Mental Health Services
for Children and Teens
Home Ties Child Care
and Development Center
We Care For the Kids
We care for the kids who play on their canopy beds,
and those who take sink baths and trips to the outhouse.
We care for the kids
whose mommies read them a story
and tuck them into bed each night,
And for those whose mothers have died.
who text friends at the dinner table,
And for those who have no friends at all.
We care for the kids who star on the high school basketball team,
And for those who are picked last in gym.
We care for the kids who make straight As,
and for those whose thoughts got lost
on the violence from the night before and forgot to finish the test.
For those who sit quietly while the teacher is talking,
and those who feel like jumping out of their own skin.
For those who get picked for student of the week,
and for those who lose their recess.
We care for the kids who feel joy with the sun on their face,
with their first double digit birthday,
their first kiss,
a song on the radio,
And we care for those who feel no joy at all.
We care for the kids whose biggest worry is wanting
to wear their dress up shoes to school and Daddy said no,
getting a pimple the day of the big dance,
which colleges to apply for...
And we care for those who worry about a place to live,
a bed to sleep in, and food to eat.
We care for the kids who are afraid of the dark
and the monsters under the bed,
And we care for those who are afraid of the monsters in their head,
in the next room, or across the street.
We care for the kids who want to grow up to be police officers and soldiers,
And for those to whom the presence of the police
means that they messed up or someone is hurt again,
And to whom soldier means Daddy or Mommy is far, far away.
We care for the kids who laugh, dance, cry, and cheer,
And for those who have forgotten how or never knew.
For those who bounce over life's bumps,
And those whose roads are so terribly rocky.
Peggy Johnson
our story
971 Harrison Avenue | Elkins, West Virginia | 304.636.9450
