By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Kids First Awareness Community Learning Center Executive Director Cindy Hawkins asked all of the center’s children who were in attendance on Oct. 22 to find an adult who helps the center and ask them about their favorite college football team.

The kids then sprinted to the center’s front door to grab a blue or red candy apple to give to the adult.

“We just want to tell you how much we appreciate you all,” Hawkins said. “This is what we call a token of our appreciation. It’s so we don’t forget who we work for.”

More than 100 visitors packed the Kids First campus off Mount Olive/Martin Luther King Jr. Road on Oct. 22 to celebrate the adults, parents and volunteers who help Kids First to make a difference in the Alabaster community during Parents Involved with Educators Day. Kids First is an afterschool program aimed at supporting and mentoring potentially at-risk children in Alabaster.

“Today is to celebrate the parents and educators, because we are better together,” Hawkins said. “One in four children, which is about 15 million children nationwide, go home alone or unsupervised every day. We are trying to keep our kids safe, help working families and foster a learning environment.”

Before enjoying a homemade dinner, the visitors at the community celebration were treated to a drum circle led by the Birmingham-based Get Rhythm! organization and several musical performances – including a song and dance by the Kids First children.

Several members of the Alabaster faith community and employees from the Alabaster City School System attended the event, and shared information about school system events and the city’s upcoming new high school.

Alabaster Police Department Lt. Mike Jones praised Kids First for the unity it has fostered in the city.

“Like Cindy said, community is unity. We’ve got to work together to keep our city strong,” Jones said. “We’ve got to hit a knee and pray for our children, because they are our future.”

Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon thanked the many volunteers who support Kids First.

“I’m so proud of all of our many citizens, who also work full-time jobs, who volunteer their time to help our kids,” Handlon said. “We are all working for the same thing.”