Couple prepares teens for adulthood

WASILLA — Julie Baird believes it was divine inspiration that prompted her to launch a summer education organization for Mat-Su Valley teens that she and her husband, Steve, dubbed Baird Life University.

“I really believe the good Lord downloaded it to me because I would not have come up with it on my own,” the longtime Wasilla resident said Wednesday, two days after presenting her new venture to Wasilla City Council. “I don’t have another explanation for it.”

One thing’s for sure: the Bairds and others who have heard about their new school are convinced the courses they’re offering on finances, relationships, First Aid/CPR, and even cooking through partnerships with others in the community will help produce a healthier, wiser crop of youth better prepared for the adult world.

The seed was planted last spring after the Bairds took a Dave Ramsey “Financial Peace University” course at their local church. Ramsey, a nationally recognized financial expert who also has his own radio show, provides DVDs and workbooks for his courses to churches and individuals. But this is the first time anyone in the Valley has organized their own “school” for area teens and parents based on Ramsey’s principles.

“When I was a teen-ager in the 1980s, we weren’t taught much about how to handle money or even the basics of saving up for the future,” Julie said. “I think many people across the country and across the Valley would agree there needs to be a little more information provided to prepare young people for adulthood.”

With that in mind, Julie started a website at bairdlifeuniversity.blogspot.com that targets teens, encouraging them to “chase life with bear intensity!”

In a blog post dated March 8, Julie speaks directly to teens, telling them that if they want to be respected and treated as adults, they need to think more like adults.

“No one seems to make enough money or enough influence. Therefore, if you want to make BIG bucks, or make a BIG impact in this world, then you gotta think and do what adults think and do,” she wrote. “Be smart, work hard, do great things, respect authority or those under your authority, be on time, learn how to negotiate, be persistent and consistent, when you fall down — get back up — don’t EVER quit, and THEN the money and/or your vision in life will come to you.”

For a minimal fee of $20 per student for class materials, the Bairds plan to open registration for their Financial Peace University 101 course May 10 to 30 and begin teaching it together at Valley Harvest Church Monday nights from June 20 to July 18.

Their goal is to have at least 20 students and — if desired — their parents, but they’d be happy with only a handful if they felt they were having a positive impact on the community, they said.

“We just want to bless people,” Steve said Thursday before heading off to his full-time job as a customer service agent for GCI.

Steve said students and parents can buy Ramsey’s FPU course materials from his website, daveramsey.com, for $10 and take the class locally through Baird Life University for nothing.

“We’re not looking to make money on this,” he said. “We truly just want to contribute to the community in a positive way.”

Friend Heather Quincy, a mother of three teens in Willow, said Thursday she’s looking forward to enrolling her 16-year-old daughter in the CPR course because she takes a lot of babysitting jobs.

Valley resident Debra McGhan of the North American Outdoor Institute will teach the First Aid/CPR classes in her course Child and Babysitting Safety Training. She’ll also offer classes on survival skills and first responder rescue techniques for the wilderness.

Quincy said her family doesn’t need to take the FPU courses because they already completed that training through her church about a year ago. She said the Ramsey course was invaluable, however, and recommends it to all ages.

“The biggest thing that helped us was learning how to sit down and make a budget,” she said. “If you don’t actually do it, it’s so easy to get off track and continue to fall behind on bills. We learned to start including things that come up later in the year, like land taxes. If you figure that in each month, you won’t get caught by surprise later.”

Having two family businesses built around the summer tourist and recreational season, the Quincys have to make sure their money lasts the entire year, she explained.

The Bairds said they’re also looking forward to interacting with young people because they’ve been trying to have a baby for the past 14 years and only recently completed the paperwork to adopt a baby.

“Taking Ramsey’s course ourselves actually helped us prepare for all the adoption expenses,” said Steve, who admits he’s the more cautious one in the relationship, while his wife is the more creative, outgoing half. “Julie’s creativity has always amazed me. People are always blessed by things she comes up with.”

Julie, who works full-time in her parents’ construction office in Wasilla, said she can’t wait to open Baird Life University for the community and encourages residents to peruse the blog site to get a complete picture of everything being offered.

In the future, they hope to expand their offerings on suicide and addiction, trade schools and the military, and career explorations for young people.

“It’s just sometime positive we can offer,” she said of the new adventure. “There are so many negative things out there. We need more positive stuff.”

For more information on Baird Life University, contact Julie Baird at 232-3688 or visit the BLU website, bairdlifeuniversity.blogspot.com.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.