GraceDC PALS — May 2006 report

For our final outing of the year, we took the kids to Rock Creek Park for a picnic. We played monster volleyball and wiffleball, threw frisbees and footballs and water balloons, went on a hike, and grilled burgers. The kids had a lot of fun running around, and the adults had a great time as well.

As I reflect upon my community group's participation in the PALS program this year, I do think we have made a positive impact on these fifth-graders in the inner city. Although we have been frustrated by the relatively low class participation rate, we have been very grateful to develop strong mentoring relationships with the 5-10 students that do show up every month. In turn, the students have had the opportunity to explore many aspects of DC that they might not normally be exposed to, given their parent(s)' hectic work schedules and limited financial resources. I've been amazed by how much energy they have to run around and play, how keen their memories are, and how creative they can be when forced to solve problems. They are truly bright, so hopefully we have been able to show them the value of education and encouraged them to take the first steps in carving out a bright future.

GraceDC PALS — March and April 2006 reports

I’ll combine these two since they were similar, and chronologically I’d like to post this before the May activity.

In March, we took the fifth-graders from Park View Elementary School in Washington, DC to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. They were naturally impressed by the size, variety, and colors of the numerous planes, helicopters, and spacecraft on display in the Boeing Aviation Hangar and James S. McDonnell Space Hangar. The girl I chaperoned, Amy, said that she liked the Concorde the best because it was so long. I helped her read each plane’s description and showed her how the same manufacturer (Cessna, Lockheed, etc.) may have manufactured planes that look completely different and have different purposes. We also got to go up to the Donald D. Engen Observation Tower, where the kids got to see planes taking off and landing at Dulles International Airport, as well as the vast flora in the vicinity. They also tried to identify our ant-sized cars in the parking lot. Amy got a special treat from me, in that she got to try out both the flight and spacewalk simulators. I figured that these would be special experiences that she would remember and perhaps pique her interest in science. After spending about two hours in the museum, we took the kids to lunch at, where else, Chick-fil-A. We had a good supply of coupons for a free combo #1 (Chicken Sandwich, Waffle Potato Fries, and a drink, which classically needs to be either a Dr Pepper or Lemonade). They jumped around in the attached playground for a while, before we took them back home to Petworth.

In April, we took them to the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast Washington, DC. The kids saw various bronze guns and toured the USS Barry (a destroyer). They were fascinated by the tight sleeping quarters, asking each other if they preferred the top, middle, or bottom bunk beds. They were also introduced to the segregation between the officers’ and enlisted men’s dining areas. They certainly climbed a lot of ladders and walked around in tight places. The kids also learned about the NATO Phonetic Alphabet and quickly figured out how to spell their names. They also toured the Navy museum, where they were given a scavenger hunt to find items from the Revolutionary War to the present day, including naval badges, North and South Pole clothing, and World War II food supplies.

Pen pals in Namibia

I must say that I've never been more proud of Crystal, the third-grader I tutor through STEP. I have seen her grow in so many ways this year. But yesterday was just amazing. All of the kids in the tutoring program were asked to write letters to kids in Namibia who were looking for American pen pals. They needed to write a five-paragraph letter:

1. Greetings — Say hello and introduce yourself. Tell your pal how old you are and what grade you are in. Let them know how you are doing. Feel free to mention something about your family. Let them know something interesting that you have done recently.
2. Life at ParkView — This should be your longest and most important paragraph. Describe ParkView since your pen pal has never been here. You can talk about how you have done in your classes this year. Mention two subjects that you have done well in and feel the happiest about and then mention two classes that you need to improve. (Remember, here you should not lie or exaggerate, but it is okay to talk about your strengths. This is your chance to SHINE!) Describe STEP Tutoring and tell your pen pal two things that you like about Thursday evenings with your tutor.
3. Activities after school and on the weekends — Here is your chance to tell your pen pal about the fun activities that you do in aftercare, after school or on Saturday and Sunday. Are you on a sports team like football or cheerleading? What kind of games do you like to play? You might want to discuss field trips with your STEP PALS.
4. Looking ahead — What are your plans for the summer after school gets out on June 14? If you are in 5^th grade, tell your pen pal where you plan to attend school next year and why that is a good choice for you.
5. Closing — Wrap up your letter. Encourage your pen pal to write a letter back to you and tell about their lives in Namibia.

Crystal took the assignment very seriously and wrote a whole page. She explained how she liked her music, art, and gym classes, how her favorite color is blue and her favorite sport is basketball, and how much she was looking forward to her summer in Virginia Beach with her aunt. She also asked her pen pal questions about her summer and her favorite after-school activities, and hoped that they would continue to write to each other.

