Children Of The City Crave the Attention of NYCares Reading Buddies
Posted by: Julia Masi, in Children's CharitiesChanging the culture of poverty takes persistence, the willingness to listen and the desire to spoil children with the two things they want most; time and attention.
Operating under the assumption that it’s the inalienable right of every child to experience undivided attention from the adult of their choice, my NYCares crew, Casey, Estela, Gaelen, Katie, Lisa and Melissa spent Saturday morning reading and playing word games with the kids at Children of the City.
It had been a while since the NYCares volunteers had been at the Children of the City headquarters. So the kids were eagar to tell us everything that’s happened in the last month.
When I went into the kitchen to get some juice, 7 year old Vanessa decided to take a break with me. She sipped her orange juice and told me about all the things she was looking forward to doing at Super Saturday. “My favorite games are hot potato and tag” she said. Vanessa, learned these classic childhood games from the Children of the City staff. The daughter of recent immigrants, Vanessa spends all of her free time here, at the Create Succuss after school program and Super Saturday. Her mom is always busy looking for odd jobs. I think I’ve seen her father standing in the line for day laborers. Her family’s holiday meals and all the presents under their Christmas tree last year were courtesy of Children of the City.
“And my most favorite toy is the one I got at Christmas” Vanessa continued. ” Don’t get jealous. Its Hannah Montana. She’s like a Barbie. I brush her hair two times a day. And I keep her in a safe place when I’m at school I could show her to you if you promise not to get jealous.”
We were interrupted by Brian who was holding a book. “Here it is” he said, “that’s the kind of lizard I have” he points to a picture. “That one. I have two. Aa big one and a little one.”
“Don’t get jealous,” Vanessa interjected, “you have nice things too!”
“They change color from brown to green”, Brian continued. “And you can’t find the little one when he climbs on the wall. How many lizards have you got?” he asked as he began drawing reptiles in my notebook. “I’m going to be an author and I’m going to write a book about chameleons for you.”
I walked back to the reading room checking on my NYCares crew. Each volunteer had a group of 4 or 5 students engaged in a book or word game. Galen helped the older boys increase their comprehension skills. Estela had her Kindergarten group mesmerized by her story telling skills. Melissa’s group was playing a game with sight words. Casey and Lisa were showing the kids strategies for sounding out new words.
Giovanni, called me over to look at the table where he was playing Sight Word Bingo. He’s only five but he has already mastered the sounds of the alphabet and can reads simple sentences. “Look, that one starts with the same sound as off,” he puts his tiny finger over the word other. “But’s it not the right word. Melissa said ‘off. ‘ Count my squares. I have 13 and when when I get one more I’ll 14. And if I put it there,” he points to the word other again, “I’ll say BINGO!”
The Children of the City staff came around to remind the kids that it was almost noon and the Super Saturday activities were starting upstairs. As my volunteers began putting on their coats, one little boy, Lenny, began to cry. He put his hands over his ears and refused to say goodbye to any of us. When the NYCares crew left, I stayed behind to clean up and make sure that Lenny was alright. His Children of the City tutor and mentor sat with him for a while. Then Lenny’s mentor smiled and told me that the tears were a compliment. Lenny enjoyed reading with Estela so much that he didn’t want her to leave. I ‘m jealous.
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