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Message Board
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E-Pals, Snail Mail, Military, Gay/Bi/Lesbian/T*, Teen Parents, Trading, FBs, and more)

Deacon Conner Remington-Kade
I'm 18, single dad to 1-year-old Chad and 5-month-old Tristan.
I'm a full-time college student (Spring '99 will be my 4th semester).
I'm into human rights and volunteer work. My whole family is, but hopefully I would have chosen to do this even if it hadn't been something I had grown up with, it's pretty important to me.
My hobbies are photography, writing, archeology, and film.
The things I do as activities are kayaking, beach volleyball, softball, and horseback riding. I had to stop virtually all activities when I became a parent, but these are what's left - living close to the beach helps because anytime that I do find some time to myself I can go there to hang out (and relax), and it helps that my family owns/runs a ranch, I ride almost every evening. I play softball in the summer on a community team (basically for a good cause).
A lot of issues become important to me as my family runs into them. For example, adoption, I hadn't given the topic much thought until my dad announced he was adopting a sibling group. I had been under the impression that he was through dealing with the child welfare system, and besides that I had assumed he had enough kids already.
Issues that are already important are teen parenting (my brother and I), single parent families (my dad is a single parent), foster care and homelessness (through volunteer work), parental kidnapping (my 2 brothers and myself), gay rights (my oldest brother is gay), surrogate motherhood (my 2 youngest brothers came into the family by surrogate birth), large families (16 people), military families (my dad is a helicopter pilot for the Navy), and alternative families (my family is a big mix of my brothers and myself, my brother's and my kids, my dad's 2 brothers, my step-brother, and now 4 adopted kids).
If you need to contact me, you can e-mail me at [email protected].

How You Can Help Teens

This is something simple you can do to help someone else. Collect used stamps. It's simple, easy, and costs you nothing - just the time it takes to tear a used stamp off a letter. But it can help someone else so it's a great thing to do. Chandler Koste is currently volunteering at a San Francisco Youth Crisis Center, and you can send the stamps to Chandler Koste at 46 Olympus Rt. #6, Hercules, CA 94547, USA. (I'll add other places as I get their address and information).

Another way you can help is by being open-minded. Not much to ask for, huh? But really, there's a lot of teens who are in foster care, in homeless shelters, and at crisis centers, and because of their situation it can get lonely and boring. You can help by writing a letter or sending a card (appropriate what with the holidays). Pen pals are especially wanted, since a lot of these teens want someone to talk with. You can send a SASE to TCCP, 4285 Olympus Rt. #6, Hercules, CA 94547, USA to ask about becoming a pen pal, or send a card or letter to the same address (it'll be given to a random person). You can also write to Micka Kozanevich, 1601 Hopkins Str., Berkeley, CA 94707, he is a peer counselor at a crisis center - both pen pals and cards/letters will be appreciated by the teens there.

Do You Want To Find Great Snail Mail Pen Pals?

There's a newsletter just for that started by a guy at my former high school :) You can get the bi-monthly newsletter by sending a SASE to Adrian Kovick, 45 Olympus Rt. #6, Hercules, CA 94547, USA with your request. The newsletter has 15 new international pen pals, 25 new US pen pals, and many free pen pal offers.

Sara, who also offers free scanning, has a free pen pal site that includes many snail mail pen pals. All ages are welcome there.

Looking For Other Teen Parents?

Send a SASE to Teen Parents, 805 Olympus Rt. #6, Hercules, CA 94547, USA, ask for information on pen pals. Their group is about to go online, but right now it's by snail mail. It's great though, with about 20 members in the group and hundreds of associate members worldwide. The basic deal is that you tell them about yourself, and tell them who you would like to get in touch with (for example, "single teen fathers with 2 kids"), and they match you up. I was able to get in touch with 6 people with things in common with me. It's great because otherwise it's very hard to find other teen parents to correspond with.

Want To Write To Military Teens?

A new thing. There are 2 military schools in my area, and 4 others (including one in Europe) have joined (I think the other 3 are in Texas, Southern Cali, and Massachusetts, but I'm not sure). You can get pen pals ages 13-23 by sending your name, age, sex, information about yourself (a short note to people who might want to write to you), and a SASE to Pen Pals, 2050 Olympus Rt. #6, Hercules, CA 94547, USA. You should say approximately how many pen pals you want, the age range you will accept, and the sex you prefer to hear from. And... that's it, you start getting letters. You can also request information and you will receive something resembling an order form and some explanatory notes.