This time last year, I left St. Louis with overflowing suitcases and a head full of facts about urban poverty. Since then I haven't been able to do any service work. Grad school takes up all my time. This leaves me with a rather skewed view of the world. I may spend my days buried in books or in a mansion of furniture that was expensive even 200 years ago, but just a short drive away there are families in run down row houses just trying to make ends meet.
Thanks be to God, this summer I can finally leave the grad school bubble and get involved in the community a little. Two afternoons a week I will be volunteering at the summer camps run by Urban Promise, a Christian ministry group that some college friends told me about. I'll lead one hour craft activities based on (what else?) decorative arts history. This will be a good experiment in whether such topics can be kid friendly.
Today was my first day, and boy was I nervous! Especially since I had vague directions to the site involving a Rita's water ice stand, an unmarked road, and a church located in a an industrial park. But I found it! I was definitely praying to all my Vincentian saints as I waited for the kids to arrive: Vincent and Louise, Elizabeth Seton, even Katherine Drexel for good measure.
Not to worry, they were all friendly and engaged. As soon as I said "play with clay" they jumped right in. They even liked my pictures of kilns at Stoke-on-Trent and my stories about slave potter Dave Drake. Okay, so maybe we didn't have any serious conversations about slavery, resistance, and ownership of one's craft, but maybe they will remember his name and his couplets about playing fifes and drums on the fourth of July. I can't wait to meet the kids at tomorrow's camp and plan future crafts related to quilts, engravings, mosaics, portraits... On the way home I stopped for a Rita's water ice to celebrate.
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