Hayden Pegley: Blog after 3rd day

Since I was 4, I’ve volunteered with an organization that offers shelter for homeless families. I wanted to branch out from that organization but keep a focus on homelessness. After doing some research, I found LifeMoves, specifically LifeMoves Summer Adventure. LifeMoves is an organization whose goal is to “break the cycle of homelessness in the Bay Area”, and their Summer Adventure is a summer camp for children from homeless families within the LifeMoves network. For my first week I’m volunteering at LifeMoves’ Haven House in Menlo Park. 

The entirety of my 8:00 AM-3:00 PM day is spent with the kids, so in 3 short days I’ve already gotten to know a couple of the kids very well. I immediately bonded with two 12 year-olds, Christian (Chris) and Junior. From how they interacted, I thought that Junior and Chris must have been best friends for years. It wasn’t until I sat down on a bench with Chris for lunch yesterday that I learned he had moved to Haven House from Florida only two weeks ago. He talked about moving between different apartments every couple of months, and how a job opportunity had brought the family to California. I still can’t believe that he and Junior have only known each other for a week or two; they talk about the health of their families and what they want out of life. I wonder if constantly moving gave Chris an ability to quickly latch on to friends around him.

I worked at another summer camp week, but that camp cost hundreds of dollars to go to. It was fascinating to see the difference in how campers interacted with each other at the two camps. It was hard not to notice how the LifeMoves campers, though fun-loving and energetic like all kids, had a harder time controlling their emotions than the campers at the other camp. At the LifeMoves orientation, the lead volunteering told us that the kids in the camp are likely at least 2 years behind in school and may also lack the emotional and social maturity of other kids their age. I’ve unfortunately seen this to be true. I’m interested to see whether I’ll notice this at First Step, the complex I’m volunteering at next week.