STACY'S STORY
FROM SCARED TO FEARLESS

My name is Stacy Stanton and my story starts with my mother.

Like me, she was a teen mom. The job she had required us to move often. This was hard on all of us and took its toll in different ways. For me, I was thrown into a new school every year. I was never able to make friends.

During 5th grade, it became my job to babysit my brother. After two years of taking on all this responsibility at such a young age my grades had fallen, I was depressed and nothing was going my way. My mother and I got into a bad fight and I snapped. In my despair and hopelessness I reacted to the extreme stress. I trashed my mom's room and left holes in her doors. I was broken.

My mother could no longer take care of me, so I had to go to my dad's. I got in to some legal trouble and was kicked out. The only place for me to go was my boyfriend's house. I was working hard in school, getting good grades and getting stuff done. Just when things had been going so well, I found out I was pregnant.

Catori Kailani Flores was born on January 5th 2017. After trying to make it work with Catori's father, I realized I had to raise her on my own. I started looking into schooling but none of the schools in Lacey or on-line worked with my schedule and none of them provided child care for me. That was when I looked into Harbor High and Snug Harbor. I decided that is where I needed to be to successfully support my child.

I enrolled into Harbor High and registered Catori in Snug Harbor. It was hard leaving my child in the care of someone else but the Snug Harbor staff were so friendly and open it was amazing. It eased my mind knowing such nurturing people were watching over my child. With a sigh of relief I busted through my credits and thoughts of college started entering my mind.

I started applying to colleges and was accepted to South Puget Sound and Grays Harbor. As I continue on my path to college after I graduate I will still be able to utilize Snug Harbor Child Care while I attend Grays Harbor College for welding.

I am only on this path to success because of all of you. Every dollar you donate goes to helping someone like me. A single teen mom who is on her way to bigger and better things than I ever thought I would do. If you asked me 3 years ago if I was going to go to college I would of said heck no. It is crazy to see how big of an impact this program has made on my life. I'd like to thank all of you because who knows where I'd be if this program wasn't here to help me.