Conway Cradle Care to hold first 5K/1K race

CONWAY — Trinity Smith, a junior at Conway High School, makes good grades and plays clarinet in the band, despite the responsibility of being a single mother.

She credits Conway Cradle Care, as well as her mother, for making it possible.

The nonprofit program offers child care, mentoring programs and more for adolescent parents and expectant parents in Faulkner and Perry counties, as well as in the communities.

Smith has an 11-month-old son, Angelo Hernandez. She said his father helps out, too.

“Conway Cradle Care has helped me in different ways, like during the day whenever he’s here, I don’t have to worry about paying; it’s free,” Smith said. “I don’t

have to pay for day care, and he can stay here the whole day while I’m at school.”

Kelsey Weaver, executive director of Conway Cradle Care, said a new fundraiser is being introduced this year to help fund the program and increase awareness of what Cradle Care offers.

Conway Cradle Care will host its first Rockin’ The Cradle 5K/1K fundraising fun run/walk at 9 a.m. April 14.

The race will begin in the west parking lot of Conway High School, between the CHS baseball field and First Presbyterian Church, where Conway Cradle Care is housed. The fee for the race is $25. Registration and more information are available at cradlecare.org.

Strollers and children are welcome at the event. Snacks, water, music and swag bags will be provided.

“We used to do a fashion show for several years, and we really just saw our same donor bases coming to support us, regardless,” Weaver said. “They were coming because they loved Conway Cradle Care.”

Conway Cradle Care is primarily funded through the United Way of Central Arkansas.

Weaver said the board of directors decided to do a “family-friendly” event that more people would be interested in.

“There are several board members who, they enjoy running, or they enjoy the 5K scene in Conway, or their spouses do,” Weaver said.

The race/walk also fits in with a mission of Conway Cradle Care.

“It’s a big thing for us to promote health and wellness to our kids, and this is a good way to get families involved and show all of our girls it’s fun to get out there and do things as a family, as well,” Weaver said.

Amy Jordan, vice chairwoman of the Cradle Care Board of Directors, agreed. She said a race has been discussed for a couple of years as a way to increase participation in a fundraiser.

“We thought a 5K/1K is not only something [the students] can participate in, but it fits in with that overall strategic plan of being a good person and a good parent,” Jordan said.

She said people are encouraged to walk or stroll. “It’s not a hard-core event,” she said.

Jordan, the principal of Bob and Betty Courtway Middle School, said Conway Cradle Care has a partnership with the high school’s Family and Consumer Sciences Department, which offers cooking classes.

The emphasis is on “how to be happy, how to be healthy,” she said. “It’s hard enough to be a parent. Imagine how hard it is to be a teenage parent.”

Weaver said the main goal of the race is to bring more attention to Conway Cradle Care.

“I feel we’re kind of a well-kept secret,” she said of the program. “The past three years, it’s grown a lot. Our mentoring program is booming; we’ve spread out to serve so many more kids.”

Conway Cradle Care has 29 students in its mentoring program and 16 children in the day care, which is housed at First Presbyterian Church, next door to Conway High School.

“Our mentoring is all in Faulkner County and Perry County schools. We go out once a month and meet with each student who is parenting or pregnant. We’ve begun to serve a lot more dads in the program,” she said.

“Last year, we rebranded. We updated our mission to include other adolescent parents in the community. Teen parents attending high school are the main target, but a lot of teen dads may be getting their GED and working; some teen moms go to home-schooling after they have the baby,” she said. “They all have the same needs of gaining knowledge as a parent.”

Weaver said Conway Cradle Care is a successful program.

“Nationally, only 40 percent of adolescent teen parents graduate from high school; at Conway Cradle Care, 100 percent of our seniors are going to graduate,” Weaver said.

Throughout the race route, Weaver said, signs will display statistics about adolescent pregnancy.

For example, according to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, three in 10 American teenage girls will get pregnant at least once before age 20. That’s nearly 750,000 teen pregnancies every year.

Parenthood is the leading reason that teen girls drop out of school, and more than half of teen mothers never graduate from high school.

Smith said she not only will graduate; she’s on the honor-graduate track. Next on her agenda is college.

“I want to major in psychology at UCA in Conway,” she said. “I want to mentor kids — not just kids — families and girls.”

Smith said she’s excited about the Rockin’ the Cradle race/walk.

“I think it’s great because I think it helps other people know about Cradle Care and its meaning and how it’s helping us,” she said.

Smith said she works in the evenings and on weekends.

“I probably couldn’t do it without my mom; I think that really helps me keep up,” she said.

Her advice to other teen parents is to “keep pushing and not listen to anybody because people are always going to say, ‘You can’t do this, and you can’t do that, and it’s going to be hard,’” Smith said.

“It’s still hard, but you have a responsibility — you have another responsibility that other kids don’t have,” she said. “But that just pushes you to do more and to succeed more.”