I'm always amazed at how mature she can be at times and how much she really cares about academics. I have also grown to know her as a person, and met her mom and aunts during her Christmas play in December. I am proud of her progress and hope that she continues to do well in her life even after our tutoring relationship ends in a couple of weeks.

GraceDC PALS — February 2006 report

This morning, we took the Parkview Elementary School fifth-graders to the Fort Meyer Bowling Center. Many of the kids had never bowled before, except a few weeks ago at their school's Olympic Games. Nevertheless, the $8 admission fee covered two games of bowling, a hot dog, and a soda for each kid. What a good deal! The interesting part about being on a military base was that each car entering the base had to be checked for weapons. The kids were trying to joke around but quickly shut up when they saw the guards' shotguns. Another interesting twist was that the bowling center's manager felt sorry for us since we had so many troubles with getting the bowling balls back out of the chute, and because the system accidentally reset itself during one of our turns. So, he activated the bumper lanes, meaning no more gutter balls. This inspired a lot of bad bowling form, in that the kids would purposely bowl the ball off the bumper lanes in a zigzag manner that would somehow hit the pins correctly to get a strike or spare.

I love the PALS program, but sometimes I wonder if we are merely glorified babysitters for the kids once a month. Are we really making a difference in their lives, as advertised in the call for volunteers? Is it so one-sided, that we only give, and they only receive? Why not emphasize the joy we derive from working with the kids, and the importance of speaking to the kids at their intellectual, emotional, and social level? Nevertheless, I still think that we're doing some good for them.

GraceDC PALS — December 2005 report

Last Saturday, fourteen people from two community groups of GraceDC, along with nine students from Parkview Elementary School, visited the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. The hospital serves military personnel and their families. This particular trip was service-oriented, since it is around Christmastime, and we spent much of our time in the pediatric ward.

We split the kids up into three teams of three, and assigned two adults to each team. My team consisted of Joe Moore, Amy, Kevin, O'Shea, and myself, and we were to rotate between three "stations" every 40 minutes. We started off by decorating the outdoor playground with Christmas lights. Amy was really good at stringing up the lights, while I encouraged Kevin to come up with a good way to get the power cords off the ground (he said to wind the cords around a tree trunk and string the cord overhead). We did finish quite early, and the kids amused themselves by chasing each other around the playground. We next decorated cookies in the medical center cafeteria. The cookies were pre-baked since the oven was not available to us. There were three types of cookies: snowmen, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees. That activity seemed to go by very quickly. I even came up with some neat decorating ideas. Finally, we went to the crafts room, where we made reindeer-type ornaments out of candy canes, and painted toy soldier ornaments. We hung these ornaments in the parents' room of the hospital.

Although we were not allowed to visit patients in their rooms (due to the likely transmission of germs during wintertime), we did get to meet two patients, one with sickle cell anemia, and the other with cystic fibrosis. Both of them had to wheel around a coat-rack-type thing replete with pouches of various fluids. The patients joined us on the ornament-making and ornament-hanging activities. I hope the Park View kids saw it as a great service opportunity to interact with kids who may be even less fortunate than they are.

GraceDC PALS — November 2005 report

(This is quite late and a little more detailed than normal since I am submitting this writeup to the PALS director.)

On November 19, we took eleven students from Parkview Elementary School on a scavenger hunt of Washington, DC. Teams could receive points according to the following:

