December 2005
‘We’ve Got Your Back’
Boys & Girls Club Members Fill Backpacks for
Katrina Victims
Open the doors of the Boys & Girls Club any weekday afternoon or evening and you will find a place packed with action: a brisk game of basketball, kids sitting around tables with craft projects or board games, and a dance group rehearsing in the corner. This noisy place, brimming with activity, is where neighborhood kids come to have fun.
Like all Boys & Girls Clubs across America, Tacoma’s
South End Branch – or South End Family, as the kids and staff call
it – serves the disadvantaged youth of the community. Program Director
Joy Cornelius hesitates to use the term “disadvantaged” because
she prefers to focus on the advantages the children do have, like their
energy and intelligence, but she agrees that many members come from lower
economic groups.
The South End Boys & Girls Club is not just about fun and games. Staff
members strongly believe in capitalizing on all the energy and intelligence
Cornelius mentions. “I take that part of the mission very seriously,”
she says, quickly rattling off the South End Family creed: “We are
here to inspire all kids to realize their full potential as caring and
productive citizens.”
So when a Boys & Girls Club across town called Cornelius
to tell her about operation “We’ve Got Your Back,” she
jumped at the chance to help. The operation was started by the Nickelodeon
cable channel to collect backpacks and school supplies for children who
lost their homes because of Hurricane Katrina. “I knew my kids would
want to get involved,” Cornelius says.
Johnnie Fuller, 9, a fourth grader at Jennie Reed Elementary, is one of
80 South End kids who helped to collect supplies and to write letters
to the children affected by the hurricane. She says she likes to come
to the Boys & Girls Club to play Monopoly and ping-pong, but says
her favorite thing to do is to help other people. Asked what she wants
to be when she grows up, Johnnie’s answer is not typical. No ballerina
or famous movie star for her, she says with a seriousness that belies
her young age. “I want to work in a homeless shelter.”
When Johnnie was 7, she and her sisters would sometimes see a lady walking by their apartment. “She would walk in the rain and she had nothing. It was cold. It gave me the idea that when I grew up, I should help people. They need to know someone is caring about them,” Johnnie says.
Images of the hurricane disaster did not escape Johnnie, and they are still fresh in her mind. “People had to be rescued, kids lost their home. Some kids couldn’t find their parents. Everything got washed away,” she recounts.
Shane Green, 7, a third grader who goes to South End Family every day after school, says he knows that lots of people died because of Hurricane Katrina. He says he wants to write a letter to the kids in Louisiana because he wants them to know everything will be OK.
Shane’s mom, Matty Green, also helped in the effort by successfully asking Oak Harbor Freight to waive the shipping costs to send the backpacks and supplies to Louisiana. She says she enjoyed working with her two sons on the project as well as hearing how other kids at the club felt about the disaster. Some of the kids read their letters before they placed them in the backpacks full of supplies. Green says the letters really surprised her. “They drew pictures of angels. Most of them said things like ‘Sorry this happened to you’ or ‘Don’t worry, God’s going to take care of you.’ One little boy wrote, ‘You can start over.’”
The intention of operation “We’ve Got Your Back” was to allow Gulf Coast kids who had lost all their possessions to start a new life. Nickelodeon created the drive because they knew that thousands of kids would be required to attend new schools with new teachers and new friends. Kids across the country answered the call and began stuffing backpacks full of school supplies and personal items.
Johnnie says, “If that happened to me I would be happy someone thought of me and that I had something instead of nothing.”
Johnnie brought in some crayons and some stuffed animals from home. Other families brought in art supplies and paper. Green remembers that one single mother who is struggling financially purchased some pencils. Businesses near the South End Boys & Girls Club made donations. “It really took all of us to make this happen,” Green says.
The South End Family filled 53 backpacks, sending 1,200 pounds of supplies to Louisiana. Tre Green, 9, was one of the kids on the assembly line stuffing the backpacks. His eyes light up when he talks about what went inside them. “We put in toys, shampoo, toothpaste, coloring books and our letters.” He says he knows the kids are going to be happy when they open the packs.
With Operation “We’ve Got Your Back” successfully completed, the South End Boys & Girls Club is working on a shoe drive for December, as well as collecting candy to send to soldiers stationed overseas.
The South End Boys & Girls Club is located at 4910 S. Pine St. in Tacoma. After-school programs are open weekdays, 2:30 - 7 p.m. Fees are $60/year per child, with scholarships available. For more information, to help with collection drives, or to volunteer, call 253-474-0626 or visit www.bg-clubs.com/southend.htm.
The club is part of Boys & Girls Clubs of South Puget Sound, which operates three other Tacoma branches, the Lakewood Branch and the North Mason Branch, as well as sites in 11 local schools and one church. To find a club, call 253-572-8440 or visit www.bg-clubs.com/find_a_club.htm. Boys & Girls Club of Thurston County operates clubs in Tumwater, Rochester and Lacey. Call 360-956-0755 or visit www.bgctc.org.
In Kitsap County, find the Boys & Girls Club of Naval Base Kitsap or the new Jackson Park Youth and Teen Center in Bremerton. Call 360-627-2041 for information on either site.
Karen Irwin is a University Place writer and mother of four.
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