Roll’in Along
July 7, 2011
We are now a month into the summer program—rock’in and roll’in and swim’in!
Murals Swirling to Life
There nothing quite like a mural. A large public display of art calling everyone who walks by to engage. A mural speaks about a community’s life; what their culture is like and what folk hold important. Not everyone in community always agree with a murals subject matter, or style, or even if it is art, but because it speaks to at least a faction of community, it speaks of community.
A little over a week ago I dropped by Noah’s Ark on a Sunday afternoon. Noah’s Ark is a homeless shelter in Wapato with whom the Mission partners. Even though they are twenty miles from the Mission, Noah’s Ark is the closest and only homeless center who cares for our community. On this Sunday afternoon, Hilary and Alicia were working on a mural design for the shelter. Starting two days earlier, they worked with local folks, both of the shelter and surrounding community, to raise ideas and concepts as to important community images. They had hundreds of images to work with by this afternoon and Alicia and Hilary were busy molding images together into a design that will begin in the next few weeks.
That same afternoon Rebecca and Katherine began taping a portion of the Log Church basement wall for a children’s mural to begin the next day. The trick to this mural was to give the children an open and full opportunity to express themselves in the midst of their community. Much like Paul’s thoughts recognizing community as the Body of Christ and each person individually a member of it, the mural was to show how individuals in community, doing art, brings forth life and hope. With life and hope at the murals core, key images were tree and rainbow. Late that Sunday evening Katherine and Rebecca were ready for painting to begin the next day.
Monday morning finally came and children began arriving at the Mission. Piling out of cars or arriving in the Mission van they headed off to the playground and morning snacks. Then from morning through afternoon a few would leave their normal activities and go paint on the mural. After being fitted with a garbage bag with holes for head and arms and with open opportunity to express whatever is important in their lives, they painted. Bugs and butterflies, words and clouds and sky and dots and squares and hands and paws and faces, they painted. Younger children painted low, older youth painted high. And the tree grew. And the rainbow brightened.
As the afternoon wore on, the sun moved to the northern horizon, which allowed sunlight to flow through the window above the mural. Light streamed down over painters, through the tree, magically lifting the rainbow off the concrete basement wall. Light swirled around painting and people, like a back eddy on the Yakima, filling space, giving life, as if to say, “It is good.”
A Park Salamander
Fort Simcoe state park is one of the fieldtrips we take each year through the Summer Fun Program. Each year the kids complain they already know what’s going to happen and it’s going to be boring. This year was no different.
However, like years in the past, as soon as they hit the ground after getting off the bus they ran to the raspberry bush. They picked a lot of raspberries! Next, we all took the tour of the park. They were close to boredom, but near the end of the tour we stopped at a pond, and where Jacob found a salamander! The kids were amazed and each little boy wanted one of his own! In the end, we decided to put it back where we found it. A day at the park always ends up good!
Janet Garcia: Summer Fun Program Intern
Growing Up
This job has allowed me to meet many kids and some I have gotten to know very well. It has been amazing seeing the kids faces as they arrive on the first day, and it’s unbelievable how grown up they are. It seems like not long ago the kids in my group were only going into kindergarten, and now they are going into fifth grade. It has been so incredible watching these kids grow up, sometimes I forget that they are not the little kids that needed help reading, or doing things normally left for the older kids. For example when Neil and Roger, which have been coming to the summer fun program since they were five, asked to fill up a three gallon water jug , I told them it was too heavy for them and they said, “Just let us try.” I couldn’t believe those kids were able to do it all on their own. Now as I watch Wilma and Ann, today’s kindergarteners, I can’t help but wonder how much their personality will change in the few years ahead.
Janet Garcia: Summer Fun Program Intern
[Janet has lived the Summer Fund Program for twelve years! She showed up the first day of the program all those years ago and has returned every summer. Janet has gone from participant to interning for the Mission for the last three summers!]
Grace at Wits End
Last week was one of the toughest weeks I have ever had in the last four years. None of the children seemed to want to listen and all of the staff seemed to be at the end of our ropes. Monday through Wednesday were storms of redundant warnings and punishments followed by stressful time crunches and unsuccessful attempts at organization. By the time Thursday morning rolled around I was ready for the week to be over so I could lie down in my bed, curl up and go to sleep. But Thursday turned in to the most wonderful day EVER! We went to the Cultural Museum, ran through it in about twenty minutes, hung around outside and then went to the swimming pool. On the bus ride home all of the children completely crashed and I was reminded of why I come to work everyday. Even through the hard times these children make me smile. Even when all of the children refuse to listen, I still know that deep down every one of these kids have hearts of gold. And even when I am at my wits end and ready to give up, these kids remind me of everything that is good and pure in this world.