• Mall area
  • Picture of team in front of an Independence Ave. street sign — 5 points
  • Choose a statue that you can find in or around the mall area and all but one person pose with it (striking the same pose as the statue) — 10 points
  • Team with most brochures from Monuments/Museums — 10 points
• West of 14th St. Mall Area
  • A picture at WWII memorial of column with the name of one of the states where a former national capital city was before Washington, DC — 10 points
  • Picture of FDR's exposed wheelchair wheel — 25 points
  • Picture of the group doing tae chi between the WWII memorial and the reflecting pool — 10 points
  • Picture of group where Martin Luther King gave his "I Have A Dream Speech" — 10 points
  • Picture of the group "holding up" the Washington Monument — 10 points
• East of 14th St. Mall Area
  • A postcard of a painting that currently hangs in the National Gallery (with a receipt that it was purchased that day!) — 20 points
  • Picture of any bug in the Museum of Natural History — 20 points
  • Collect museum directory from the National Air and Space Museum — 10 points
  • Picture with a US Capitol Police Officer — 10 points
  • Picture of Archie bunker's chair in the National Museum of American History — 20 points
  • Group in the "Oasis" of the Conservatory of the US Botanical Garden — 20 points
• North of Constitution Ave. Mall Area
  • Picture of someone taking picture of White House (not someone from your group) — 20 points
  • Picture of yourself outside the FBI building — 20 points
  • Take a picture of yourself sitting on the bag of "The Lone Soldier" at The United States Navy Memorial — 20 points
  • Picture with the President of the United States of America (must be shot live) — 100 points
• Metro (Yellow Line)
  • Photograph of Potomac River taken from the yellow line train bridge — 30 points
• Chinatown (Red and Green Line)
  • Take a picture under the arch in Chinatown — 30 points
• U St. Cardozo (Green Line)
  • Picture of the group in front of The African American Civil War Memorial (Located on 1200 U Street N.W. (Green Line)) — 30 points
• Zoo (Red Line)
  • Picture of the group with the lions outside the National Zoo
• Tenleytown (Red Line)
  • Picture of group at top of hill in Tenleytown (above 39th & Fessenden), the highest point in DC, 429 feet above sea level — 50 points
• Eastern Market (Orange and Blue)
  • Picture of team buying and/or eating a food item from Eastern Market (i.e. sampling a piece of their fruit, buying a cookie, etc) — 30 points
• Arlington National Cemetery (Blue Line)
  • Brochure from Arlington National Cemetery — 30 points
• Anywhere
  • Picture of a sign in a language other than English or Spanish — 10 points
  • The team that retrieves the brightest color fall leaf they can find — 25 points
  • Picture of a t-shirt on someone or at a vendor that says "I heart DC" — 10 points
  • Picture of human pyramid! — 5 points
  • Collect an airline tag from Reagan National Airport (tag must say DCA) — 50 points
  • One of your group must take a picture with a group of people (more than 10) you don't know and it must be posed (i.e. the group must KNOW that they are posing for a picture) — 25 points
  • Find an address that has three numbers in order like 123 or 345 or 456 and take a picture in front of it — 25 points
  • Find objects that begin with the same letter as each person's first name — 25 points
  • Picture of a group member giving a tourist directions — 10 points
  • Find a ketchup packet from any hot dog stand — 5 points
• Bonus Points
  • First team back — 50 points
  • Each team that returns by 12:00 Noon — 25 points

We let each team of kids formulate their own strategy for getting the most points. Initially the kids wanted to just target the big ticket items such as the photograph with the president and the Tenleytown hill. When we pointed out how improbable those events would be, they quickly switched gears and focused on getting points at strategic locations along the same Metro line and making sure to get all the small ticket items. We all started the scavenger hunt from the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro station around 9:30 am.

The team of Erin, Terra, Katie, Liz, Aaliyah, Olive, and Tiffany, placed first. They first took the Green/Yellow lines to the airport to get the luggage tag, thus getting the picture of the Potomac River along the way, and then headed to Eastern Market. Since that neighborhood also has low numbered streets, they were the only team to find the three consecutive numbered address. They were also the first team back, and by noon too.

The team of Mark, Aaron, Alex, Julie, Kevin, O'Shea, and Stephen also went to the airport first before heading to the National Mall. They placed second after a valiant effort and also returned back to Petworth by noon.

The team of Katie, Cynthia, Heidi, Dan and Jessica, Amy, Aniah, Auzsa, Raeyona, and Shanelle placed third but easily had the most varied experiences. We visited the African American Civil War Memorial and the Chinatown arch before heading to the National Mall area (Smithsonian Metro stop). Once there we first went to the Independence Avenue sign before crossing the mall. We saw a lot of people running a race and a lot of policemen, but sadly no Capitol Police. We figured out that, given our current location, we should target the East mall area. We then made the "mistake" of going to the Natural History museum. The kids were fascinated by the bugs, even letting them crawl on their hands and arms. We also managed to meet up with another GraceDC/PALS team of fifth-graders, so the two groups had a good time mingling. It was great for fellowship, but unfortunately we had spent a little too much time at that museum. We rushed to the American History museum, the FBI building, and the Navy Memorial before heading back to Petworth, at 12:03 pm. Sadly, we had missed out on the bonus points, which is probably why we did not win. But, we were able to snag the DCA luggage tag without going to the airport. While waiting at the Archives/Navy Memorial Metro stop to go north on the Green line towards the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro stop, a Yellow line train, going south towards the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport no doubt, arrived on the opposite side of the platform. As the train doors opened, I noticed that one of the passengers had a suitcase with a luggage tag (probably he had not taken it off upon arrival in DC, and was now leaving DC). I ran to the open door and asked him for his luggage tag. He was very confused and thought I wanted to take his luggage. I kept asking for the tag. The train doors were repeatedly closing on me. Finally, his companion finally understood and peeled off the luggage tag and handed it to me. I jumped out the door and ran back to my group, prize in hand.

