SierraScape December 2001 - January 2002
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by Marge O'Gorman
Six children and five adults from the Sierra Club Inner City Outings participated in the annual Chapter reunion held September 7-9, 2001.
The children were all members of the Adams family, currently residents of Karen House, a Catholic Worker shelter in St. Louis.
For most of the children, it was their first experience at camping. When I interviewed them for this article, all of them were unanimous about wanting to go camping again. Walter, 14, the oldest boy in the group, put it this way, "I'm ready to go anytime. I want to be where the animals are at." His brother, Quinton, one of the family's ten year old twins, added, "I want to go camping in a, what do you call it . . . oh, a tent."
Shameka, 16, begged, "Take me camping next week-end, pleeeease!" One of her favorite activities was the treasure hunt that was planned for all the children attending the campout. When I asked what she learned from that activity or camping in general, she said, "It gave me more experience in learning how to work together in a group."
In the six years that I have been involved in ICO that is something I look for and continually ask myself, "What are the kids learning from these experiences we provide for them?" But when I met the Adams children, I felt like the tables were turned and I started asking myself, "What are these kids teaching me?"
When I first met these children, I knew there was something special about them. They didn't seem like other kids I had met who were in transitional housing.
In fact, I found myself being challenged about the stereotypes I had of children who were homeless. I tend to think of such children as kids at risk for living in poverty, for dropping out of school, for getting into trouble... But what I discovered was that these particular kids were articulate, interested in interacting with adults, quick to volunteer for camping chores and even experienced in cooking for a crowd, you should see 10 year old Quindarryl flip grilled cheese sandwiches. He's a whiz at it!
Being with the children over the week-end gave us as leaders a number of opportunities to talk individually with each child. Again I was amazed at each of them. Each one, in his or her own way, had personal goals and seemed to be on track in following them. Shannon, who is 12, wants to teach, loves school and talks constantly about going to college.
Shannon's sister, Shameka, 16, wants to be a doctor. Mercedes, 11 and Quinton both want to be police officers. Walter likes construction and wants to design buildings as an architect. Quindarryl, the other twin, says, "I don't want a degree. I think I'll just spend two or three years in college." Yet he is very specific about his major, "I want to study language arts and Spanish."
In addition to cooking, Quindarryl wants, "To hike more and more and more. And also to swim more and more and more and more." Besides being active, he loves to sit and read and can do that for hours. I was pretty impressed with this coming from a 10 year old. So I told him I thought he might turn out to be an author. "Do you like to write?" I asked. Right away he insisted, "I do not like to do cursive!" When I explained that I meant to compose and that he could do that on a computer, he nodded and said, Oh, I like writing on the computer."
Even amazing children like these have their mischievous moments. While we were hiking, they grumbled about the rain and muttered under their breath something about us ICO leaders being "nature nerds." Strangely enough though, when I interviewed them, all but one of them spontaneously mentioned hiking as one of their favorite memories of the week-end.
Mercedes and Quindarryl told me they made friends with some of the adults on the campout. And Shameka, Walter, Shannon and Quinton join the two of them in sending a big thank you to all of you who were there with us.
Tim Pekarek, Brad Stumpe, Erin Wallace, Margaret Rissman and myself say thanks for this opportunity for our ICO kids and for the hospitality and friendship you extended to them.