Back in 1998, to help younger residents with special needs, the city of Woodinville created the Woodinville Wranglers. Primarily, the group provides recreation and athletic opportunities — such as involvement with Special Olympics — to challenged youth.

Wranglers coach/coordinator Cole Caplan said the group currently serves about 100 members from all around the area ranging in age from elementary school students to those in high school.

But the organization was threatened when Woodinville City Council, reportedly for financial reasons, voted in July to close that city’s Carol Edwards Center and cancel all recreation programs effective Dec. 31. The Wranglers used the Edwards Center as their base of operations.

“The group was essentially without a home next year,” Caplan said.

Caplan credited Woodinville Recreation Supervisor Cindy Shelton, who has a son involved with the Wranglers, for reaching out to the Northshore Senior Center and center Director Gary Kingsbury. With $28,000 over two years coming from the city of Woodinville, the Wranglers officially will relocate to the Health and Wellness Center (10212 E. Riverside Drive in Bothell), effective Jan. 1.

A name change will accompany the move, with the Woodinville Wranglers becoming the Northshore Wranglers.

“We’re happy to have a home,” said Elizabeth Sanders, parent of two Wranglers athletes. She added that from her point of view, the transition to the Wellness Center should be virtually painless.

“It’s nice to be welcomed,” Sanders continued.

“They needed to come up with a solution,” Kingsbury said, adding the Wranglers considered moving to the Northshore YMCA. Kingsbury said that institution would have been a worthy home for the Wranglers if all the group was interested in was recreational activities.

“We asked them (the Wranglers) to think about where they really wanted to go,” Kingsbury said, speaking not just of a physical location, but more to the overall future of the group.

According to Kingsbury, through its Health and Wellness Center, Northshore can help the Wranglers go beyond recreation and move into — as just a few examples — computer training for those with challenges and aid and general support for their caregivers.

Kingsbury noted that through its adult day care program, the Health and Wellness Center already offers similar opportunities for adults with challenges. Both he and Caplan talked about the adult day and Wrangler programs complimenting each other.

“This program extends the services the center offers for the disabled to youth, while expanding the Wranglers programs in our community,” Kingsbury said.

“Essentially, we are filling a service gap for them,” Caplan added.

Kingsbury later continued that a common concern for the parents of challenged youth is in regard to what happens to those children when they graduate from school.

“The answer is, they come here,” Kingsbury said, referring, of course, to the Northshore Center.

Caplan will follow the Wranglers to Bothell, becoming a program coordinator at the Health and Wellness Center. Kingsbury said that especially in light of current budget challenges, it was important for both sides to determine sources of funding for the Wrangler program. Kingsbury continued that the grant from Woodinville will act as seed money while the Wranglers seek grant money and undertake other fund-raising activities, steps Caplan said the group would have taken in any case.

Overall, Sanders had nothing but praise for the Wranglers. She said her son, 17, had few friends before he joined, but that definitely changed as he began to take part in the Wranglers’ various sports teams. Sanders said the Wranglers provide challenged children with love, acceptance and self-esteem, as well as simply keeping them active.

“As a parent, it is very reassuring to know that they are accepted,” Sanders concluded.