The Most Important Meal
On Friday we had an annual event here at the Hope Center. Each month the kids earn "Hope Center Bucks" as a reward for doing things that are in line with the values at THC, and if they earn enough bucks then they can redeem them for a Fun Night. Well, once a year the Fun Night morphs into All Day Fun Day and spans from 10am from 10pm. This year's schedule included dinner and games at my house, swimming, ice skating, a photo scavenger hunt and breakfast. Not too shabby of an agenda, if I do say so myself.
My favorite part of the day was by far the beginning. As some of the adults were working to get breakfast out the kids showed up. In what ended up being a really cool picture, a lot of the boys ended up joining us in the kitchen. They jumped at every opportunity possible to help out, and the looks of pride on their faces as they made pancakes, eggs and bacon were fantastic.
The fact of the matter is that a lot of the boys I work with don't have positive father figures in their lives. Last month we went through a couple weeks where we talked about the roles of males and females in relationships, and just about every role they mentioned they attributed to females. Taking care of kids? Wife. Making money? Wife. Cleaning? Wife. Discipline? Wife. The only person they have seen taking care of business in their lives are their mothers or grandmothers. Men are conspicuously absent from their lives.
That's why breakfast was my favorite part of the day. These kids were hungry for something more. They were hungry to be something that they hadn't seen in their own lives, but that they still had a desire to be. So they jumped in and they served and they worked. It was, quite frankly, the most fun I had all Fun Day.
Fair Dinkum
My favorite part of the day was by far the beginning. As some of the adults were working to get breakfast out the kids showed up. In what ended up being a really cool picture, a lot of the boys ended up joining us in the kitchen. They jumped at every opportunity possible to help out, and the looks of pride on their faces as they made pancakes, eggs and bacon were fantastic.
The fact of the matter is that a lot of the boys I work with don't have positive father figures in their lives. Last month we went through a couple weeks where we talked about the roles of males and females in relationships, and just about every role they mentioned they attributed to females. Taking care of kids? Wife. Making money? Wife. Cleaning? Wife. Discipline? Wife. The only person they have seen taking care of business in their lives are their mothers or grandmothers. Men are conspicuously absent from their lives.
That's why breakfast was my favorite part of the day. These kids were hungry for something more. They were hungry to be something that they hadn't seen in their own lives, but that they still had a desire to be. So they jumped in and they served and they worked. It was, quite frankly, the most fun I had all Fun Day.
Fair Dinkum