Page 25 of 3 Daddies to Go

We want to learn about her town, but we want to learn about her, too. After she acts as a tour guide to the outside world, she’ll have to show us more of that curvy figure, too.

11

Kendall

It doesn’t matter if I’ve had a shitty week or a great week, the highlight is always coming to the Sunshine Program and seeing all the kids.

“Ms. Kendall! Ms. Kendall!” the morning crew calls out when I arrive. “Ms. Kendall, are you married now? Ms. Auburn said you were at a wedding!”

I laugh and pat the curious six-year-old’s head. “No, Cayden, I’m not married. It was my best friend’s wedding, so she’s the married woman now.”

He lets out a relieved breath. “Thank goodness, Ms. Kendall. You can’t ever get married.”

“And why is that?”

“Because then you’ll leave us! We don’t want that to happen. We like you too much. Some of those other girls are mean.”

I pull Cayden in for a hug. He’s been at the program since he was four years old. Most kids don’t start that early, but he’s a unique case. His parents run a hardware store in town, and it’s not doing well. Two years ago, his mom went back to her old job in Atlanta to make ends meet. That’s when she started dropping Cayden off here. She can’t afford daycare. The program is always free. That’s the kind of situation we’re here for.

I started at the Sunshine Program during college. They have branches all over Georgia, and they’re starting to make their way into neighboring states as well.

Back then, I was basically a maid. I went to the program center after classes, which usually meant I didn’t get there until six at night. The kids leave by five, so I never got much interaction with them. Instead, I cleaned up and made sure the place was neat and tidy for the next morning. Even though I didn’t get to work with the kids directly, I still loved it.

When I finished school and got the job atSmexy, I thought I was done with the Sunshine Program. I was surprised when the program director, Judy, asked me to continue on as a volunteer. They had just started up the program in Boone, and they needed as many hands as they could get. I was hesitant at first, since it would mean facetime with the kids when that had never been my forte. Now, I can’t imagine my life without these kids.

“Don’t worry, Cayden,” I say gently. “I’m not getting married any time soon.”

My comments appease him, and he runs off with his friends. One of the main components of the program is that the kids get food. Knowing their kids have two to three meals a day helps ease their parents’ minds.

Today, breakfast is being served on the picnic tables outside. It never gets all that cold in Boone, so we’re outside year-round as long as it doesn’t rain. Even then, the kids like to jump around in puddles and look for rainbows. We try to clean them up as best we can before we send them home to their parents.

As a morning volunteer, my job is to make sure no one chokes or starts a food fight. After breakfast, the kids clean up their places and then they head to their first activity. We have arts and crafts, sporting equipment, a reading room, and a bunch of other things set up to keep them occupied. The Sunshine Program is basically like a summer camp, except we’re open all year and the parents never have to pay a dime. The program is run as a non-profit and survives only on donations. That’s why we do the big end-of-summer bash. It’s partially a party for the kids, but it’s mostly a schmooze-fest for potential donors.

Another morning volunteer, Auburn, makes her way over to me.

“Morning, Kendall. It’s good to have you back. These kids really missed you. I don’t know what they’ll do if you ever quit.”

I laugh. “You gave them quite the scare.”

“I told them it was your friend’s wedding!” she says, chuckling. “These rugrats just pick and choose what they want to hear.”

“Seriously!” I respond. “It’s a constant game of telephone around them.”

“Do kids still play telephone? Maybe we should make that an activity.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I say. “I’ll bring it up with Margot.”

Margot is the activities director and one of three total paid people in the entire program. The others are the community coordinator, who goes around to every town in Georgia to gauge the need for the program, and the marketing director, who gets the word out and gathers donations. Everyone else is a volunteer.

Because I’ve been around a while, I’m considered a top-tier volunteer. I’m not paid, obviously, but I do attend monthly meetings with the directors. I also help find new volunteers every season and coordinate schedules so we’re never short-handed.

“Ms. Kendall!” A young, red-headed boy bounds up to us. “Ms. Auburn, look, Ms. Kendall is back!”

I give Damian a big hug. “I was only gone for three days, kiddo.”

“Yeah, but you missed campout! That’s like a whole century!”

We all laugh. “I hear you had a good time. Ms. Lacy sent me some photos.”