Staying Power Crosswalk Celebrates 10 Years Of Helping Street Kids
Two years ago, Tracy Zidrashko lived in a downtown hotel with other street kids. She dug through Dumpsters and took whatever drugs happened to come her way.
Her goal each week was to beg for enough change to buy food, so she wouldn’t have to dig through garbage. During a trip to the emergency room, doctors said she was malnourished.
Now she’s an Avon Lady. She lives in a modest duplex with her husband, who works at a doughnut shop, and is planning to have children.
She is one of the success stories at Crosswalk - which this weekend celebrates 10 years of caring for the street kids of Spokane.
The party turned into a reunion of sorts as volunteers and former street kids spent the afternoon Saturday hugging and catching up on each other’s lives.
Crosswalk, at Second and Howard, will host a public open house today from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Crosswalk was founded by the Spokane chapter of the Volunteers of America in 1985. It first opened on Nov. 4 that year, in the Jefferson Hotel on West First Avenue.
Originally a place for street kids to get a meal, relax and go to school, it has added dozens of services in 10 years.
It now provides homeless teens with beds to sleep in, medical care, clothing and treatment for substance abuse. There are support groups for teen mothers and fathers, a Head Start school for their children and assistance in finding jobs.
Now there are yearly celebrations during the major holidays. Every year Santa Claus hands out gifts to the teens and to their children.
More than 5,000 different children have passed through the doors.
Zidrashko was one.
“The first thing they would do when you come through the doors is feed you. I remember that,” she said. “I was so hungry and so cold all the time.”
After she first enrolled in the school, she didn’t come back for a month. When she did, the reception was the same.
“I was blown away that they still remembered my name,” she said. “And they fed me again.”
After that, another month went by before she went back. Then her boyfriend tried to kill her. After he was committed to Sacred Heart Medical Center’s psychiatric unit, Zidrashko said she was so scared and alone, she started coming as a regular.
“They gave me whatever I needed, medical care, prescriptions, toilet paper, whatever,” she said. “This was the safety net that caught me. I’d fallen through all the other cracks.”
One day, someone donated a piano to Crosswalk. A drug dealer sat down and started playing and Zidrashko said she fell in love.
The two married and more than once volunteers have helped them work through difficult times.
Crosswalk staff loaned them money for a deposit on an apartment, gave them vouchers for groceries and talked them through bitter arguments.
“People here are like our role models. We watch them and we learn how to get along, how to survive,” she said. “They’ve taught us more about marriage than our parents.”
Crosswalk is in its third building. At its original home in the Jefferson Hotel, the pipes broke and flooded the place on a weekly basis.
Cockroaches and mice also were abundant, but it was the drug dealers and prostitutes that finally drove Crosswalk away in the fall of 1990. The new location on Washington near the train viaduct was ideal. It was roomy and low rent.
It burned down six months later.
An outpouring of community support kept the school and shelter running in a temporary location. It moved into its current building in the fall of 1991.
“I think it’s phenomenal that a shoestring operation like this kept expanding for 10 years,” said Denise Layman, executive director.
Crosswalk’s motto, “Whatever it takes,” will steer the organization through the next 10 years, Layman said.
“There is no therapeutic model here,” she said. “These kids have been therapied out, grouped out, everything has failed for them.
“We don’t know what every kid who comes through the door needs. But we try to find out,” she said. “If it takes a hug, we’ve got that. And we’ll try and get anything else.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo