Volunteers finish playroom for foster kids that family was unable to finish

DUNEDIN — The afternoon pickup line at Sandy Lane Elementary School was packed with sedans Thursday when Janice Griffith drove in, her 15-seat van nearly too wide to fit.

Troy, 20, and Alli, 2, sat in the front row, next to two empty car seats. Mark, 8, and David, 9, stepped quietly inside, claiming separate benches. Then Griffith's Chevy Express 3500 drove off toward Lakeside Christian School, where James and Melissa and Brittany and Kathleen climbed in, filling each row, yelling when Mark didn't have his seat belt on.

Compared to taking 14 children on a weeklong camping trip, or 10 kids to the beach, Griffith's rounds on Thursday seemed to her an easy routine. Over the last 17 years, Griffith has given birth to three children, adopted another eight and fostered 145 more, most of them filtering through her toy-lined home on New York Avenue.

The house was busier than normal Thursday. A dozen volunteers were painting and moving furniture to complete a playroom that had been started years earlier.

Griffith parked in her side yard and the children streamed into the home, shooting in all directions, saying they were bored or hungry or hyper.

Then they all got a little quieter. They crowded at the back of the house, looking out the windowed doors.

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An average dinner here is six pounds of spaghetti or 32 Sav-A-Lot hot dogs, except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are Happy Meal nights. The children crowd into folding chairs around one table, seated in the center of a dining room lined with plastic play kitchens.

There are nine living here now: foster children Alli, 2; David, 8; Mark, 9; Melissa, 10 and Brittany, 12; and adopted children James, 10; Falicia, 19; Kathleen, 19 and Kimberly, 21, though others, like Troy, sometimes come over just to visit. Griffith takes them to school, remembers their birthdays, tells them to clean up their mess.

When the children left the home, Griffith said, it was always an event. Strangers would ask what day care she was with, or ask which theater they were visiting so they could choose a different movie.

Except when spending the summer at the Kiwanis Sprayground, the children often grouped up in the playground outside, with its swing set and slide and traffic jam of plastic cars.

Griffith's husband, Phillip, the mellow one who usually said yes, had planned a big playroom in the back of the house. It had been their dream, Griffith said. He had built the walls and was preparing to finish it when his kidney failed in the fall of 2006. She spent two weeks in the hospital with him before he died.

"If they hadn't have been here, … If there was nobody there needing something," Griffith said, "I don't know if I could have made it."

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Volunteers with Keller Williams Realty, told of Griffith's busy home by the Eckerd Community Alternatives foster agency, filled the old playroom.

They were streaked with sweat after installing doors, painting and laying a new wooden floor.

The children pointed at two newly hung swings out back, craning their necks toward the window.

Then James went to grab the Xbox. Melissa begged Kathleen to draw her picture. Alli chased her brother around crying, wanting to get a hug.

Griffith grabbed Alli and sat in the recliner, her command seat, at the center of the home. It was noisy again. She was right at home.

Contact Drew Harwell at dharwell@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6244.