LAKEPORT— Anyone looking for Big Valley Boys & Girls Club Director Kristin Amparo will not find her sitting in her office behind a computer. Amparo’s daily round starts at 4:30 am and ends between 10 p.m. and midnight, and virtually every second is devoted to helping kids. A whirlwind of activity, Amparo does it all, from driving the van to pick kids up in the morning, to tutoring many of the over 40 kids who come for extra help, to running high energy outside activities, from football to tetherball. “I am here for one reason, these kids, and I will stop at nothing to make sure their needs are met.”
An enrolled member of the Big Valley Band of Pomos, Amparo has directed the Boys and Girls Club for four years, literally creating a state-of-the art service facility from bare bones. “I am thankful to have my Tribal Council and my people behind me and their support means everything to me and to the kids.”
Pursuing a degree in neuro-psychology, Amparo chose this course of study as another way to help her people and her “kids.” Watching her interact with the Boys and Girls Club members, it is clear that she considers every single one “hers.”
Freely acknowledging that she identifies with the kids because she has suffered greatly, it is apparent that she has emerged from her struggles with compassion and strength. As an active 11-month-old child on Big Valley Rancheria, she was severely burned with hot grease from a fryer she pulled down on herself. From that moment until age 16, Amparo was “in and out of hospitals, in and out of surgeries, and I was the guinea pig for a new technique in skin stretching.” She explains that this procedure involved weekly injections of the stretching component administered “from a long needle.”
Far from the self-pity or victim stance that could reasonably be expected from anyone surviving such severe trauma, Amparo credits her accident with “making me the person I am.” Just as she fought for and won her own survival, she fights tirelessly for her “kids.”
“I want respect for them, respect from everyone who interacts with them. They deserve respect. I teach them to respect others and others need to respect them,” she said. To this end she has forged relationships with the school district and regularly advocates for “her” kids in meetings. “The kids talk to me. They tell me everything, and they admit when they are in the wrong. But, sometimes, they aren’t in the wrong. They don’t get a chance to be heard. I try to make sure they get that chance.”
A plane trip to a basketball tournament in Arizona, participating in a parade at a Diamondbacks game, another trip to Oregon, a photo opportunity with a WNBA Native star, and similar excursions have enriched the lives of Big Valley’s young people and opened doors to opportunity and exploration. Amparo has made these trips happen and has accompanied “her” kids every step of the way. “Every boy who went on our trip graduated from high school and every single one is going to college!” This is a large statement, of a large truth, from this amazing trauma survivor, charismatic leader, and peerless role model.
Welcoming “any and everyone who has a heart to help,” Amparo has open arms for all races, cultures, ages, genders, and religions. This writer challenges any reader to take a trip to the Big Valley Boys & Girls Club, meet Amparo and “her” kids, feel the tremendous positive energy, and not be moved to join in the mission.
