Resident Report: Val
Ashley Durkee, M.A. & Corinn Johnson, B.S.

Take a moment to think about someone who loves children and enjoys taking care of them. Who comes to mind? Mary Poppins? Super Nanny? Your Mom? Here at The Baddour Cen ter, that person is Val. Val has been a valuable member of the Baddour family for 6 years. Though she likes her job on campus in Complex II (Miscellaneous Packaging), she acknowledges that her real love is working with children.

When Val saw an advertisement in her church's bulletin requesting help in the nursery, she knew that it was the perfect job for her. After Programs Staffers Tricia Melvin and Mary Phelps gave her the thumbs up, and Finance Staffer / Church Member Calvert Shideler offered to drive her, Val told the church she would be happy to help out. Now, on Wednesdays at 6:15pm she helps out in the nursery for about an hour while the parents are in church. Most of the children they care for are two years old or younger. Val talks to and plays dolls or musical toys with the older children; doing anything with them to keep them busy. When it comes to the babies, she rocks them and talks to them so that they don't cry. She helps change diapers sometimes too, which she already knew how to do from helping take care of her niece and nephews.

This job goes along with one of Val's big PCP goals: to work with children and have a job out side of The Baddour Center. However, this is not Val's first experience working with children. In fact, she's an old pro. In Texas, she used to work in a nursery for special needs children between the ages of 5 and 10 (although there was one baby there too). Her responsibilities included helping to feed, bathe, and dress the children, as well as change diapers.

Val has also worked as a teacher's assistant in a kindergarten class, where she would help the teacher keep the children's behavior under con trol. Val said, "I would keep them from running around and I would get her (the teacher) stuff that she needed when she was busy. I was her legs."

Later, Val spent four or five summers helping take care of a teenage girl with disabilities who was at home on vacation from The Children's Colony in Arkansas. She was in charge of help ing the girl with exercises to help her overcome a recent stroke. She also helped by preparing lunch and helping her eat. Val did this every summer until the girl died at age 17. Val stated, "It was hard when she died. She was almost like a sister to me, we got so close."

Additionally, Val has experience in child care from working in a small, home-based daycare for a year and babysitting regularly for two dif ferent families. Perhaps it is apparent now why she comes to mind when we think of people who love children. Val has worked with them before, works with them now, and has every intention of still doing so in the future. She is The Baddour Center's very own SuperNanny.