Krystal Bullock is a 38-year-old Kingston native and mother of five. A member of a large family with deep roots in Kingston, Bullock lives on Henry Street. For the past 10 years, she has worked as a crisis outreach worker and program manager at the Everette Hodge Community Center on Franklin Street. “Anything that makes the kids happier and their lives easier, that’s what I do.” This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Kingston Wire: How did you or your family come to be in Kingston?

Krystal Bullock: The Bullock family is like one of the biggest families in the City of Kingston. My mother passed away a few years ago, she was 68 and she’d been here all her life. I don’t know exactly how far back we go.

KW: What do you like to do in Kingston?

KB: I like to be where the kids are. I’ve got five kids of my own, I’m very family-oriented. I’m the house that my family goes to when we have barbecues and parties. I like to have a good time, a safe time and I enjoy being with kids.

KW: What would you like to change about Kingston?

KB: To change the behavior of these kids. I’m actually working a proposal to start my own program, I want to follow the kids that I started with at the Hodge Center who are now 16, 17 and running the streets like they have no kind of guidance. That’s my goal, to save my community from gun violence and all of these drugs. Something’s got to be done.

KW: How has the pandemic changed Kingston?

KB: When the pandemic hit, the Hodge definitely became essential. We literally went from cooking for our center or the Rondout Center or the Boys and Girls Club to cooking for Kingston, and we still are. We’re still doing these community meals where people can call a number and if they say they have five people in their household we’ll provide a meal for every single one. That’s the reason that I have to start this program, because a lot of the kids that I was dropping off at the Boys and Girls Club before the pandemic are now out here running the streets. One of them is actually in jail now because they got hold of a gun and was out here shooting in the street.

The pandemic made kids in this town just lose their mind in some kind of way. It brings me to tears to see these kids I was dropping off at the Boys and Girls Club out here smoking weed, selling drugs and playing with guns. I’ve been here all my life and I felt, as a kid like we didn’t have nothing, but now as an adult looking back on my childhood, we had a lot compared to what these kids have. It’s like, once you age out of the Boys and Girls Club there’s really nowhere for you to go now.