Birchwood Isle Family Roleplay

Basic Information

Where do you live? The Orphan Village
Are you married? If yes, to whom? Yes, to [TBD]
Do you have any children? If yes, list them. Not yet!
Is your family open to adopting children or adolescents? Absolutely would love to adopt! Her husband might be less enthusiastic.

Appearance
Height: 5'4"
Build: athletic
Hair Color: ginger
Eye Color: hazel
Distinguishing Features: a very light spray of freckles across her nose
Brief Description: Karin is an athletic ginger with a big, cheerful smile for everyone she meets. She can typically be found in the type of clothing that makes it easy for her to move around a lot, usually with her hair tied back into a bouncing ponytail. You won't often find her when she doesn't have a smile on her face, and when she's frowning, you know you'd better watch out! Although she is petite, her personality packs a lot of power into her small frame. Most of the time she's wearing sneakers, jeans, and a t-shirt unless she's actively working out. Then you'll find her in sweats!

Personality
Strengths: organized; cheerful; devoted to her work; involved in the community; social; loving; encouraging; active; athletic; great mentor
Flaws: critical of herself; gets lost in the sense of teamwork and forgets individual needs; easily loses track of time; obsesses over fixing problems; struggles with other people taking care of her; expects a lot from people; shows disappointment as easily as pride; proud
Likes: early morning jogs before the kids are up; participating in sports; teamwork; coaching; winning; community organizing; dogs; roller coasters; praise; smiling; Christmas movies
Dislikes: losing; herself sometimes; showing emotions in front of other people; tea; blankets that have holes in them; the impact screens have on kids; being left out of the planning process; sore losers
Vices: coffee (caffeine, and using it to keep her going at a high energy level)
Fears: rodents, serious illness
Personality: Karin is the type of person who just shines. Unless she is deeply lost in thought (which happens rarely, but it does happen!) she is smiling and animated, always cheering "her kids" on and encouraging sportsmanship, teamwork, and active involvement in their community. She is absolutely dedicated to the work that she does, but she also carves out a significant amount of time for her own community involvement and social pursuits. As much as she loves the kids she cares for, she also participates in activities outside of the Orphan Village and is part of a Birchwood Isle softball team that plays every summer, a member of Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and she takes classes at Fortitude Martial Arts. She's always on the go, always organizing something, setting up fundraisers, and looking for ways to get the Maple House kids involved in activities, as well. Karin never stops going!

Relationships & Discipline

How do you normally get along with other adults? Brilliantly! Karin assumes that people are wonderful until they prove her otherwise, and it makes it easy for her to make friends. She is active in the community and has tons of opportunities to get to know other people who live on Birchwood Isle. She's incredibly helpful and cooperative and that also helps her to establish relationships with other people.
How do you normally get along with teenagers? A lot of teenagers find Karin kind of "cringe," but that doesn't stop her from bending over backward to befriend them. After a period of time she's successful about 70% of the time, with the other 30% of the time being especially difficult teenagers (which she's not used to working with). Unfortunately, those who don't like her aren't likely to change their view because when she senses real dislike, she sometimes quickly turns on them and can become a lot stricter with those teens than she does with those who do like her.
How do you normally get along with children? Really well. Karin's great with younger children and they generally soak up her energy. She feeds off younger children and they feed off her as a result.
Link to your discipline sheet: click here ✅

Orphan Village Supplement

What is your role at the Orphan Village? Karin is a co-head of Maple House
Which house or building do you work for? Maple House
Do you live in the Village or commute? Karin lives in the village with her husband
Do you have any special training, certification, or skills relevant to your role? Before she came to Birchwood Isle, Karin was an elementary school teacher
Do you prefer to work with a particular age group? Which one? Younger children are Karin's preference. She feels they get harder the older they get
Do you struggle with a particular age group? Which one? The teenagers sometimes find Karin "cringe" because she's so cheerful most of the time

Briefly describe your caregiving or mentoring style. Karin is an encourager. She doesn't look for reasons to praise "her kids" so much as she looks for ways to push them to try new things, try harder things, and to reach new heights. She does not accept the word "can't" from one of the Maple House kids. They absolutely have to at least try before they are allowed to ask her for help.

Describe how you see your role in the village. Community organizer through and through. If something within the community needs to be planned or organized, Karin is all over it! She participates in planning projects throughout the Orphan Village and doesn't just focus on Maple House. She's currently hoping to build a couple of soccer teams to compete during the fall.

Is there anything else we should know about your role in the Village? First of all, Karin considers the kids at Maple house "hers." As far as she is concerned, they are as much her children as if they had come from her own body or if she had adopted them. She hates the idea of them being adopted outside of her care, but at the same time it thrills her to think of them finding permanent, lifelong families to care for them. This is the only way in which she differentiates between Maple House kids and the other kids living in the Orphan Village. She is quick to encourage or correct children from other houses even if she has no relationship with them, making her popular among most children and adolescents living in the village. Teens from other houses may, in fact, like her more than the teens from her own house!

Background

Education: Masters of Education
Work History: Previous elementary school teacher. Camp counselor as a teenager. Has also coached city teams.
Current Goals or Challenges:
Reason for Living on Birchwood Isle: Karin is deeply frustrated with the state of the world today. Teaching, even elementary school kids, became too much for her when she became not enough for her students. She was working too hard, burning the candle at both ends, and not seeing the results that she put the effort into producing. Birchwood Isle offered a refuge for her and her husband, and so they came to the island hoping for a better life. As far as they're concerned, they found it, and she loves what she does!
Brief History: Karin has always wanted to work with children, and she dreamed of having a large family. She went to college so that she could become an elementary school teacher and she went into it with all of the enthusiasm one would expect. By the time she reached the classroom, however, children had begun to change, distracted by their devices to the point of addiction and unable to focus on their lessons. Karin did the best she could, but, recognizing the signs of burnout, she decided it was time to quit.

Shortly thereafter, she and her husband found out they would not be able to have biological children. Karin was devastated. Between the loss of her career (because she was determined that she could not go back) and the loss of her fertility, she fell into a deep depression until her sister, Sonia, told her about openings on the island where she lived and invited Karin to come and check it out. Once they set foot on the island, Karin and her husband fell in love with it and its principles and quickly applied for a role leading Maple House.