Other a
w
ard winners
Lynda Coombs, Family and Children First Council
Pastor Steve Grooms, Monroe Church of the Nazarene
Nancy Schaaf, Development of Living Skills
Marlene Troeski, Help Me Grow and 4-H
Fairfield West Baptist Church, Sonia Hall T.E.A.M. Award
FAIRFIELD — Years ago, Dennis Malone, principal at Hamilton High School, gave James Bailey, a school security officer, this advice:
“You never know who’s watching. If you continue to work hard, one day you will be rewarded.”
For Bailey, a 1983 Middletown High School graduate, that day came Friday, April 23, when Bailey and four others received Outstanding Advocates for Children and Families in Butler County awards during a 16th annual Celebrate Families community breakfast.
Bailey, 44, works security at HHS and at the Butler County Juvenile Detention Center, and volunteers at the Hamilton YMCA.
He has dedicated his adult life to helping kids. He looks at them as works in progress.
“I try to get them to make the right decisions,” Bailey said after the awards ceremony at Receptions Conference and Banquet Center. “I tell them that everybody deserves a second chance, and they need to make the best of it.”
Bailey said today’s youth faces tougher choices — with all of the negative outside influences — than when he was their age. He said parents and teachers need to keep youth on the “right track” by being more influential than peer pressure.
“That’s not easy,” he said.
Malone called Bailey “a good man,” who, because of his presence in the hallways, keeps potential problems from escalating.
“As a principal, I learned a long time ago, I can’t make all the changes by myself,” Malone said. “You have to have good people if you’re going to make a difference.”
Bailey was head football coach of the Middies, served four years in the military and has worked at HHS for 15 years.
At the juvenile detention center, Bailey hopes to reach the troubled youth. Even if it’s only one kid.
“If that happens,” he said, “that means there was a reason for me to wake up in the morning.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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