Hit-And-Run Victim Had Special Bond With Kids -- Troubled Past Led Volunteer To Work With Children At Church And In Community

FEDERAL WAY - In the days after she was killed by a hit-and-run driver, Jill Kalning's car remained in front of the community center where she was helping children when she was fatally injured.

As the days passed, flowers mounted on the roof and hood of the gray Dodge Omni, including a paper lily, a child's name printed in red crayon on the tag.

The 28-year-old Puyallup woman was there in the low-income housing community every Wednesday night, working with about eight to 12 kids.

Kalning was hit by a pickup Wednesday night while pushing a child in a stroller on Southwest 334th Street near 21st Southwest. She died later at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle; the child was only slightly injured.

"She saw the driver coming and pushed the stroller away," said Carolee Mayne, another volunteer at the church Kalning attended. "She took the hit and saved the baby."

Many of the children saw a pickup hit Kalning as she stepped around a car. This Wednesday, a counselor is to meet with the children who saw Kalning get hit.

Troy Steven Page, 28, of Federal Way has been charged with vehicular homicide and felony hit-and-run driving in Kalning's death. He was being held in King County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

Kalning also taught Sunday school and volunteered for Reading Buddies, a program to help kids develop reading skills.

Family and church members at Northwest Foursquare Gospel Church in Federal Way said Kalning felt an affinity with these children because of the troubles she had growing up.

Kalning's parents divorced when she was 3 or 4 years old, said her father, Eugene Kalning. There were custody battles, and her mother struggled financially. Her sister, Brenda, of Mineral, Lewis County, said Jill often ran away and had her battles with substance abuse. The siblings, she added, were not close for many years.

When she was 15, Jill Kalning was diagnosed with diabetes.

Her mother, Barbara Fuller, said after she found Northwest Church she kept nudging her daughter to come to services. Finally, about eight years ago, she persuaded her to go to a sleepover for people her age.

"I said, `Go. Just go and meet people,' " Fuller said. "And that was all that she wrote."

Northwest Church is a big, evangelical Christian house of worship. Five services are held every Sunday, with more than 1,800 members.

It was there that Kalning found her home. Church members remember her in the early days, shyly sitting in the back.

"She moved from the back row to the front row in that period of time," said Bill Johnson, an associate pastor.

During the day, Kalning worked at a Dairy Queen, a $5-an-hour job that barely covered expenses, but it gave her the flexibility to do volunteer work. Kalning took four church trips to help at an orphanage in Jamaica, once staying for three months.

"She had a really good relationship with children, I think partially because she never grew up - she was like a big kid," said Debra Scott, the children's ministry director at Northwest Church.

But Scott was slightly uncomfortable with all the attention directed at Kalning's work in the aftermath of her death.

"Jill did not do this for glory," Scott said. "God had changed her life. . . . And that's why she did it. God put a real passion in her."

Funeral services for Kalning were held yesterday at Northwest Church.

While she says her daughter will be missed, Fuller said she doesn't hold a lot of animosity toward the man accused of hitting and killing her daughter.

"It's a waste of time to hate," Fuller said. "There'll be justice, and that's all I want."

------------- MEMORIAL FUND -------------

Northwest Church has established a fund at U.S. Bank to help Jill Kalning's family with funeral and burial costs. Anyone interested in donating can contact the church at 838-6321.