At First Place, focus is on better future

For a quarter-century, Seattle Post-Intelligencer readers have donated generously to the newspaper's annual Readers Care Fund drive, generating more than $5 million for local charities. Today, we look at First Place, one of the charities benefiting this year.

First Place is a school, a shelter and a social services center for families struggling with homelessness and the crises that go with it, including hunger, sickness and violence.

The fifth-graders at First Place School have a teddy bear for a classmate. They call him Cosmo. And each kid has an idea of what Cosmo's life has been like.


		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	Daniel Wright and Christal kid around at a party for First Place School students who have December birthdays.

When Daniel Wright was asked to make up a life story for the bear, he penned a hopeful tale drawn from his own recent experiences.

"Cosmo lives with his family in a transitional mansion," he wrote. "His father lost his job and they were temporarily homeless. After Cosmo's dad gets a job, he will move his family to a house."

Like dozens of other children at First Place, Daniel, 10, knows what it's like for jobs -- and homes -- to evaporate. After his mother, Julie Wright, lost a high-paying position selling real estate in South Carolina, she had to give up her custom-built, five-bedroom home and eventually became so desperate she started scrounging metal out of trash bins for cash.

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The Wrights hit bottom in July, when temporary living arrangements with Seattle relatives fell through, and they ended up at the Union Gospel Mission shelter.

But the bad times haven't darkened Daniel's outlook.

Just as Cosmo's problems won't last forever, Daniel talks of good times ahead.

He looks forward to field trips and pizza lunches at the school. And he knows that First Place will continue to provide clothes, food, family support, friends, a personal mentor and close attention to his writing, math and reading skills.

He also knows that the school bus driver will find him -- wherever he might be living.

When he lived in the downtown shelter, the bus picked him up there. Since November, he and his mother and three siblings have lived in transitional housing in Lake City, still getting door-to-door bus service.

That's part of how First Place provides continuity in the otherwise unstable lives of children.

First Place is a school and support center for young children who are or have been homeless or face a high risk of being homeless.

When asked how he ended up at the school, Daniel didn't talk about the months his family spent living in a shelter, in motel rooms and at friends' houses. He simply said his mother heard about the school and "thought it would be nice."

As First Place director Doreen Cato explained, "The children don't see themselves as victims."

Another fifth-grader named Christal was similarly positive about the school.

"It's making me smarter," she said. "The kids here are really fun." She can't wait for the dance lessons that will start next year. And she and Daniel both are excited about a fund-raiser that First Place children are planning.

They got to choose what worthy cause to raise money for. They decided to help homeless people, Christal said, because "they're really sad out there. They don't have anything to eat. They have to go in garbage cans."

Daniel's mother said she always encourages her children to "take the best out of" life's challenges. Daniel seems to have taken that message to heart.

"That child smiles, no matter what," Julie Wright said.

"I was sad because I had to move from South Carolina and I couldn't bring any of my stuff with me," Daniel recalled.

Then he came to First Place.

"It helped me get happier," he said.

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