In the summer of 2005, after years as a camper at the Episcopal Conference Center (ECC), I spent my summer as an Assistant Counselor.
That summer I heard so many amazing stories from other Counselors about the weeks they spent at another diocesan ministry called City Camp. I offered to do a two week session. I did not know at all what to expect and I had no idea then how much it would affect my future! Now, 5 years later, I am a social worker and will never forget that summer.
City Camp is a free day-camp for underprivileged kids in the Manton and Olneyville areas of Providence, the idea behind it being that if we invest in the security of these kids we can show them hope for their future and help to end cylcical poverty. City camp operates on a small donations based budget, and is actually separate from ECC but shares many of the same counselors.
I had volunteered to go, but I was still nervous on my first day. I was given eleven rambunctious campers to keep track of! One of these campers was a little six year old girl who not only changed my life but touched my heart.
It all happened on one hot Friday when we took City Camp to the beach. Some of my campers had never been to the beach before, and all of them were so excited to go. We played in the water, built sand castles, buried each other in the sand, sang camp songs – it was a perfect day.
When the day was coming to the end everyone was heading to the locker room to change out of their sandy wet clothes. I was trying to keep up with my eleven campers when one little girl tripped and started crying. I knelt down to make sure she was okay and she was sobbing. When I asked her what was wrong she responded
“My shoe broke”
Casually I said “It’s okay, just go home and put on a different pair.”
She started sobbing harder and said “I can’t .. I can’t get a new pair of shoes till my birthday!”
My heart sank and I asked “When’s your birthday?” I never expected to hear her next answer
“When it snows out”
At that point I picked her up and grabbed her shoes so I wouldn’t lose the rest of the campers. On the bus back to Olneyville I made a quick fix to her shoes so she could still use them temporarily and told her to try not to worry about it.
That weekend I bought that little girl a pair of flip flops, and a pair of sneakers – a size bigger than what she was wearing so the shoes would last her for a while. I was a little worried about how her parents would react to me purchasing her shoes, but I just wanted to help. That Monday I gave that little girl the shoes. She was absolutely ecstatic.
The next day I saw her walking across the field all dressed in pink to match the new sneakers I got her. Later that afternoon, at pick-up time a woman walked up to me speaking Spanish. I had no idea what she was saying, but that little girl ran up and started translating for me. It was the little girl’s mom. Eventually her mom just spoke in loose English “Thank you, shoes.” She started crying, and gave me a big hug. I couldn’t help it, I started crying too. I never thought a simple pair of shoes would mean so much.
It’s been five years now since I was at City Camp but I will always remember that little girl and that two week session. It was because of her that I decided to study social work when I went off to college, and now it is because of her that I am working in the helping profession.
No comments:
Post a Comment