Summer Camp in the Lower 9th

Ever since I was a child, I was constantly overwhelmed with anxiety over being around children who were much younger than me. This anxiety has only grown with me as I've gotten older. Because of this, I have done the best I can to deliberately avoid interaction with young children as much as possible, and I've done a pretty good job at doing so...that is until nearly three weeks ago.

My AmeriCorps shuffle team (which is full of phenomenal personalities) and I have been living in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, working with the organization called lowernine.org. Initially, our job description was to help re-construct houses which is something not unfamiliar to quite a few of us. But another job that lowernine.org recently took on was to run a summer camp for some of the children living in this area. One of the several volunteers asked to be a consistent counselor for this camp was...me? My natural first reaction was, "Oh man, I wish I could help you out, but I'm going to decline and continue my days working construction... Thanks anyways!" My guilty conscience and yearn for overcoming my fear of children fortunately took over my selfish mentality and I quickly, albeit reluctantly, accepted the role of a 'summer camp counselor'. This was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Within my first day at the camp, my fear of these little tykes almost immediately diminished, and I found myself interacting with them the way my mother interacted with me when I was their age. In fact, when speaking to some of these children, I would have to stop myself and look behind me to see if my mother was right there; I found this to be a wonderful quality that I am happy to have discovered about myself. These children were some of the brightest and most beautiful children that I've ever encountered and I feel so grateful to have been given the chance to work with them and play a part in their lives... and they have played more of a part in my life than they will ever know.

The kids helped us prepare a present for our sponsors at lowernine.

This summer camp was created to help these children have a memorable summer and to learn how to establish healthy relationships with one another. I feel that this summer camp was also created for me, to enable a warm perspective of the beauty and brilliance in children that I was too blind to see before. I am so incredibly thankful for this experience.

~ Mallory