A whirlwind of activity at Big Valley Boys & Girls Club
LAKEPORT >> Anyone looking for Big Valley Boys & Girls Club Director Kristin Amparo will not find her sitting in her office behind a computer. Amparo’s daily round starts at 4:30 am and ends between 10 p.m. and midnight, and virtually every second is devoted to helping kids. A whirlwind of activity, Amparo does it all, from driving the van to pick kids up in the morning, to tutoring many of the over 40 kids who come for extra help, to running high energy outside activities, from football to tetherball. “I am here for one reason, these kids, and I will stop at nothing to make sure their needs are met.”
An enrolled member of the Big Valley Band of Po- mos, Amparo has directed the Boys & Girls Club for four years, literally creating a state-of-the art service facility from bare bones. “I am thankful to have my Tribal Council and my people behind me and their support means everything to me and to the kids.”
Pursuing a degree in neuro-psychology, Amparo chose this course of study as another way to help her people and her “kids.” Watching her interact with the Boys & Girls Club members, it is clear that she considers every single one “hers.”
Freely acknowledging that she identifies with the kids because she has suffered greatly, it is apparent that she has emerged from her struggles with compassion and strength. As an active 11-month-old child on Big Valley Pomo Indians, she was severely burned with hot grease from a fryer she pulled down on herself.
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