This is not the usual article I write for the Principal’s Corner. I’m writing this article to share with each of you something wonderful that has been going on at Hope Hall for 4 years. It was started as an “experiment” to help our families and our students and it has become one of our “jewels.” The Board of Trustees asked me to share it with our readers, and since many of you read the lead article of our Newsletter each month, I thought this was the best way to get (and, I hope, keep) your attention.
Four years ago the teachers and I looked at a very serious “unmet” need that caused our children a great deal of stress. We noticed that on the last day of school every year most of the children were clinging to us in tears. As a child, I loved school, but there was no way I cried when summer vacation started. I couldn’t wait for those days to start. For our students, dreading summer vacation was not a “fluke” that happened just one year. It happened every year, so I decided to talk with the students about what was going on.
In September, when the students returned I found that most of them “hated” summer vacation. I found out that:
• because most of our children live in the Northwest and Northeast sections of the city, areas with a large rate of gang activity and violence, they had to stay inside every day while their parents were working - just to be safe.
• because many of our families struggle just to make ends meet, day care or camps were not options. Our students were cared for by older siblings or relatives, or they themselves were the ones taking care of younger children. Since our students have issues around impulsivity and attention to details, summer meant that they were frequently “getting into trouble” because there wasn’t a consistent structure in their lives, or the ones providing a structure didn’t understand the needs of our children.
• Many of our children didn’t feel free to play in their neighborhoods, even if they could, because they were picked on by other kids.
• Our students couldn’t wait to get back to school where they felt understood and accepted.
I also learned from teachers that students showed a regression in skills involving math, reading, and language arts, because they weren’t reinforced over the summer.
The obvious solution was to find funding and run a summer program.
The Glover-Crask Foundation has given us a $10,000 grant to help defray the cost of our summer camp program over the last 4 years. The actual cost of the camp is $31,400.
The summer program consists of 3 two-week sessions (6 weeks total) and students can sign up for one, two, or all three sessions. We call our summer program “Camp”.
Parents can drop children off between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM. We feed them a good, healthy breakfast. Between 9:00 and noon, they have classes in reading, math, language arts and woodworking. The woodworking incorporates math and science skills. Last year, students built small wooden cars, learned about the effects of friction, made predictions of distance, and raced their cars.
This year we are incorporating two new classes: science and cooking. Topics covered in science will be flight, space, and the physics of sports. Students will be building airplanes, hot air balloons, and rockets, dropping eggs from windows, using Oreo cookies to track the phases of the moon, and learning the physics of playing soccer (among other things). In cooking classes, students will be learning how to prepare simple, healthy meals and snacks and the fine art of cleaning up a kitchen. Students will also be creating their own booklet of recipes to take home so they can continue their cooking skills.
Lunch is at noon, and then from 1:00 – 3:30 they have art, phys. ed. and just plain fun. We take the students on a field trip each week. Parents can pick their children up between 3:30 and 4:00.
The cost of this 8-hour day for families is $10 per day. This comes to $100 per two-week session. This cost is as low as we could make it, but even at this, some of our families want to send their children to camp, but just can’t swing it.
If you, or any groups you belong to, would like to sponsor a child for one ($100), two ($200), or three ($300) two week sessions, please call Debbie Diederich at 426-5824. We’ll be sure that the child you sponsor sends you a letter and some pictures from camp.
Last year, at the end of the school year, we still had hugs and a few tears, but we also had “see you in a couple of weeks, Sister” and lots of smiles.
At Hope Hall we realize that sometimes, in trying to curb the effect of violence, you have to see what needs to be done, figure out how to do it, and trust that God will provide. Thanks for all you have done, and continue to do, to help us accomplish this.
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