The West Liberty Lions Club Family Support Center has been open since August 20 of this year and since then they have been serving the communities of Bethany, Windsor Heights, West Liberty, Oglebay, and the surrounding areas ever since. With the upcoming holiday season, the center has been at work trying their best to help local families in the community who need it.

Center director Wendy Robinson said the center has no income guidelines, everything is free there and no family in need will be turned away.

Robinson gets help not just from her staff – Parents As Teachers Educator Amy Doyle, Administrative Assistant Lara Schindler, Blessing Box Assistants Stephanie Bonar and Darin Perry and doula Jackie Garland – but also from students at West Liberty University.

Christian Montague is the center’s teen facilitator, while Robinson’s daughter Addie Robinson, Elian Lamar and Katie Banal all take time spend with the center’s children.

“It is really nice volunteering at the center,” Montague said, “because it allows me to just take time out of my busy schedule to just be a kid again.”

Montague, who is a member of the WLU men’s basketball team, said there are plenty of university students who pitch in for the center however they can.

“My basketball team stepped up and paid for tickets for the teenagers that I help out at the center,” he said, “and it is an amazing thing that my teammates support the center just as much as I do.”

Addie Robinson, known as “Miss Addie” to the center’s children has grown a special bond with the children. When those kids play house, rather than taking the role of “mommy,” they want to be “Miss Addie.”

Wendy Robinson said just being around the center’s children is a good feeling. As many responsibilities he has as its director, she said everything comes back to caring for the kids. That interaction always puts a grin on her face.

“Before I became the director of the center I was always told that I would never have time during the day to sit and play with the kids,” she said. “But sometimes it’s nice to just take the time out of my busy day to just sit and play with them because it makes me smile. Because who doesn’t love cute kids?”