For many Shelby County children, the best Christmas present they’ve ever gotten is sitting at the Kid’s First Community Awareness Learning Center in Alabaster.

Kid’s First is about to begin offering a reading initiative program as well as a fitness and nutrition program, both of which are badly needed to help less fortunate children. Both programs will be supervised by qualified caregivers.

Many of these kids don’t have access to gyms or ways to eat healthier, and they’ll use the Kid’s First programs to combat weight gain and health problems. Those children will also benefit academically from having a safe place to go after school to work on reading comprehension and homework.

Kid’s First Director Cindy Hawkins has an excellent perspective on the goal of her center.

“Life is the overall goal at our center. We want to give these kids a better life,” Hawkins said. “We want them to grow up to be working members of society, not dependents on it.”

With the help of Hawkins and other Kid’s First workers, at-risk kids will soon go above and beyond expectations.

It’s a shame for any child to miss benefiting from all the information we have at our fingertips about academic excellence and healthy living.

We applaud the workers at Kid’s First for truly making sure Shelby County kids won’t get left behind.