Community Corner
Get to Know: James Kline
For more than half his life, Kline has been volunteering to help kids with disabilities.
As he looks around a barn full of horses, pets and kids, James Kline can’t help but smile. He’s been looking forward to this all week.
A curly haired 12-year-old boy comes running around the corner.
“What’s up James?”
Find out what's happening in Fairlawn-Bathwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“Hey Steffan, you ready for today?” Kline asked.
Kline is a volunteer at Victory Gallop, a nonprofit organization in Bath that provides horseback-riding lessons to children with behavioral, emotional or phsyical challenges.
Find out what's happening in Fairlawn-Bathwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
He started helping out there in 1999, when he was Steffan’s age. Twelve years later, Kline still volunteers twice a week.
“How’s grandma?” Kline asked Steffan.
The two banter back and forth while they wait for Steffan’s turn to ride.
The way Kline interacts with kids is the reason he’s “the guy everybody loves,” according to Sue Miller, co-founder of Victory Gallop.
“James puts a lot of time into making this very beneficial for every kid he works with,” Miller said. “He doesn’t see them for their disabilities. To him, they’re just kids.”
Instead of regular lessons, it’s horse show day at the barn. While music plays, the kids ride one at a time and show what they’ve learned during the spring session of lessons.
Steffan didn’t bring any music with him, so he has to use music borrowed from the barn.
“Do you guys have any real music?” he asked Kline.
“Uh, we have 'Splish Splash'?”
“No.”
“Lolly pop?”
“No.”
Kline smiles.
Most of the work he does at Victory Gallop is helping kids like Steffan during lessons. Over Kline’s many years of volunteering, he has developed strong relationships with the kids and their families.
He never asks what problem or disability the child has.
“I don’t need to know because it doesn’t matter,” Kline says. “When they come to the barn, it’s just a place for them to relax, have fun, and not have to worry about anything else,.”
As Steffan gets ready to mount Firecracker, a white horse twice his size, he hears that there is a Jack Johnson CD by the stereo.
“Oh, now that is good stuff,” he tells Kline.
Kline and Steffan have been working together for nearly a year. Steffan now only needs Kline to walk by his side while he rides.
They line up in the center of the barn’s indoor riding arena. Other volunteers, kids, and parents watch from the side, cameras ready.
“I’ll help you get through this. You’re going to do great,” Kline said, standing next to Steffan.
The music starts. Steffan rides forward.
“Who picked this song?” a volunteer asks Steffan’s mom. “It’s perfect.”
As Kline walks alongside Steffan and his horse, Jack Johnson sings,
“And when I wake tomorrow, I’ll bet that you and I will talk together again, because I can tell that we are going to be friends, I can tell that we are going to be friends.”
To learn more about volunteering at Victory Gallop, visit the web site