With no place left to turn, teen finds hope at local ministry

In her role as director of one of Kalispell’s alternative high schools, Teri Palmer has seen her share of youths with less-than-stable backgrounds.

Some are living on their own. Others have moved in with friends. Despite the upheaval in their lives, most have some sort of support system in place, Palmer said.

Chris Skaggs was different.

“Sometimes our kids have places to land,” she said. “Chris didn’t have a place to land.”

Skaggs, 18, is finishing high school at Palmer’s school, Bridge Academy. He has lived at A Ray of Hope, a Kalispell homeless shelter, for about four months. In that time, he has found something he didn’t expect: a family.

Skaggs spent four years in and out of foster care, was adopted, and ended up back in foster care when that didn’t work out.

Eventually, fed up with foster care, he went to stay at Flathead Youth Home in Kalispell. It was weeks before his 18th birthday.

Flathead Youth Home, a shelter and long-term group home, serves youths ages 10 to 18. When Skaggs became a legal adult, he would no longer be eligible to stay at the home.

So Skaggs started apartment hunting and found a place for about $300 a month. He had a little money set aside but no job and no potential for income, so the landlord rented it to someone else.

With time rapidly running out before his birthday, Skaggs grew desperate. The day before he turned 18, he went to Samaritan House but was unable to find room in the shelter.

Then he came to A Ray of Hope.

“They said they’d find a place for me. The next day, they had a place,” Skaggs said.

For the last 11 years, A Ray of Hope has helped scores of people like Skaggs who have no place left to turn.

The shelter originally was a thrift store on U.S. 2, intended by founders Bob and Peggy Christensen to raise money for the down and out.

But when a World War II veteran arrived at closing time one icy night, Peggy Christensen took him in. As she pulled out a mattress for him to sleep on, he returned with three friends — and the homeless shelter was born.

Taking in young people such as Skaggs is nothing new for the ministry, Christensen said.

“Over the years, A Ray of Hope has served a lot of those kids. The day they turn 18, they’re out of foster care, but they don’t have the jobs and skills to help get back on their feet,” she said. “Chris is a good kid with a good heart, but he didn’t have the skills or money to rent his own place.”

At A Ray of Hope, Skaggs bunks in one of two men’s rooms. There are two sets of bunk beds in each room — as well as beds in the two women’s rooms — but when temperatures turn icy, people also sleep on the floor, office manager and bookkeeper Teresa Eaves said.

“You can’t very well ask people to sleep outside when it’s 30 below outside,” she said.

Once his living situation was taken care of, Skaggs started school. At Bridge Academy, he will earn the last credits he needs to earn a diploma.

“He has one credit left to graduate,” Palmer said.

She called Skaggs a hard worker, but he admits that wasn’t the case when he first started at the school.

“Consequences are severe for not doing homework,” Palmer said. “He didn’t make it his first week here and went back on the waiting list.”

At that time, Skaggs said, he considered dropping out altogether. But new friends at A Ray of Hope helped him decide to try again.

“Chris and a gentleman from Ray of Hope came in and talked about what he needed to do to be successful,” Palmer said. “We talked about commitment and responsibility.”

Skaggs is learning those values in other ways, too.

For months, he worked daily at Hope Thrift, the thrift store the ministry opened in August. In the mornings he worked at the store, took a break for school, then came back to the store to do homework.

The work he did there provided skills and references that recently helped Skaggs land a job at Target. He’ll work “pretty much full time” during the holiday shopping rush, Eaves said.

But his work at the thrift store has done more than help Skaggs get a paying job. It has given him a sense of purpose and a chance to give back to the people who threw him a lifeline when he needed it.

That’s why Skaggs isn’t embarrassed to tell people where he lives, Christensen said.

“He works in the thrift store every day, so he’s actually part of A Ray of Hope helping other people in the community. What does that do for your self-esteem?” she asked Skaggs.

“It makes me feel a lot better,” he said.

He described a day he spent helping chop firewood for a family who needed it to get through the winter. “I’m happy that I can help.”

But Skaggs said the ministry has done much more for him build his self-esteem. A Ray of Hope has given him a family.

“I’d have to say it’s somewhat better” than any other home he has known, he said.

While growing up, the adults in his life often worked late and his sister would go out and leave him alone at home, Skaggs explained.

“I never had people around in the evenings. There was no one to help me with homework,” he said.

“Here you’ve got 12 parents,” Eaves said, evoking a laugh from Skaggs as he agreed.

As his high school career wraps up, the ministry will help him prepare for life on his own. A Ray of Hope will make sure he has had budget counseling, can feed himself and has enough money in his pocket for at least two months’ rent to “give him a good head start,” Christensen said.

She estimated that head start will be necessary in about a year; that’s when she anticipates Skaggs will be ready to live on his own. Skaggs admitted he’s a little nervous about being alone after having 12 surrogate parents.

He said he’s thankful A Ray of Hope was there when he needed someone most. Without the ministry, “I might’ve been on the streets,” he said.

For further information about A Ray of Hope, visit www.arayofhopemontana.com or call 755-4673.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.