Felicia Teter: Summer Fun Program Intern
[This is Felicia’s second year as an intern with the Summer Fun Program. In addition to working with the children, Felicia is also running the kitchen and food program. Thanks to Felicia’s hard work, we all eat!]
Voice at Knee Height
Take a minute and focus on what your body is telling you this morning. How has your breakfast fulfilled you today? Whether it was a bowl of cereal with strawberries and bananas in it, or pancakes and eggs and bacon, or a simple cup of coffee, you are sitting, reading this, and feeling better physically, mentally, and spiritually. At the Summer Fun Program in White Swan, we help create this well being by serving free snacks and lunches everyday to children who may not otherwise eat. This offering of food brings these kids into a safe family setting.
After lunch each day, the kids, full of food and energy, head out to the playground where they can put that energy to good use. One day, the basement was almost shaking with excitement. To calm the kids down I raised my hand and said quietly, “Raise your hand if you can hear me.” Now this day, I had a huge headache and knew I couldn’t do it by myself, so I asked Whinnie, the youngest kid at the program and who is only three and a half years old, for some help. I crouched down to her height and I said the phrase first, then had her say it in her high pitch, but very quiet voice. After just a couple moments of switching back and forth, the room went silent. She silenced a whole room of rowdy kids and that is when I realized Whinnie had her voice heard in a way it was never heard before.
That is what the Summer Fun Program is about; to give a safe place where kids can learn and grow and have their voice heard. So thinking back to how you feel this morning, uplifted and ready to face the day, know these kids get the chance to feel that same way: to play, learn, and express who they are. And this is all based from a simple meal, a simple connection to family and friends, and a simple feeling.
Katherine Bell: Summer Fun Program Director
[This is Katherine's second year to direct the Summer Fun Program. We look forward to an exciting fun filled time!]
Weeds and Flowers: Is there really a Difference?
What I am about to say in this sentence is not going to be exciting, profound, or inspirational but in fact, something most humans know; children are difficult. Especially children you have not grown up with or raised and don’t know all the traits and characteristics of.
For the past three days, I have been active in the Summer Program at the Log Church and have been learning how to work with thirty children from different homes, situations, and with entirely different personalities. I’ve had to deal with many situations that have frustrated me and upset me because I didn’t yet know how to handle what was happening.
Today was hump day and I could already feel the stress of it weighing me down. I had just tried to console an angry four-year old who ended up just needing a minute alone. I walked back to the board game area and sat down for a minute and then felt a light tapping on my arm and turned around to see the little four-year old girl duck down her head and quietly apologize. Then she pushed something in my hand which turned out to be a handful of flowers. I was shocked and enthralled! I know I’m here to be a leader and to avoid trying to be the best friend of all the kids, but can we be honest? Most people want to be liked regardless of any age group or job position. When the other children saw how happy that made me, they started running around the playground picking more flowers, which slowly turned to weeds, which eventually became small branches.
I needed this little moment of pure childhood love. This summer will be stressful and possibly some tears but I can keep my flowers (I had to dispose of the larger pointier ones) until they die and keep one in my journal, and remember what this summer is about.
(One other awesome thing that came from this; the church got a little free weeding done!)
Frannie McNally: Disciples Volunteer
[Frannie McNally is interning at the Mission this summer through the Office of Disciples Volunteering. Disciples volunteering interns are spread around the country this summer helping in many places of need. For more information on how you or someone you know might become a Disciples Volunteer see http://www.discipleshomemissions.org/pages/Volunteering]
Summer Fun Program Begins!
The Summer Fun Program started yesterday. Many parents and grandparent were surprised when they showed up. Surprised because we had to let them know that as of this morning we could not provide transportation during summer for their children should they need it. As one might suspect there were many questions. Like many folk who have a long history with the Mission, most never really grasped that when the denomination ended (Disciples Mission Fund) funding to the Mission in 2007, sooner or later something like this was bound to happen. The day was hard because it meant some children who have come to the Mission during the summer, all of their young life, would not be able to come this year. But then this is the reality for youth, families, communities, and structural entities like the Mission who are of poverty.
Just the same, twenty-five children arrived and the day went great! With food, games, crafts, and staff and children remembering one another, everyone settled in for another summer. Now we begin living into the creative time that can only arise out of this soil, these people, and the visitors who make this home during the summer.
© David B. Bell 2010
