Senior center hosts barbecue for homeless children

By Heidi Roman
C & G Staff Writer

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Among the group of 21 kids playing games at the Clinton Township Adult Senior Life Center July 21, there was no way of telling which ones woke up in a homeless shelter or motel that morning. Though all of them live a different kind of routine than most kids their age, they smile and laugh during tug of war just like anyone else.

The senior center hosted a barbecue for kids in the Education Project for Homeless Children and Youth summer camp — the same students they spend hours knitting scarves and hats for every winter. They had never seen the happy faces of the kids who receive them until the event.

Kathleen Kropf, Macomb Intermediate School District homeless education liaison, has been organizing summer day camps for the county’s homeless students for 14 years, but only a handful are signed up compared to the amount of need.

There were 810 reported homeless students in Macomb County during the 2009-2010 school year, according to the MISD. That’s an increase of 173 students from the year before.

“In my 14 years with the program, it has never been that high,” Kropf said.

Locally, there are 31 homeless students reported in the Clintondale district, 60 in Chippewa Valley, 33 in Fraser, 83 in L’Anse Creuse and 78 in Mount Clemens. Many of their families lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure and are now living in shelters, motels or with relatives.

This was the first time the senior center hosted a day camp for the program, though its members have been supporting it for years. They donate school supplies, toiletries and Christmas gifts each year.

“It overwhelms me, the amount of community support we get,” Kropf said. “They make gloves and hats all winter, and they never see them. I thought this would be nice for them.”

After lunch, the seniors played games with the students and proved that some of the stereotypes about people their age are wrong.

“A lot of these kids don’t have grandparents,” said Monika Bacon of Clinton Township, one of the senior volunteers. “This shows them that when you get older, you don’t just sit in a wheelchair. You can do activities with them.”

Bacon, 64, has one granddaughter, and says sometimes kids have the wrong idea about seniors. A lot of the kids were surprised at how much fun they had with them.

“We had a snack; we did arts and crafts; and we’re playing bocce ball,” said 10-year-old Joey Stephens of New Baltimore.

They played a few games from each of their generations — bocce ball for the seniors and sack races for the kids. They played boys against girls in a tug of war and had a water balloon toss.

“We wanted to let them know that seniors are fun,” said Donna Tinker, a program coordinator at the center. “We ordered T-shirts that say, ‘Clinton Township seniors rock.’”

Most of the members are retired and like to find ways to give back to the community with their free time, Tinker said. An intergenerational program sounded like a good fit.

The barbecue lunch was sponsored by Comfort Keepers.

Anyone interested in helping support the MISD’s Education Project for Homeless Children and Youth can call (586) 228-3490. For more information, visit www.misd.net/homeless.