Alice Campbell

Alice Campbell has served in the Foster Grandparent program through Golden Umbrella for 27 years. Golden Umbrella, in Redding, CA was one of the first pilot programs for the Foster Grandparent Program on the West Coast and has sponsored the program for the past 34 years. Foster grandparents mentor and tutor students throughout three north state counties.

In Shasta County, 43.5% of children come from low income families. As of 2002, 13.7% of adults in Shasta County had entered drug and/or alcohol abuse treatment programs as compared to the 8.5% statewide average. With a population of 180,000, there were 6,337 cases of reported child abuse in 2002. In 2000, 12.3% of births were to teenage mothers. Of the 34 reporting counties in California, Shasta County ranked number 13 for the highest number of teen pregnancies.

Alice spent the first 20 years at Mary Street School helping to ensure that young women received the education and emotional support they needed during their pregnancies. During that time, she helped teen mothers to learn Lamaze, prenatal care and parenting skills while they continued their high school classes. Alice's friendly smiles and encouraging words made the students feel loved and valued and provided them with nurturing that they often did not receive at home.

For the past 7 years, Alice has donated an average of 25 hours per week to a classroom of 10th, 11th and 12th graders at North Valley School. North Valley School educates at-risk children based on their individual needs. Some of these children have experienced abuse and neglect.

Alice works tirelessly in the classroom to help students with low self-esteem, family problems and lack of motivation. The children feel comfortable opening up to Alice because she has proven herself to be faithful and trustworthy. For many of these children, Alice is the only adult in their lives to lend a sympathetic ear. She is instrumental in helping students to build trust toward adults which has a direct impact on their success in relationships later in life.