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Empowering youth
By DONNA WINCHESTER
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Vu Nhon watched Darius Burney's face fall when the summer camp children told him he was too little to paint pictures with them. He scooped the 5-year-old up and told him not to cry just as the child opened his mouth to let out a wail. Vu found Darius a sheet of bright yellow paper and a thick brush. He set him on his lap and cradled him in the crook of his arm. Darius stopped crying, dipped his brush in red paint and concentrated on drawing an outline of his left hand. Within five minutes, Darius lost interest in his painting, but the older children continued working for another hour, occasionally asking Vu for help or an opinion. Vu, 16, has no training in art or child care. He is one of 15 youth volunteers at the Asian Family and Community Empowerment Center, 2201 First Ave. N. At the suggestion of his guidance counselor, he came to the center in January to fulfil a 75-hour community service requirement for a Bright Futures scholarship. He figured he could complete the hours in about 12 weeks. But by June, the Osceola High School senior had become attached to the children he was tutoring in math and spelling three days a week. When he found out that many of them would be coming to the center for summer camp, he decided to come too. "After I got to know the kids and they started to trust me, it made me feel really good," he said. Like Vu, 17-year-old Kathy Dang started tutoring at the Asian Center to fulfill a community service requirement. A senior in the International Baccalaureate program at St. Petersburg High School, she has earned more than 100 hours helping Vietnamese children with their English. She plans to continue tutoring in the fall because she said it makes her feel good to know she's doing something for the community. "I'm a role model in a way. Some of the girls told me they want to be like me. They have respect for me," she said. Kathy's friend Janelle Wu, also a senior in the IB program, said spending time with little children is good training for her because she wants to be a pediatrician. "It can be frustrating because it's hard for them to sit still," she said. "But they come and give you hugs. They run up with their smiley faces and it just brightens up your day." Tamika Ware, 16, came to the Asian Center five years ago to take martial arts classes. "I started hanging around and offered to help out," the Osceola High School 11th-grader said. "I'd be bored at home, so I'd come here and have a good time." Vu, Kathy, Janelle, Tamika and the other youth volunteers, who come when their summer work schedules permit, oversee about 40 children in a variety of activities including painting, cooking and origami. They go on field trips with them on Thursdays and to swimming lessons at the University of South Florida's pool on Fridays. Their efforts are greatly appreciated, Asian Center administrative assistant Catherine Parrott said. A Juvenile Justice Department grant that covered the after-school program ran out a couple of years ago. To continue providing free after-school tutoring and summer camp child care, Parrott said, the center can afford to pay only one staff member, a youth coordinator, who supervises the volunteers. The summer camp is open to all children first-come, first-served, but Parrott said the majority of those who are enrolled live in the neighborhood surrounding the center. Most of them are Asian. Sarinna Loun, 12, and her sister, Sara, 13, come to summer camp five days a week. The center's 15-passenger van picks them up Mondays through Fridays at 11 a.m. and takes them home around 4 p.m. Sarinna and Sara agreed that the best thing about camp is being with their friends, but each has her favorite youth volunteer. "My favorite is Tamika," said Sarinna. "She's really fun and she never loses her temper. I can talk to Tamika." Her sister's favorite is Janelle. "If something comes up, she's there for me," Sara said. Youth coordinator John Gehm said the high school volunteers are a "tremendous relief" to him. Besides providing extra supervision, Gehm said, the teens are positive role models for the children. "They act like mentors more in the sense of a big brother or a big sister," he said. "They come in and talk to these children and give them a chance to express their problems." Most important, Gehm said, the younger children get a chance to see teenagers giving back to their communities. "It's a cycle," he said. "Little kids see volunteers come in. There's a chance that when they get to high school, they'll do the same. Maybe they'll reserve a part of their heart for their community."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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