Items that were retrieved by all teams included the photos of the Chinatown arch, DCA luggage tag, objects beginning with the same letter as each person's first name, and ten person stranger group photo. Ironically, no one was able to get the ketchup packet, since all of the vendors have squeeze bottles of ketchup nowadays, not individual packets. Overall the event was quite a success in that the kids got to play outside in the surprisingly warm November weather, take on a huge strategic challenge, see many touristy sites in DC, and view each other's photos in a comfy basement over a delicious lunch before heading back to the school at 1:30 pm.

GraceDC PALS — October 2005 report

Yesterday morning, my Bible study and another GraceDC Bible study (Aaron and Michelle's) took eight fifth-graders from Park View Elementary School to Cherry Hill Farm & Orchard in Clinton, MD. This trip was part of the PALS program that I wrote about before.

The farm featured about 600 scarecrows, barn animals such as goats, chickens, horses, cows, and sheep, and an orchard containing strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, and apples. We also went on hay rides throughout the farm. Being a city/suburban girl, I hadn't known before that the hay was stacked in bales affixed to the sides of the truck bed, rather than just being spread all over the truck bed and people sitting randomly on it. There was a magic show put on by two clowns, who performed tricks such as putting four colored cloths in a bag and pulling out a larger one with four colored quadrants, miraculously coloring a book, and rearranging colored balls in a tube, all while saying the magic words "Have a banana!" But I think the kids most enjoyed the barn tunnel walk, with the slanted ground that made them feel a little off-balance and the exhibits including caricature statues such as a cyclops and some American soldiers. They also enjoyed the opportunity to pick out their own pumpkins. I asked them how they decided on their particular pumpkin, and most answered "It was big" rather than it was symmetric, nicely colored, etc.

We were very fortunate to be able to go, since this farm will close at the end of this fall. The Gallahan family, which has owned it since the Civil War, has sold the land to developers to build new homes. In fact, the family used to grow tobacco on the land, before that was not profitable any more. That's when they planted the orchard.

STEP tutoring

This school year I will be a tutor for the STEP (STrategies to Elevate People) program at Parkview Elementary School in Washington, DC. On the first and third Thursdays of the month, from October to May, I will be tutoring two third grade girls, Crystal and Dreshaun, for 1.5 hours; we eat dinner together for half an hour before tutoring. We'll work on reading and math, and hopefully have some fun and mentorship during the year. Today we got to know each other through a bunch of interview questions (favorite food, book, movie, song, athlete, sport, etc.) and also worked together on a crossword puzzle and a writing exercise on what the world would be like if everyone looked the same. It was really cool to work with these two girls, whose birthdays are coming up this month, and who were born in 1997!

PALS — Mickey Mouse 75 InspEARations on Tour

This morning I, along with five other people from Grace DC church, met up with 12 fourth-graders from Parkview Elementary School in NW DC. This was the PALS program affiliated with STEP (Strategies to Elevate People). From their brochure: "PALS is a monthly, small group Saturday morning mentoring program. Planned activities build lasting relationships between kids and adults." Other activities at Parkview Elementary include biweekly tutoring and Bible Club.

The activity for today was to take the kids on the Metro from the Georgia Avenue/Petworth station (near the school) to the Federal Triangle station. There lay the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The main attraction is the Celebrate Mickey: 75 InspEARations exhibit at the Woodrow Wilson Plaza. There are 75 uniquely designed, six-feet tall, 700 pound statues of Mickey Mouse, each with a different theme such Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Fruit of the Month, Lone Star, space, computers, etc. Oh, the list is endless! The kids loved the exhibit! They were so excited to go downtown and go on a field trip. Later, we went to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream in the Old Post Office, and then to one of the organizers' house for lunch (peanut butter and jelly sandwiches) before going back home.

I loved being with the kids so much! They were good kids for the most part, except that they got a little rowdy on the Metro, trying to do pullups. And, they weren't always too well behaved. One boy tried to have a portion of another boy's ice cream, with the result being that all of the ice cream fell onto the ground. Another boy was a little too rambunctious and accidentally tore the hood of another boy's jacket. Seeing the tears in his (the boy with the jacket) eyes made me so want to reach out to him. I explained to him that his friends will inevitably hurt him, but he had to forgive them and not be too sad. They were cute, holding my hands as they crossed the street and wanting to be my friend. I think we really made a difference in their lives.

And, just as a preview, Tony Hawk (yes, the skateboarder) will be in town in September, so the kids in the Bible club will get to meet him!