Cudas Unhooked a worthwhile endeavor in New Smyrna Beach

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Hair stylist Ray Catheline sparked an effort to help those forgotten or ignored in our community, especially children, with his fundraiser a year ago that raised $7,873 for "Cudas Unhooked," a very constructive and cost effective program set up by a group of New Smyrna Beach volunteers like him to help “at risk” high school students finish high school and be successful in life.

The program is designed to give the kids the help, encouragement and support they need to get their lives back on track and graduate from high school.

Cudas Unhooked Program Chairman Shawn Lane made some fascinating comments about the program and its success, saying in part: ”I’ve never seen anything like this before; every time a problem crops up we are able to do something immediately to fix it.”

Lane went on to say that the program is entrepreneurial in the sense that they are free to try things and if they work they continue them if anything doesn’t work they quit doing it. Another program leader, John Hall, commented on television that without government involvement they are able to completely direct their own affairs. He left the audience with the feeling that absence of government involvement was a significant factor in making the program work.

At this point in tim,e the program has had remarkable success. Last year, all of the eighteen seniors involved in the program graduated from high school. This is doubly remarkable when you consider that a large percentage of the student population fails to graduate.

NSBHS Valedictorian Ericka KirkpatrickMore amazing, last year's valedictorian, Ericka Kirkpatrick, was in the Cudas Unhooked program. She is now enrolled at the University of Florida.

The program has several critical components which come together to produce these results. The first is the establishment of “The Bridge House,” which serves as a refuge for the kids plus a home for those who are actually homeless or need to be outside their home. It also serves as a meeting place for all of the involved students.

The program is presently teaming up with Habitat for Humanity to provide a second house to the program since the original Bridge House is so heavily utilized. To be allowed to stay in the Bridge House, students must adhere to a set of rules. Failure to follow the rules will result in dismissal form the house and the program. This “tough love” is one of the secrets of the program's success.

They do not cater to students who will not cooperate. Some of the rules include: No Drugs. No Alcohol. No food in rooms. And rooms must be kept clean. Students must behave. They must get a job. For a lot of students, having rules to follow adds security and order to their lives that may have been missing.  

A second component of the program is personal development. This includes coaching on how to conduct a job interview, how to dress and act at a job interview, how to fill out a job application, and how to perform and show the proper attitude on the job. So far the program has had outstanding success in getting these students employed. The students are coached on some of the fundamentals of living such as how to handle their money and how to handle the problems that come up in every day life.

The people doing the coaching are some of the most successful people in the community so they are getting good advice from “the horse’s mouth.” Naturally there is a lot of tutoring to help the students with their high school subjects. Another component of the program is to integrate the students socially into high school life.

The program has received donations of dresses and suits and even got a limousine service donated so the kids in the program could go to the prom on an even footing with the rest of the school population. They also sponsor special parties for the kids four times a year.

Some of the promising figures on Cudas Unhooked are as follows: 45 participants and growing They are working with habitat for humanity to obtain more housing. They take donations of money, food, clothing and anything that would be useful The operating budget is about $18,000 annually. They meet twice a week at the high school and on the second Monday of the month at the Coronado Methodist church on the beachside. The public is always welcomed.

The citizens of New Smyrna Beach can take great pride in this program. Cudas Unhooked is a wonderful example of a private charity that is very low cost and yet very effective compared to government-sponsored charity. It deserves to be copied everywhere.

How you can help

Those who want to donate money to this great program can make out checks to: "Cudas Unhooked," P.O. Box 394 New Smyrna Beach Fl 32168. More information is available online at cudasunhooked.org. The phone number to call is 386-314-0859.

Editor's Note: Here is bonus coverage of New Smyrna Beach Valedictorian Ericka Kirpatrick's speech to her fellow 399 graduating classmates last spring during the 2011 commencement exercise, covered exclusively by NSB News with video production by Multimedia Editor Sera Frederick: