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Deputy is a success story

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BY LISA A. DAVIS

TAMPA TRIBUNE

Published: July 22, 2009

As a boy, Kelly Endricks never would've imagined being here surrounded by men and women in uniform with shiny badges pinned over their hearts.

Not only does he stand among them on this morning at Bishop McLaughlin Catholic High School, he stands with them with his right hand firmly raised into the air, vowing to serve and protect the residents of Pasco County to the best of his ability.

Sheriff Bob White stands on the stage above them and administers the oath. It's a proud day for Endricks, 37. To see how he officially became a sworn Pasco deputy last Wednesday, one must step back with him into his past when he was a child who grew into an angry teen.

Like so many American families, Endricks' family was torn apart by divorce, his parents separating when he was 8.

"I had a hard time coping with the separation," he said sitting in the empty school auditorium after dozens of law enforcement officers and their families filtered out after a quarterly sheriff's office awards and swearing-in ceremony.

At some point, his mother remarried and Endricks had a less than a civil relationship with his stepfather.

"He would beat me. He would hit me," he recalled. "Just bad stuff, mean stuff you don't want to hear."

At first Endricks, still young, would take the abuse. But as he began to make the transition from boy to man, things began to change.

"At 15, I started fighting back," he said.

At 16, a Pasco deputy showed up during one of the fights, and he didn't see a troublemaker. He saw a troubled teen. The deputy mentioned to Endricks' mother there was a place that could help: The Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch, now called the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches. The deputy referred Endricks to his school resource officer, also a deputy, for more information. Soon, the teen was packing his bags and on his way to the ranch in Live Oak.

The move changed his life.

The relationship with his stepfather had turned him against the world. His temper often flared and anger often became physical.

"I was pretty much a bad person back then," he said.

Somehow, though, he was never arrested, which would have later precluded him from attending the ranch. Before he went to the ranch, he made an agreement with his mother that if after four months he didn't like it, he could go home.

That fourth month came, and he wasn't happy, but his mother backed out of the agreement, urging him to stick it out a little longer. He stayed two years.

Help is available

The youth ranches program, founded in 1957, is a nonprofit residential program for boys and girls in Florida who are at risk for juvenile delinquency. At the ranches, residents or "ranchers" are fostered by "cottage parents," learning life skills, responsibility and even job skills. Counseling services are provided to the children and their parents back at home.

Their mission is to go beyond simply preventing juvenile delinquency.

"We are very proud of our alumni, especially someone like Kelly who chooses to enter the field of law enforcement," said youth ranches President Roger Bouchard. "This is exactly what we mean when we fulfill our mission to prevent delinquency and develop strong, lawful, resilient and productive citizens who will make a positive contribution to our communities for years to come."

Endricks treasures all he learned at the ranch.

"When I left there I was a self-sufficient person," he said.

At the Live Oak ranch he learned about team work, integrity, discipline, honesty, helping others, working with his hands and even how to do his own laundry and to cook.

He went back home to Pasco at 18 and got a job at a local materials company, working his way up to operations manager.

He married 13 years ago and he and wife Kimberly have two children, daughter Brittany, 10, and son Jonathan, 6. But a few years ago, he got an itch to make a career change in his life, to make it more fulfilling.

He started the simple tasks of making lists of what jobs interested him and then wrote down pros and cons for each. When he pared it down there were only two occupations left: law enforcement officer and firefighter.

"I wanted to help people out," he said.

In the past couple of years, he has earned his GED diploma and graduated from the police academy at Pasco-Hernando Community College.

When he graduated, he applied to become a deputy at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office but there were no open positions at the time. He was hired by Dade City Police in May 2008.

'An overwhelming feeling'

In a small, private ceremony in the patrol room, the chief swore in Endricks and one other officer and pinned on their badges.

"It was like an overwhelming feeling that came over me," Endricks recalled of the moment. "It was the hairs-raised-on-my-neck kind of a deal."

He felt the same thing last Wednesday, especially since he was determined to become a Pasco deputy.

Pasco Sheriff Bob White, who serves as vice chairman of the youth ranches enterprise board, is pleased to see the end result of the charitable program so close to home.

"It lets you know that Florida charity for Florida children is really working," he said about Endricks. "They gave him the opportunity and he seized the opportunity ... I'm most proud of him."

Endricks says there's never been a day he regretted going to the ranch.

"All this stuff never would have happened had I not gone to the Florida Boys Ranch," he said.

He's been working at the sheriff's office since May and has nearly completely his training. He's already met a teenager like him.

Recently, he went out to a domestic battery call and found a 15-year-old girl had been hit by her 25-year-old sister for not doing enough chores, Endricks said.

As he talked to the teen, he learned her parents had recently divorced and she was having a hard time with it and had started acting out.

He told her about the youth ranches. He doesn't know whether she'll follow through, he said, but she was asking a lot of questions.

Endricks stood there in his uniform that day and told her about himself.

"You're walking in my shoes," he said.

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