Recently, Stable Ground members attended the Women’s Health Fair hosted by Town Hall 2. Members handed out business cards and brochures to spread the word about Stable Ground, said founder and president Kiera Walls.

Stable Ground, a nonprofit organization, offers family-centered activities for families dealing with a crisis, such as divorce or death of a loved one.

By offering different activities to participate in, Stable Ground allows people to spend time together as a family and forget about the problems for a day, Walls said.

Walls, senior human development and family studies major, created the organization, which was incorporated six months ago, because she always wanted to start or participate in a group that helped people.

“One day, I just decided if I wasn’t going to do it that day, I was just going to keep waiting. So I just decided one day to set a meeting,” Walls said. “I hung up posters around campus, and I think it was Feb. 26, I went to the Student Center in hopes that people would show up, and about 10 students showed up. Some of them were in class with me, and they heard about it through there; so then we just decided what we were going to do and took off from there.”

With about 12 members meeting once a month, everybody has a role in Stable Ground, according to Vice President Gabrielle Schura, senior human development and family studies major.

“We’re pretty small, so we kind of all collaborate very well and … everybody just kind of does what needs to be done,” Schura said.

The organization’s biggest goal is to help a family in crisis, which it hasn’t done yet because it is still looking for families that want help, Walls said.

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When Stable Ground finally recruits families that want its help, the organization hopes to grow and help more families, Schura said. She said the activities it has for families in crisis often depend on the family’s situation.

“Normally, what we’d like to do is take them out and do some family-centered activity; and, I mean, it depends on how many family members are in the family (and) how old they are,” Schura said. “We have bowling tickets for example, and we take them to bowling, and some of us will go with them and eat some pizza and play a couple rounds of bowling.”

Although the group is still trying to get off to a good start, Stable Ground has been involved in the community. It worked with the local music school Jam Session and Kent Parks and Recreation to put on a youth battle of the bands, Battle Palooza, where the bands competed for prizes and a chance to record at Jam Session. Schura said the organization raised some money through selling tickets and refreshments and a small fee that the bands had to pay.

According to Walls, members of Stable Ground are now collecting teddy bears for their project “Bearing Through It” to give to police stations, fire departments and hospitals for children.

Walls said the idea for the name Stable Ground came from one of her friends.

“Our whole meaning behind it is, you know, home is where the heart is, and we want to create a stable situation for all families,” Walls said.

“So putting a family on a stable ground is what we try to do.”

Contact Alicia Balog at [email protected].