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Juvenile court employees, citizens honored at banquet
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COAL TOWNSHIP — Members of the Northumberland County Juvenile Court gathered at Northumberland County Area Career and Technology Center on Thursday for their 17th annual banquet.
Several members of the community and court system were honored at the banquet.
Paul Metrocavage, city editor of The News-Item, received the Fred Piermattei Youth Service Award. Maxine Querry, Chad Dixon and Bradley Hoagland received Michael Kivko Memorial Youth Scholarships.
Coal Township Patrolman Chris Lapotsky was named Law Enforcement Officer of the Year; Michael Kmietowicz, a teacher at Coordinated Learning Alternatives for Northumberland County Youth, was named Educator of the Year, and Janice Nestico was named Juvenile Court Employee of the Year.
Clay Yeager, juvenile justice and child welfare consultant, was the keynote speaker.
Yeager has worked in the juvenile justice system for more than 30 years. Among other positions, he has served as chief juvenile probation officer of Columbia County, president of the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers and executive director of Governor Tom Ridge’s Community Partnership for Safe Children. He was named Pennsylvania’s first director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and served as president and chief executive officer of the Nurse-Family Partnership national office. He currently manages a private consulting firm that promotes development of children, families and communities.
Yeager, who started his career as a juvenile probation officer in Columbia County, said he remembers the moment he realized the importance of his job.
In 1974, two boys were brought into the Columbia County juvenile Detention Center after police arrested them and their mother for rummaging through Dumpsters behind a restaurant. The boys were placed in a dark, cement-block room by themselves in the middle of the night. Yeager said he remembers hearing them cry.
“That was a defining moment,” Yeager said.
He realized those children, then ages 8 and 10, were in the detention center through no fault of their own, and the policies of the juvenile courts of the early 1970s may have made the situation worse.
At that time, Yeager noted, the mantra of the juvenile courts was, “Nothing works.”
Over the years, juvenile courts have tried fad after fad to bring kids back from the brink, he said, only to be met with failure.
Making a difference in a child’s life, Yeager said, is more simple than some may think. Paraphrasing Urie Bronfenbrenner, American psychologist and co-founder of the Head Start program, Yeager said, “Every kid needs somebody who’s crazy about them.”
“How many kids in our lives need someone who is crazy about them? I suppose there are a lot of them,” he added.
Yeager reminded the audience that children look to the adults in their lives to guide them very early on.
“They are seeking the answers of the universe at age 2,” he said, inciting laughter from the crowd. Parents, he added, don’t always know how to answer and guide them, making juvenile probation officers’ jobs all the more important.
“We are the last best chance they have,” he said. “We’re their last best hope; don’t you see?”
Yeager told the audience about Jeremy Estrada, a former gang member who currently attends medical school at Georgetown University. After years in and out of probation facilities for violent offenses as a teenager, Estrada attended Rite of Passage, a wilderness challenge program in California, where he met a teacher who challenged him to learn. Estrada, Yeager said, met that person who was crazy about him and did his best to make the teacher proud.
“There’s a Jeremy Estrada in this county whom you haven’t yet discovered,” he said.
Yeager made a point to honor and thank the juvenile court employees who often work a thankless job.
“There are no parades for juvenile probation officers, so tonight we’ll have one for all the work you do,” he said.
Several members of the community and court system were honored at the banquet.
Paul Metrocavage, city editor of The News-Item, received the Fred Piermattei Youth Service Award. Maxine Querry, Chad Dixon and Bradley Hoagland received Michael Kivko Memorial Youth Scholarships.
Coal Township Patrolman Chris Lapotsky was named Law Enforcement Officer of the Year; Michael Kmietowicz, a teacher at Coordinated Learning Alternatives for Northumberland County Youth, was named Educator of the Year, and Janice Nestico was named Juvenile Court Employee of the Year.
Clay Yeager, juvenile justice and child welfare consultant, was the keynote speaker.
Yeager has worked in the juvenile justice system for more than 30 years. Among other positions, he has served as chief juvenile probation officer of Columbia County, president of the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers and executive director of Governor Tom Ridge’s Community Partnership for Safe Children. He was named Pennsylvania’s first director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and served as president and chief executive officer of the Nurse-Family Partnership national office. He currently manages a private consulting firm that promotes development of children, families and communities.
Yeager, who started his career as a juvenile probation officer in Columbia County, said he remembers the moment he realized the importance of his job.
In 1974, two boys were brought into the Columbia County juvenile Detention Center after police arrested them and their mother for rummaging through Dumpsters behind a restaurant. The boys were placed in a dark, cement-block room by themselves in the middle of the night. Yeager said he remembers hearing them cry.
“That was a defining moment,” Yeager said.
He realized those children, then ages 8 and 10, were in the detention center through no fault of their own, and the policies of the juvenile courts of the early 1970s may have made the situation worse.
At that time, Yeager noted, the mantra of the juvenile courts was, “Nothing works.”
Over the years, juvenile courts have tried fad after fad to bring kids back from the brink, he said, only to be met with failure.
Making a difference in a child’s life, Yeager said, is more simple than some may think. Paraphrasing Urie Bronfenbrenner, American psychologist and co-founder of the Head Start program, Yeager said, “Every kid needs somebody who’s crazy about them.”
“How many kids in our lives need someone who is crazy about them? I suppose there are a lot of them,” he added.
Yeager reminded the audience that children look to the adults in their lives to guide them very early on.
“They are seeking the answers of the universe at age 2,” he said, inciting laughter from the crowd. Parents, he added, don’t always know how to answer and guide them, making juvenile probation officers’ jobs all the more important.
“We are the last best chance they have,” he said. “We’re their last best hope; don’t you see?”
Yeager told the audience about Jeremy Estrada, a former gang member who currently attends medical school at Georgetown University. After years in and out of probation facilities for violent offenses as a teenager, Estrada attended Rite of Passage, a wilderness challenge program in California, where he met a teacher who challenged him to learn. Estrada, Yeager said, met that person who was crazy about him and did his best to make the teacher proud.
“There’s a Jeremy Estrada in this county whom you haven’t yet discovered,” he said.
Yeager made a point to honor and thank the juvenile court employees who often work a thankless job.
“There are no parades for juvenile probation officers, so tonight we’ll have one for all the work you do,” he said.
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