Our seniors are so excited about inviting teens into our project, and collaborating with them to plan and host Seniors’ Storytelling Day in November.
How can I tell? Henrietta, as you see above, has been making adorable fliers about youth outreach. Beatrice and Brenda, as you see below, wrote essays about the importance of giving “good kids” the opportunity to shine, in a world where teens’ misbehaviors are often sensationalized. Arthur said he envisions standing on stage on SSDay with young adults, and, in unison, telling the audience: “Look at us now.”
True mentorship – and friendship – takes time to develop. And so, guided by the seniors’ vision of sharing their day and their stage with younger generations, our volunteer team has been speaking with selected teen organizations throughout Philadelphia, in order to handpick the most self-motivated teens in the city as our summer and fall interns.
If you’re a teen and want to apply, simply write a letter by July 9 to the seniors about a particular story on the blog that has moved YOU. You don't have to be a great writer. Just be yourself and speak your mind. Submit the letter via email to our PR Manager Emily at emily@thebestdayofmylifesofar.com Or, if you’re feeling bold, post it right on our Facebook wall! Can’t wait to hear from you!
Beatrice Newkirk
June 11, 2010
Generations of today
The generations of today are the future of tomorrow. What happens today will affect them tomorrow. It will be different if not worse.
So many things will be changed. People have to work together in order to get things done. They have to agree on things that concern them. What decisions we make today will be a help to the generations tomorrow. There are a lot of kids doing the right things. We need to tell about them. What they are doing and how they are making it.
Beatrice Newkirk
June 17, 2010
What About the Good Kids?
What about the good kids? Don’t they count? So many kids are doing the right thing. Finishing school. Working hard. Going to college. I have so many of my kids and grandkids working the right jobs.
All you see on T.V. is what the bad kids are doing. There are so many kids wanting to do the right thing. Lots of kids are helping people and doing things for people. There are so many happy kids. There’s a show on the T.V. just about kids. I look at it. It shows us what the kids are doing.
I have lots of grandkids graduating and a great grandkid finishing school.
Brenda Bailey
May 27, 2010
A Happy Day in my Life
There is a program in Georgia called “The Partners-in-Education,” where a business and a school join forces to help each other with projects. When the business needs volunteers for quarterly mailings, or guides during open house, they use the students from the school. When the school needed prizes or supplies, they ask the business.
Everyday, we are bombarded by reports from TV, newspapers, neighbors, family, and even ourselves about how young people are so lazy, disrespectful, unmotivated, etc., etc., etc. But we don’t hear much about all the wonderful young people struggling to just make a positive and prosperous future for themselves. Young people attending school, working, volunteering, and making a conscious effort to stay out of trouble.
I was privileged to be asked to judge an Art Contest at the area school, which consisted of elementary, middle, and high school students. I am not in any way an art critic, so when I arrived at the school, I was nervous about what I would see and do. And what I saw blew me away.
There were tables from wall to wall of the gym filled with completed projects of the students. One table had an exact replica of the Titanic with the smoke stacks, anchor, lettering, and gangplank. Another table had the Mona Lisa painted just like the one in the Louvre. There was a model of the White House, a farm with all the animals in clay, paintings of landscapes, towns, and one student had painted a picture using just dots.
Again, I was blown away! To me, everyone was a first place winner. I requested that the projects be displayed on my job, and the employees were as impressed as I was.
So, our young people just need a chance to show what they can do, and a place to do it, and people that will encourage them.