by Janet Lunder Hanafin

“Wow! Good! Nothing but positive!” Niomi, the grandmother of Haley, a third grader at Pilot Knob Elementary School, can hardly contain her enthusiasm for the after school program at Eagan’s Mount Calvary Lutheran Family Resource Center.

Located in an older part of Eagan, and sitting on the boundary of two school districts, the resource center recognizes, and seeks to alleviate, a too often unacknowledged problem: suburban poverty. Many of the apartment complexes in the neighborhood offer subsidized housing for low income families, and the resource center first opened, and continues to operate, as a food shelf.

In an 1,100 square foot house that was once the congregation’s parsonage, the resource center began a second outreach more than a year ago when it introduced the after school program. Open two afternoons a week from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m., the center is a welcoming place for school children to come for one-on-one tutoring, homework help, both indoor and outdoor games, snacks, and friendship. To keep the program flexible, families are not required to register and children can come on a drop-in basis as they need help or want to come.

Crossing Bridges grant facilitates program expansion
A $6,500 grant from the Bridges to Ending Poverty initiative of the Crossing Bridges mission appeal has enabled the center to add a new facet to the program called Healthy Bodies-Healthy Minds, which began in March.

“That was expanding the program, going to the next step,” said Darcy Schatz, administrator of the after school program. “We want kids to get in the habit of eating healthy and we want to educate kids on eating healthy.” While snacks have been a part of the program since it began, the grant will allow the program to provide such items as fresh fruit and string cheese to go along with granola bars, juice, and low-fat cookies.

The grant will also be used for sports equipment and educational supplies. Schatz has already unpacked the first order of cool stuff designed to intrigue kids—a model of the brain to encourage young scientists, sentence structure dice to develop reading skills, and “human body bingo.” Once the the muddy lawn is dry, youngsters at the center can make use of new soccer balls and other outdoor toys for fresh air and vigorous exercise.

“We have structured our after school program so kids can get any tutoring they need and have some free time for crafts and mini-educational sessions,” Schatz said. “It sparks their creativity or some sort of interest they have. It may spark something they can use in the future.”

When the program began, it targeted children from kindergarten through sixth grade, but it quickly became apparent that older students needed help as well. Students through 12th grade can study, read, or work together in the former living room. A smaller, quiet room provides a space for concentrated study. Set up by the technology team at Mount Calvary, a computer lab boasts six donated computers, printers, and Internet access for students to use for research or other homework. Youngsters can sign up for time in half hour increments. Schatz hopes that eventually the computer lab can also be available to adults to use in applying for jobs or keeping in touch with distant relatives via e-mail.

Collaborations, volunteers sustain the community effort
Though Mount Calvary started the resource center, it is a community endeavor, drawing clients as well as volunteers and donations from much of the south suburban area. The center partners with 19 other Eagan churches representing several denominations, as well as a dozen schools, at least eight businesses, and sports teams, Rotary clubs, and community organizations.

The center has no paid staff, but more than 200 volunteers, from seventh graders to senior citizens, run the after school program and the food shelf. “It’s nice that we can involve such a large cross section,” Schatz said. She interviews each potential volunteer and does a background check before the person begins working with children.

“Mount Calvary pays for heat and light,” she said, “but everything else comes from grants and fundraisers,” including a mammoth garage sale, scheduled for May 1-3.

Life changing experience for both volunteers and participants
The center collects and gives out school supplies, including backpacks, to needy students. During the winter, shelves and a coat rack offer an assortment of donated jackets, snowsuits, boots, and mittens; in summer the stockpile includes t-shirts, shorts, and other seasonal clothing for youngsters in the community. Donated books are often given to children to take home or used in the resource center for reading enrichment.

Part of the Crossing Bridges grant will be used as an incentive for youngsters to improve their school grades. They can bring their report cards to the after school program, and if their marks are better than the previous semester, they will receive gift cards.

“We’ve definitely helped them get better grades,” Schatz said. “They tell us about it. They’ll whisper, ‘I passed my spelling test.’

“When you are teaching a child to read, or their multiplication table and they get it, and they give you a hug, or tell you it’s their birthday and they want to share that with you,” Schatz said, “it’s a life changing experience.”

Life is often chaotic for children whose families live in poverty, and many of the youngsters who come to the after school program do so sporadically. Such is not the case with young Haley. Niomi, who is not raising the child but spends a good deal of time with her, learned about the program in a community newspaper last fall. Haley is a bright, good girl, her grandmother said, but needed extra help with reading and math skills, which she has received in the program, and she attends regularly.

“It’s the homework hotline for me,” Niomi said. “Haley loves it. In return, some day, Haley will be good to someone else.”

Janet Lunder Hanafin is a member of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, Roseville.