| June 2004 A publication of The Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless NASNA member 907 Logan Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247 307-634-8499 fax: 307-634-9089 © 2004 email: wch@vcn.com PAGE DOWN FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS |
 Wyoming Winds is published by the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, 907 Logan Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247. phone: 307-634-8499; fax: 307-634-9089. email: wch@vcn.com Editor for this edition of Wyoming Winds is Virginia Sellner. Views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Wyoming Coalition for the Homeless, its staff or board. Copyrights revert back to the author upon publication. WCH is a 501(c)(3) all volunteer non-profit agency depending upon the community, foundation and corporate grants for funding. Donations may be mailed to 907 Logan Avenue, Cheyenne, WY 82001-5247. If you would like your donation to be used for a specific need please indicate this on your check. © 2004 **In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.** By Carolyn Bower St. Louis Post-Dispatch Kim Davis, 18, is excited to show her senior prom pictures to resident advisor Tracy Welch while in her Covenant House room in St. Louis. (Gabriel Tait/P-D) spacer Kimberly Marie Davis' nights were once so uncertain, she did not know where she would lay her head. Her mornings were so rocky that she missed her bus to school. Sometimes, Kimberly would sit on the curb and weep. Today, the people Kimberly found along the way to love and support her will watch her graduate as an honor roll student from Marquette High School in the Rockwood School District. Kim, 18, made the honor roll while working more than 30 hours a week and commuting between school and work in Chesterfield and a homeless shelter in St. Louis. Kim remembers times when she did not want to go to school. She struggled with asthma. Her mother battled a drug problem. The family moved frequently. Kim said she came to realize only she could make herself go to school, and to do well. "I needed to make it, and I needed to prove to myself I could do it," Kim said. Her mother, Donna Stewart, now 34, enrolled Kim in kindergarten at Rockwood's Chesterfield Elementary School as part of the voluntary desegregation program. Stewart said a lack of transportation, her struggle with drugs and later the responsibilities of taking care of Kim's five brothers and sisters kept her from attending Kim's school events. The teenager has lost touch with her father. Today Kim will become the first in her family to finish high school and go on to college. She couldn't have done it alone. One day in third grade, Kim went home with a classmate, Jillian Kinney, so she could attend a musical event. Soon Kim was visiting Jill and spending an occasional night at her house. Jill's mother, Jane Kinney, works with families in the Parents as Teachers program in the Parkway School District. Jill's father, Hugh Kinney, is superintendent of the Pattonville School District. The Kinneys took Kim to restaurants, to a Cardinals baseball game and to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for a family vacation. They celebrated birthdays with Kim. Jane Kinney attended parent-teacher conferences on Kim's behalf and helped her get treatment for her asthma. Kim called Jane Kinney her godmother. She bestowed the same nickname on Marilyn Ballard, her school nurse at Crestview Middle School. Ballard listened to Kim, took her shopping, helped her with school work - which was not always easy. Kim's asthma forced her to miss classes sometimes; she was so short of breath she had to give up track. She needed extra help with reading comprehension and writing. In middle school, her grades fell to D's and F's. Kim began high school at Lafayette with Jill Kinney, but she had to transfer to Marquette in her junior year because of where she lived in the city. This school year, she checked herself into the Covenant House, which operates two shelters for young people ages 17 to 21. The transfer to Marquette was difficult for the shy girl, who cried some days because she knew so few people. Asthma kept Kim from qualifying to join the military, but she still participated in JROTC at both high schools. Several weeks ago, she lettered - an M for Marquette - for having a grade-point average above 3.5 "For someone to overcome what she has had to overcome, for someone to keep up her grades, that speaks highly of her," said Richard Bass, the 12th-grade principal at Marquette. Support from Kinney and Ballard kept Kim going. They told her C's were not acceptable. Kim said, "If I didn't have them in my life, I wouldn't say I wouldn't have finished school, but I wouldn't have had the strong motivation to finish as an honor roll student." Three days a week, Kim works at Chick-Fil-A in Chesterfield. Owner Mark McCarty calls her an excellent worker. She spends two hours riding three buses home to Covenant House from the restaurant at Chesterfield Mall. Kim received a scholarship to cover some expenses at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, where she's enrolled. She wants to be a pediatric nurse at St. Louis Children's Hospital, where she was treated for asthma. "I liked how they took care of me," Kim said. "I'd like to give back what I received." Kim recently walked across the auditorium stage at Marquette High School to accept a medallion and a certificate signed by President George W. Bush for being educationally most improved. Kinney was on hand to applaud. She will be there today, too, when Kim graduates from Marquette in a ceremony at Queeny Park in west St. Louis County. Kim's relatives and other friends, including Marilyn Ballard, also will be there. Kinney said Kim inspired and amazed her. "You see what she goes through, but nothing stops her from achieving her goal of graduating from high school and going on to college. People comment that I am nice to help Kim, but Kim is the one doing all of this. "This girl does not give up." KIMBERLY MARIE DAVIS Place of birth: St. Louis |