Day Two

Hello! We had a very busy day. In the morning, we cleaned Northgate park, the park next to Holy Name. Two years ago, when we started coming to Camden, the park was unusable. Today there is new park equipment and things have been painted. Today we rakes leaves and the boys removes old trees stumps with simply an ax. This allows for a fence to be built to close in an empty lot. The clean up took all morning since there was a lot of debris from the recent storms.

After lunch, Kenny, a former homeless man who works at DSW, gave his story. He explained how he lost his job and found himself on the streets for roughly 30 years. He told the kids to push themselves and get as much education as possible because that is the one thing people cannot take from you. He also explained how the downward spiral toward homelessness could happen to anymore. I was a powerful hour that ended with a very insightful question and answer session. After Kenny spoke, we split into two groups. One group cleaned the tennis courts in the park while a group of girls painted a fence.

For dinner, we split into family groups of four. Each family was given $8 and taken to a bodega, corner store. This is to simulate what a normal family has to experience in Camden. In a citythesame size as James City County there is no grocery store. Residents must rely on these bodegas for food. Families had a wide variety of meals from Romen noodles to eggs and pancakes.

After dinner we went to South Camden for a play by the south Camden players. The professional theater was created 8 years ago as part of a neighborhood revitalization project around Sacred Heart parish. The pastor, Michael Doyle, has transformed his neighborhood one house ata time and the theater has become an anchor in his community. The play was a story of the transformation of the neighborhood from 1968 to 1988. It was a powerful story that showed the real life issues of the community and how it went from a thriving ship building community to urban decay.

The student reflections attend of the day were profound. Everyone had something else that stuck out to them and they are all doing very well. They are all currently playing a game of catchphrase before bed and enjoying each other's company. They are making all of us and you very proud by their openness and willingness to live in the moment.

Pictures to follow.