By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Before opening up the prayer during the Oct. 3 Parents Involved with Educators Day at Kids First Awareness Community Center in Alabaster, Kids First Director Cindy Hawkins uttered a phrase frequently repeated throughout the day.

“When the praises go up, blessings come down,” Hawkins said

During the event, Hawkins and other Kids First leaders took plenty of time to send blessings up for the parents involved with the organization and for officials with Alabaster’s new school system.

Before treating Kids First parents and several Alabaster City Schools leaders to dinner, Hawkins praised both groups for contributing to Kids First’s success. Kids First is an after-school organization in Alabaster’s Simmsville community serving at-risk students.

“We all have to come together to make our children and our community better,” Hawkins said. “Parents, we can’t help your child unless you help us help your child.”

Hawkins said she was “proud” to partner with Alabaster City Schools to provide after-school care to the city’s students, and said she “loves” Alabaster School Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers.

Vickers, a father of two Alabaster students who moved to Alabaster over the summer, said he could tell Kids First is making a difference in students’ lives.

“The model Mrs. Cindy is using is the only proven way to improve academic performance,” Vickers said. “What she is doing is exactly the way it’s supposed to be done.”

Vickers also gave the dozens of parents in attendance a rundown of the school system’s future plans, including budgeting for a new high school.

“We want to plan to make sure our schools are the very best our kids can attend,” Vickers said. “If we all work together, there is not anything or anyone that can keep us from, being successful.”