ON THEIR OWN TIME: LACK OF FUNDING DOESN'T STOP WORK OF VOLUNTEERS

Juanita Spicer. Sherry Maxwell. Carrie Kline. Donna Wilson. For these women, the maxim "each one, reach one" is a way of life.

They have given from deep within their hearts and pockets to help area youths survive and flourish in society.

Juanita Spicer founded the Edward M. Spicer Tutorial Program in Cape Girardeau four years ago. She started the program with no funding or materials as a way to honor her late husband. She said it quickly became a labor of love.

"We started out just tutoring," said the retired teacher. "But now we do so much more than that. You have to because the children today need much more than that."

Spicer said the program provides the students tutoring in a quiet work environment and counseling and mentoring services. Approximately 25 students meet Mondays through Wednesdays at St. James AME Church, 516 North Street.

"When we started we also had programs at May Greene and Washington elementary schools," Spicer said. However, those programs were shut down two years ago because of her health problems.

"I have severe arthritis, and it has really slowed me down," Spicer said. "But I want to keep working with these kids.

"Some of the children I work with have been coming for four years. I'm afraid any gains I have made I'll lose if I stop."

Spicer currently is helped by two sororities and the Americorps program at Southeast Missouri State University. She has received some funding to buy resources in the past from the United Way YELL campaign.

Recently, Spicer began working with Sherry Maxwell, whose Kids' Beat mentoring program began in Lilbourn after a fellow church member had a vision about her.

"Bennie Redman had a vision to save the kids of Lilbourn, and she was shown my face as the person to do it," Maxwell said. As a result of that vision, 15 children showed up at a special prayer meeting on May 31, 1990. The next day 27 students were present, and on the third day 50 students came.

By the end of the summer Maxwell had more than 100 students, mostly young men, coming to her meetings.

"Sherry Maxwell is one of the most amazing people I've come to know," said Howard Meagle, general manager of KFVS-TV. "Just by the will of her being she is helping these kids."

Maxwell said she teaches the children things that enhance self-esteem, self-respect, confidence and self-improvement, as well as positive behavior and educational training.

From the 100 children reached that first summer, Kids' Beat now reaches over 900 economically disadvantaged youths through 15 active chapters in Butler, Cape Girardeau, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot and Scott counties. What began as a project personally financed in large part by "Ms. Sherry" has grown to become an acquired service of the Lincoln University Cooperative Extension.

"Kids' Beat serves as a vehicle for providing the kinds of leadership necessary for further stimulation and development of youth at risk," Maxwell said. She said her program works because the students are rewarded for positive actions with special recreational field trips.

"We joined the program because I had heard so many positive things about the Kids' Beat program from people in Southeast Missouri," Spicer said. "The goals Ms. Sherry has in mind are goals I would like to see our children aspire to."

Spicer said Maxwell is a good motivator who teaches good values. Most recently, Spicer said, Maxwell has been teaching her students about the election process. "She was teaching them valuable things because, if they can understand these things, maybe we can get them to vote and participate in the process."

The election process, as well as current events in general, is a subject Carrie Kline and Donna Wilson are familiar with. The two women are news reporters for KFVS-TV. In 1995, with the help of co-worker Kim Dawson, they began working with a group of young women from Cape Girardeau.

"Our objective was to gather young girls ages 9 to 16 and sort of serve as role models," said Kline. "We wanted to expose them to careers and college, and to talk to them about clothes and hygiene and sex."

Kline said many of the girls they work with are from lower economic, and single- or no-parent families. Some of them are being raised by grandparents or other relatives, she said.

The group started because the women wanted to give something back to Cape Girardeau. We wanted to get together and do fun things, Kline said.

We started meeting once or twice a month with a group of teen-age girls, she said, and the group started getting larger and younger. Kline said sometimes they would have to transport 25 or 30 girls to an event.

"We wanted it to be something that had consistency," Kline said. "Right now Donna and myself work opposite schedules, and that has made it really hard to meet with the girls."

Kline said she and Wilson are hoping other women help them to mentor to the girls they work with. "If people want to work with the group that would be a tremendous help," she said. "We definitely don't want this thing to end."

Spicer, Maxwell, Wilson and Kline are all examples of people working to make a difference in their communities. They have done it alone when necessary, and they all are communicating so that their organizations can work together.

Each of these women believes that time and resources can all be found when the heart, body and mind are all willing.