S t a r f i s h    L e a r n i n g   C e n t e r

Staff

Jerry Bailey, Executive Director

For most of my life I was never involved much with kids. Then in 1992, a friend asked me to volunteer as a youth counselor at a boy’s camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. I agreed. During that week I developed a real love for kids. I knew my calling in life was working with young people. Since then, I’ve been back to that camp every summer and now serve as a program director there.

From that week I went to speak to April, a youth leader in my church. We ended up getting married and working together with children. We have since become speakers, clowns, illusionists and teachers, and have performed for and spoken to young people across the Midwest and even in the Philippines.

I’m proud to be involved in the lives of these children.  I want them to grow up knowing they’re loved, being told there’s nothing they can’t do and having the opportunities most other kids take for granted.

April Love Bailey, Director

I have been a youth leader since 1990, when I began working with junior high students at my church. It truly changed my life.

The vision for Starfish began when Jerry and I started working with inner-city kids in 1992. There is such a difference, such a need, in these kids-educationally, emotionally. But they are also so refreshing, forgiving, funny, loving and brutally honest that they constantly teach us things. But there’s an awesome responsibility that comes with leading the young. They are impressionable, vulnerable and “moldable.” I don’t take that lightly and I consider each child precious and valuable. At Starfish we encourage the children to make good, moral decisions in their lives while allowing them to be who they are. It hurts me to see mothers hitting, yelling or cursing at their young children. Years later, they often reap the heartache and pain they themselves sowed into their child’s life.

Jerry and I have no children of our own yet, but I feel like a second mom to 25 kids in Gateway. Starfish is a vision that had been on our hearts for years. Now that the center is a reality, it’s more rewarding than I ever imagined. It’s great to help children get excited about learning and it’s a true blessing to lead, teach and get to know these kids and to see in their eyes how love, encouragement and commitment impacts them in return.

[WRITE ON: Read an article April wrote for Canada's Vitality Magazine at: http://www.vitalitymagazine.com/node/1708. She also won 1st place in the Writer's Digest 77th Annual Writing Competition for a feature entitled "My Cup Runneth Under." Click here http://writersdigest.com/article/annualwinners77_feature to view the announcement.]

Jason Croox

As long as I can remember, I have been irresistibly drawn to kids. It started with mission trips to orphanages in Guatemala and Haiti, and today I’ve found that whether it’s teasing kids at church, annihilating them in Madden ’09 (the one game at which the kids can’t beat me), or holding a sleeping child in my arms, I feel more myself with kids around. Even with all their youthful innocence and, at times, blessed ignorance, it seems that I still have learned more from them than they have from me. At the same time, I have a passion for seeing kids realize their full potential and trust God in every area of life.

Susan Croox

I first fell in love with the young folk when I took up a summer job as a camp counselor. One particularly needy eight-year-old won my heart and planted a seed of desire to love kids who especially needed it. Through various camp counselor and babysitting experiences, I recognized that I was drawn to the innocent, goofy, and light-hearted nature of children. Upon graduating college, I realized that I only wanted to work either teaching music or hanging out with kids. Years later, that’s the story of my life! Once I heard about Starfish, knowing myself and the way I felt about kids, I knew I would get drawn in eventually; it was only a matter of time. And here we are, as fate and God would have it.