Time Flies...: October 2011

of The Commercial Appeal on Saturday. Everyone was so excited to see themselves in the photos on Saturday (post to come later about the 'magical' Saturday)! This post will be long because I wanted to post the article. I've enjoyed reading the comments that readers have posted. I also really enjoyed meeting with the writer, David Waters...such a nice man!

Faith Matters: Volunteers leave comfort zone, dedicate time to help neighborhood's children, families

Walter Casey has spent nearly all of his life in Binghampton -- the side of that Memphis neighborhood that adds the "p" to the name, the poorer, more perilous side east of the tracks.

Gwarvitha Collins is among the parents who take advantage of a Zumba class offered in the G.R.O.W. program at the Lester Community Center." style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; ">

PHOTO BY KYLE KURLICK
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Gwarvitha Collins is among the parents who take advantage of a Zumba class offered in the G.R.O.W. program at the Lester Community Center.

Casey grew up in Binghampton. He went to school there. And for the past 31 years -- without missing a day of work -- he has been the director of the neighborhood's Lester Community Center on Tillman.

So when he saw several young white women walking into the community center one afternoon a year ago, he figured they were lost. Every now and then, someone walks into the center -- which used to include a police substation -- looking to pay a traffic ticket.

Awhile later, he noticed they were still there. They weren't lost. They were from the Junior League of Memphis, and they were there to help.

Casey was busy overseeing the hyperactivity of the dozens of preteen children who show up every day, and he didn't pay much attention to the visitors.

"I had no idea what they wanted to do, or why," Casey said. "I'd never heard of the Junior League."

The Junior League of Memphis had heard of Walter Casey and Lester Community Center.

The nonprofit volunteer organization -- founder of such local nonprofit groups as the Children's Museum of Memphis and Hope House -- had been looking for a place to start a new program to help children and families. After months of research, they set their sites on Lester and its widely revered director.

After several discussions with Casey and other city officials, the League launched its newest initiative -- G.R.O.W. Memphis. The acronym stands for Giving, Readiness, Opportunities and Wellness. The idea is to provide social and academic enrichment programs for families in Binghampton.

"We aren't a bunch of housewives sitting around wearing white gloves and pearl necklaces and drinking tea," said Grace Simmons, an elementary school teacher and president of the Junior League of Memphis.

"Eighty percent of our members are working women who are juggling families and jobs and other commitments, including their volunteer work. Who has time to sit?"

Actually, the dozens of Junior League volunteers who have been going to Binghampton with a "p" at least once a week for more than a year often make time to sit.

They volunteer as guest readers every other Wednesday for pre-K students at Lester Elementary School.

They organize arts, recreation and neighborhood events one Saturday every month at the Lester Community Center. Until recently, it was the only Saturday on which the budget-tightened center was open.

Every Thursday evening at the center, they host classes for children and their parents -- reading, tutoring, music and dance for kids, and financial literacy, job skills, a computer lab (equipped with 16 new desktop computers purchased by the Junior League) and Zumba for mothers.

Then they all have dinner together. It's called the Thursday Night Supper Club, and it was an immediate hit.

The first Thursday evening a year ago, Junior League volunteers brought enough lasagna, salad and bread for 40. They had to drive to a nearby restaurant to get food for 120 more. Now there's a sign-up sheet for the weekly meals, catered by King's Drive-In across the street and attended by more than 100 kids, mothers, grandmothers and even a few dads.

"I get chill bumps just talking about it. Look, I'm getting them right now," said Brooke Helsley, a category manager for AutoZone and chairwoman of the league's G.R.O.W. Memphis program at Lester Community Center.

"Going to Binghampton and spending time with the children and the families there is the highlight of my week. It has touched me like I never thought it would. People associate Binghampton with the Lester Street murders, but they don't know about all the good that is going on there."

Helsley and other volunteers admit they were wary at first. Wary of driving alone into the Blue CRUSH/ Lester Street part of town they'd seen so often on the news. Wary of leaving their cars in the parking lot at night. Wary of whatever sociodemographic disorder they assumed they'd encounter inside the Lester Community Center.

They added a security guard to the budget. They made friends with officers at the police precinct down the street. Their husbands or boyfriends dropped them off and picked them up at the door.

But after spending a few Thursday evenings there, the dangerous Binghampton in their minds was now the pretty, sweet, precious Binghampton sitting on their laps, listening to stories, singing songs, reaching out for hugs.

Rebecca Fountain, a registered nurse and the league's special events chairwoman, wouldn't miss a Thursday evening at Lester. One evening last year, several volunteers were sitting with preschoolers, singing "The Itsy, Bitsy, Spider." Fountain was holding a little girl named T'nyra in her lap.

"Are you my friend?" T'nyra asked Fountain.

"Of course I am," Fountain said.

The little girl sitting next to her stopped singing and asked, "Are you my friend, too?"

"Of course I am," Fountain said to her.

Soon, so many children were asking that they all had to stop singing.

"I had never had so many friend requests in one night, not even on Facebook," Fountain said.

The women of the Junior League say their weekly trips to Binghampton have done more than make them feel better. The trips have made them feel differently about Memphis.

"Sometimes you hear people talk about 'Those people,' meaning those people who live in places like Binghampton," said Stephanie Simpson, a compliance director for Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. and a League board member at-large.

"Now I know 'those people.' They are children who hug you and love you like any other children. They are mothers who want what's best for their children like any other mothers. They are people like Walter Casey investing their lives in their neighborhood."

A year ago, Casey had never heard of the Junior League of Memphis. Now he can't stop talking about it.

He appreciates what the dozens of Junior League volunteers have done to extend the center's hours and outreach, especially during tough budget times. He appreciates all of the enrichment programs the league has bought to Binghampton -- Music for Aardvarks, Books from Birth, Kids in the Kitchen and Firehouse Community Arts Center, to name a few.

What he appreciates most is their personal commitment to be there in person each and every week.

"I've been impressed by how much they care, how much they give, the relationships they have built with our kids and families," Casey said.

"They've been a blessing to us, and they've been blessed by coming here. They get that it's a blessing to be givers and not just receivers."