As of 2013, the city of Houston, Texas, was estimated to have a population of 2.196 million people. Dallas, meanwhile, boasted 1.258 million. On the other end of the spectrum, Searcy tallied 23,768 townsfolk, according to the United States Census Bureau.
For Richard Stafford, president of the Searcy K-LIFE board, those numbers equated to some culture shock when he moved to his wife’s hometown after spending most of his life in much larger cities.
Stafford, however, has come to embrace the Searcy lifestyle.
“You couldn’t ask for a better place to raise your kids,” he said. “I am a landscape architect, but I work close to the schools, so I can be involved in my kids’ lives. I’m also on a couple of other boards here in Searcy that I probably would not get to be on in Dallas or Houston. My wife is from Searcy. I’m from Houston. We met at school — the U of A in Fayetteville — and lived in Dallas for a while. Then she brought me back to her home.”
For Stafford, embracing living in a smaller community has also meant involvement with Searcy K-LIFE, which is self-described as “a nondenominational Christian ministry of discipleship and fellowship designed for youth. K-LIFE works alongside churches, schools and families to teach and encourage youth from fifth through 12th grades to be strong in the Lord and to be a shining light in their circles of influence.”
Stafford said his interest in Searcy K-LIFE grew because of his wife, the former Kristen Raney, and their older son, Jack.
“My son [Jack] has gone to K-LIFE for the last two years, from fifth through seventh grade. I began knowing about Searcy K-LIFE through him and my wife, and I joined the board in March,” Stafford said, adding that he became president in August.
However, the seeds for his work with Searcy K-LIFE were sewn long ago, Stafford explained.
“My boys go to Kanakuk Camps in the Branson, Missouri, area,” he said, noting that his
younger son, third-grader Jamie, will be involved with K-LIFE in two years, as soon as he is old enough. “My wife and her sisters went to those camps when they were kids,” he said, adding that K-LIFE is somewhat of an offshoot of those camps with teachings that trickle down from the camps to K-LIFE, now a wholly separate entity.
Furthermore, Stafford said, “On a personal level, I was involved in Young Life ministry as a child, something similar to K-LIFE. I was in my church youth group, but this was something extra, a supplement to the church group. It meant I got to hang out with friends that did not go to my church. That’s what was great about it.”
Now, as president of Searcy K-LIFE’s board, Stafford said his focus has grown from taking his son to the group’s functions to learning what it takes to fund the programs and to grow the organization, which has an annual budget of $80,000 and exists solely on private donations.
“Searcy K-LIFE has two paid staff members. Our fundraising keeps us operational,” he said. “It provides the house where the kids meet, the weekly club meetings for the fifth- through 12th-graders and trips like the one we have scheduled for Harrison later this year. We need more fundraisers to get away from that feeling of financial pressure. Different fundraisers reach different people.
“I am really focusing on getting Searcy K-LIFE to go, to grow. We need to get more kids involved. Our staff is getting in the schools and forming relationships with the kids.”
Among the Searcy K-LIFE fundraisers Stafford listed are a 5K fun run coming up in December and a fish fry set for spring 2016. He said there may also be a barbecue cook-off sometime early next summer.
Currently, however,
Stafford and Searcy K-LIFE staffers are planning for the organization’s sixth annual Searcy K-LIFE Benefit Golf Tournament, the longest-running fundraiser for the group. The four-man scramble will be held Oct. 30 at the Course at River Oaks in Searcy. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m., followed by a shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. The team fee is $400.
For more information on Searcy K-LIFE or to receive a sponsorship or registration form for the golf tourney, contact Kin Bryant at (501) 368-8338 or kb3gd@hotmail.com, Peyton Harvey at (501) 516-6451 or peytonharvey@yahoo.com, or Stafford at (501) 593-3666 or rstafford74@gmail.com. More information can also be found at searcy.klife.com.
Staff writer James K. Joslin can be reached at (501) 399-3693 or jjoslin@arkansasonline.com.