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Casting her vote for giving children a say at the polls
Valley's Scates heads Kids Voting USA
BARBARA YOST
Special to Jewish News
Karen T. Scates is not so concerned with which political party wins the most seats in Congress on Nov. 3, but with the more pertinent question: Will the Oreo cookie defeat the chocolate chip?
Scates is the new president of Kids Voting USA, a nationwide, non-profit organization that teaches school-age children about democracy and sends them off to polls as an unofficial, but informed, electorate. The hope is that after those children turn 18, they'll head to voting booths in greater numbers than their parents, whose turnout has been dismal of late.
Tempe-based Kids Voting USA began with a pilot program in Arizona 10 years ago and now has a presence in 30 states. Scates came on board just two-and-a-half months ago after leaving a high-powered job in community affairs with American Express in Phoenix.
Long involved in politics, she also has worked as an aide to former U.S. Rep. Morris Udall (D-Ariz.) and former governor Rose Mofford. She says the chance to give something back to the community in the form of strengthening democracy, at a time when many Americans have turned cynical, was too tempting to pass up.
"I'm into it," she says of her new career. "When I get into something, I put both arms and my whole soul into it."
She helped to fund the Kids Voting program in Arizona during her 10 years at American Express, and she now will help direct its destiny across the country. It's a cause she believes in.
"If you expose kids at an early age, they'll be engaged for a lifetime," she says. "This has a lot of components I was looking for - making a difference."
Kids Voting is not just a field trip to the polls. Children study civic responsibilities at all grade levels, from kindergarten through high school.
In kindergarten this year, they're electing their favorite cookie. In higher grades, they might vote on activities or recess. On Election Day, they accompany their parents to the polls, where they are given their own ballots to vote on real candidates and real issues. Their votes are tabulated in a separate count.
As president of the national organization, Scates was summoned to Washington, D.C., recently by Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, to discuss the purpose and impact of the program. "It was very nice because it was special. Kids Voting USA is getting the attention of significant people," Scates says. "It was terrific."
She considers Edelman "the single most consistent voice on behalf of children. ... She's truly, to me, divinely inspired."
Scates, who grew up in Tenafly, N.J., in a family enriched by its Reform Jewish culture, says she was raised with a commitment to the human community. At age 14, she was the youngest-ever president of her temple youth group. Her maternal grandmother was a feisty woman who had immigrated from Latvia determined to follow her social conscience and support her colleagues in the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
Scates remembers Grandma bringing the family bags of rye bread and pickles with labels reading "Don't Buy Judy Bond Blouses," referring to a clothing manufacturer alledged to have run sweatshops. Scates' mother, aware of how neighbors would talk, tried delicately to substitute shopping bags from Saks Fifth Avenue. The Saks bags went home with Grandma, but she invariably returned with more Judy Bond bags on her next visit.
It's that notion of doing what's right that has guided Scates through her many career changes, she says. A child of the 1960s, she followed not only in Grandma's footsteps, but also in those of her parents, who taught her to repay society for the rewards it bestows.
"It's a very Jewish concept," she says, "the need to find a balance. You grow up with responsibility. That's a large part of what it's about ... to understand the concept of giving back. It runs through your soul. We must leave conditions better than how we found them."
When she began to grow restless with her work at American Express earlier this year, that '60s sensibility emerged. The invitation to lead Kids Voting USA came at the perfect moment.
"There are times in life where not only opportunities come around, but you get restless and want to make another contribution," Scates says. "That tickles me. That noodges me."
Though Kids Voting USA depends on many volunteers, hers is a paid position. Still, she says, she finds the work very personally rewarding.
"You feel you've contributed to the world in which you live," she says.
At American Express, Scates was able to connect with the community through the corporation. Now she connects on a different level.
"This is a more singular mission," she says. "It's one project, everyone working together. It could be an agent for change, to engage young people at an early age. Voting is only the end result. We want to connect families and their community and create a synergy."
Her plans are ambitious - to take Kids Voting USA into every state and then perhaps international.
"Those are lofty goals," Scates admits, "but it's something you can be passionate about."
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