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Current members, and alumni (“the Big Sisters”) of Teen Moms Choose Life help mentor Debbie Newell (far right) with its annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. Efforts to support the community for Christmas now start. PHOTO/KEN JACKSON
A group of local women who became young mothers is going on a second generation of taking care of its own.
Teen Moms Choose Life, a support system dedicated to help young moms who are faced with a difficult decision to have a baby in high school – recently or years ago – spent last week getting holiday dinners together for those in the community who need that help.
Families spent last Thursday coming to Zenith Accelerated Learning Academy to pick up a turkey – Wal-Mart graciously provided them at a wholesale price — and gift cards to get the sides for their Thanksgiving meals. Some of the “at least 50” were Zenith students and TMCL members from years past, and Debbie Newell recognized and greeted each one.
Newell, who taught and was a counselor at Zenith for many years before “retiring”, but she keeps on as a director and mentor for the organization. She’s a constant among current students and a legion of alumni who’ve come before them in years past – mentors who Newell calls her “big sisters,” who were a part of a then-new Osceola County program called COPE (Creating Opportunities for Parental Education). The big sisters, some of whom are now grandmothers, continue to pass on the program’s lessons.
“If it wasn’t for COPE, and having mentors like Miss Debbie – we didn’t have any ‘big sisters’ – I probably wouldn’t have graduated,” said Jacqueline Semidey, who had her daughter just shy of her 16th birthday, and now brings her now 24-year-old to help. “Miss Debbie found me 10 years ago, and now I’m here for all the monthly meetings. This is something that many places don’t have.”
And current students like Franciska Joseph are grateful for the mentorship, she said.
“There are so many people who don’t take accountability, or understand who hard it is to be a teen mother. Someone who’s older and shares their experience and can be there for us, is just a huge thing,” Joseph said. “This is a community that doesn’t look down on us or judge us or tells us, ‘You should have …’ It’s the biggest thing we can ask for.
“Some of us come from communities that don’t talk about these things when they happen. It can be hurtful when your own family can’t be there for you. Miss Debbie didn’t know us and she came out of her own heart to start this community.”
“What she said is why I do this … and why I can’t retire,” Newell said. “You can’t imagine the people in our community who look down on these girls. I speak to those people at churches. Until these can walk in their shoes, you have no idea of their different stories.
“Those who have lived it know exactly what they’re going through now, that many won’t get Thanksgiving, because they’ve been shunned by their family, or have to work to support their children. These girls relate to the big sisters.”
Now the focus shifts to helping families – her TMCL families and others in the community — for Christmas. The program gets its funding from donations from the Osceola County School District, and from the community throughout the year. Those who want to help going into the next holiday can reach out at 321-443-4866 or email teenmomschooselife@gmail.com.
