go,” she said.

Kristi O’Harran: oharran@heraldnet.com, 425-229-2451.

Help the cause

Vision Quest Family Services is collecting gifts through Dec. 18 for foster kids for both Christmas and birthdays. Deliver goods to The Bookshelf, 102 E. Division St. in Arlington; Three Peas in a Pod, 314 N. Olympic Ave., Arlington; Windmill Espresso, 931 Stevens Ave., Sultan; and The Klothing Vault, 20308 77th Ave. NE, Suite B, Arlington.

For more information, call 360-474-9998 or e-mail visionquestyouth@aol.com.

COMMENTS | Be the first to comment

Log in or register to post a new comment.


To read other terms and conditions, click here

Other Advertisers
TODAY'S TOP JOBS
 View All Top Jobs 
Top Cars
Top Homes

ADVERTISEMENT