By Joni Simon
Contributing Writer

Guests arriving for the Roy Maas Youth Alternatives Inc. 2008 Summit at Meadowland on June 24 passed two tables on their way to the barbecue lunch line.

On one, awards commemorated what was before. On the other, architectural renderings proclaimed what is to come.

Director of Development Kathy Glascock stood before one easel, pointing to a cluster of buildings where a new charter school opens this fall. The public school will specialize in at-risk youth, who reside in the Boerne Independent School District area. The school will enroll about 120 students from grades nine through 12.

On the other easel was a sketch of the new community center expected in the spring of 2009.

Another development for Meadowland is the budding foster care program. The keynote speaker, Lana Duke, owner of Ruth’s Chris Steak House, best known for her sizzling steaks, said her connection to children in need is a personal one. She is a foster child success story.

Duke said she was with one family for 11 years, when she was pulled out of the home because of sexual abuse.

“They were family to me,” she said. “I felt like I lost everything.”

Foster homes that followed were often dirty and one was even teeming with rats.

“I used to pray, ‘please let me become 18 so I can be in charge of my own life’,” she said, adding, “My troubled life as a child gave me the inner strength when I became an adult. All of us suffer in our lifetime. I feel blessed that all my pain was when I was a child. After that, it just got better and better.”

Duke said when she first visited Meadowland, she was overwhelmed.

“I felt like I was 12 years old again,” she said. “I saw children who felt safe. All I could think about was how wonderful it would have been to me if there had been a Meadowland there for me.”

Just two years ago, RMYA received certification for a foster family program.

“Our goal with the program is to give our children the opportunity to grow and prosper in a more intimate and home-like environment,” said Child Placement Director Bart Kelly.

In answer to a question from the audience, Kelly agreed that in the news, viewers, more often than not, see what hasn’t worked in the system.

“Failure sells,” he said. “There was a little boy brought in by the police department, dressed only in his underwear. They found him in a field. His mother had been trying to commit suicide and asked him to do it for her. What can you do for children like that?”

The little boy was placed in a foster home and excelled, according to Kelly, who says Meadowland has an 85 percent success rate.