July 25, 2025
BY JOHN BAILEY
For some children a teddy bear is a toy, an object that brings them joy and comfort.
For those attending the Junior Warrior’s program at Malorie’s Place in Maiden, it is a tool to help them navigate trauma.
“When they’re feeling upset or anxious or depressed we told them to take their teddy bear and give it a big hug and start breathing in and out,” Malorie’s Place Executive Director Leslie Hulbert said. “It works and calms them down.”
Malorie’s Place is one of the four local non-profits receiving funding through the Catawba County Youth Council’s community grant, in partnership with the Catawba County United Way.
Hulbert started Malorie's Place to honor her daughter Malorie who passed away from an overdose in 2023. The agency’s goal is to provide aid through peer support to anyone suffering from addiction, tragedy or grief.
The Junior Warriors program was established after Hulbert saw the emotional stress her grandchildren continued to go through after their mother’s death (Malorie). The program focuses on helping children in grades K-5. It supports increased connectedness through peer support and encourages a drug-free community for area children.
“At that age they don’t know there are others going through the same thing,” Hulbert said. “It’s about teaching them how to control anxiety.”
According to the agency’s Youth Council application, Junior Warriors will empower children to change the trajectory of their lives by breaking generational cycles of addiction and minimizing their use of poor coping mechanisms now and in the future.
Hulbert called trauma the gateway to substance use and mental health issues.
Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years). Preventing ACEs could potentially reduce many health conditions. Estimates show up to 1.9 million heart disease cases and 21 million depression cases potentially could have been avoided by preventing ACEs, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There is individual counseling for children but having a group where they can talk to each other can make a difference,” Amy Gozalkowski who assists with the program said. “They may go to school and feel they are alone. Some of them just don’t know how to let their feelings out. They may be hurting but they may express it as anger.”
Hulbert said after some research she found a workbook program she used to build a curriculum for Junior Warriors, which meets every other Sunday.
The Trauma Reaction Workbook for Kids is a therapeutic resource by Beth Richey that utilizes a variety of drawing and writing prompts, problem solving activities, visualization and coping skills to increase self-awareness and understanding while decreasing the severity of post-trauma symptoms, according to the author’s website.
“Children don’t understand that mom or dad is addicted to something and that’s what is causing them to act this way,” Gozalkowski said. “All they see is the reaction to the addiction by their parents. They don’t see the actual cause…and that can lead to them thinking it’s because of something they did wrong, and they feel like they are the problem.”
Hulbert’s hope is that Junior Warriors will become a constant resource in the community for children living in stressful environments.
“We want to teach them that there is a way to overcome tragedy and trauma. We want to help them find their strength,” she said in the agency’s Youth Council application.
Learn more about Malorie’s Place at THIS LINK.