Zeke and I ended our sessions at The Gathering Place in December because they decided to end their weekend hours. It was a pilot and they decided their resources could be better spent to extend their week hours. Just before we found this out I had been researching other places to visit so the timing actually worked out really well. I'll definitely miss the women at TGP and I'll miss hearing their stories (I heard some great ones).
So for my next "chapter", I chose to pursue The Bridge Project which is an after school program offered through the University of Denver. All of the sites are in neighborhoods with public housing and kids (K-12) can go here after school to get help with homework, use the computer labs, read and do other activities. It's astounding what the drop out rates are for kids in this demographic so to have something like this is definitely making a real difference. I'll be paired with a child and we'll meet once a week during the academic year. I started today although I wasn't paired with a student yet so I got to hang out with Melissa (not her real name). It was her birthday today (she turned 9) so I let her decide what we should do. We played games and then she wanted to read to me and Zeke. At the end of the hour she asked if I was her tutor (mind you she already works with one on Thursdays). I said "why, did you have fun?" and she nodded her head vigorously. And that feeling...that is the reason I do this.
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