“Hope is a Verb with its Shirtsleeves Rolled Up.” ~ David Orr

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, Pomona Hope is preparing for some exciting new developments for 2013!  Liz Cowan and Jeff Johannsen are planning to come on staff part time!

Liz will be our Kids and Volunteer Coordinator and Jeff is coming on as our Youth Coordinator.  We are looking forward to having them on board!

Additionally, we are making a long overdue move for our Kindergarten through 3rd graders and our Art Room.  We are planning to move them to the large meeting room that overlooks the gym on the second floor.  This location will be more suitable for classroom work, and will allow the kitchen to be used to its full (and original) capacity.

As you can imagine, there is much to do to facilitate all of these changes, and I'm writing to see if you would be available to lend a hand.

We are planning work days for both dates:

Friday, January 4th (11am-5pm)

Saturday, January 5th (10am-3pm)

Please let me know if you or someone you know might be able to help us ring in the New Year by getting us prepared for Liz and Jeff to have office space and our Troopers and Braves (K-3rd Graders) have an exciting new place to learn and grow!

Pizza and soda will be served for lunch on both dates.

Thank you for all you're doing for Pomona Hope.

Happy New Year!

Emily Budiyanto
Programs Director
Pomona Hope
emily@pomonahope.org

"Hope Has Been and Always Will Be Safe. It's Inside Every One of Us." ~ Xena

It's been awhile since I posted last, but in my defense, the kids had the week of Thanksgiving off.  And then half of the week after that we were closed.

Program Updates
During that downtime,we put together an advent calendar and activities for the kids for every program day before Christmas.  We got to teach the 4th-8th graders how to look verses up in the Bible (we're still working on it), and they got to hear the Christmas story as well as many things that are part of the Christmas story that you might not usually hear (like that they had been waiting for the Messiah to come for centuries... and they thought he was going to be born as royalty... and that the Wise Men did not get there the same night he was born, but a couple years later).

Parties!
We've been trying to get all the kids to turn in their report cards by bribing them with a big party after the new year.  Details on that to follow, but it will be a lot of fun!

We also had a big Christmas party on Thursday (the last day of our program until the New Year).  We had folks from Vineyard Church and Baseline Community Church come in to help the kids decorate cookies, play games, do crafts, and choose and wrap presents to give to their families!  I think the visitors had a lot of fun, but I KNOW the kids did!

Photobomb fail

Issues
Except one.  One of our junior highers has been falling behind in one of her classes because she's been telling us and her mom that she had no homework when she did.  I realize that's around the time of life that kids start doing that (I know I did), but does anyone have any suggestions?  She ended up missing most of the games AND most of eMerge because we were working on her project that was due on Friday.  And right now, her goal for life is to marry rich. :-/

We're also struggling with parent buy-in.  Most of our parents are great and really make sure that they're following our rules so that their kids get the best of it all.  Some even go overboard!  But a few don't take it that seriously, and we know of at least one who has almost none at all.  The kid has been coming and going by himself, because he wants to be there and wants to be a good kid, but isn't sure how.  But he knows that we can help him.  And us knowing these stories makes it easier to not get frustrated with the kids when they falter.

Daily Stuff
We ran low on volunteers the last couple weeks.  That's what happens when most of your volunteers are college students and they have these pesky things called "finals."  Who wants to start a petition to eliminate this archaic form of endurance testing?

Anyway, I got to hang out with the Troopers and Braves the other week.  We let them have their gym games outside on the last day before the rain started.  I think they enjoyed it.

High School Girls Bible Study
I've discovered that I apparently have a gift for telling Bible stories in ways that high school girls enjoy.  This past Tuesday night, I lured them in with promises of food and presents.  I made them my version of Crockpot Turkey Chili (which doesn't really taste like chili, but it is good and it is super healthy.  I didn't tell them that last part.).  The presents were actually paid for by the Alternative Christmas fair at La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church.  All the girls got their own personal Bible.  Now they can use those instead of me having to haul around my bag 'o bibles, and I can put mine back in their original strategic locations.  :-)

They had a lot of fun, and we had the Christmas miracle of one of our girls getting to stay for longer than an hour!  We're working our way up!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

“Everyone Must Dream. We Dream to Give Ourselves Hope. To Stop Dreaming - Well, That's Like Saying You Can Never Change Your Fate. Isn't That True?” ~Amy Tan

Update on the Junior High Retreat! 

(from Brianne, one of the leaders)

I would say that the retreat was a success! We had five kids on Friday and four on Saturday. I thought they seemed really engaged and were extremely willing to participate; I think we struck a good balance between "hanging out" and actual content for the weekend.

To me, what was perhaps the most telling was our ending activity, where Sarah had all of us write a short story about a time when we were feeling a certain way (e.g. joyful, scared, confused, etc.). We all went around and shared our stories. Though the point made in this activity was that you can't judge people or any situation based off of one piece of information, it really struck me how open the kids were with each other and how willing they were to share about parts of their lives that we don't normally see at Pomona Hope. I think that no matter how much we teach them, building relationships with the kids and helping them build relationships with each other is probably the most important thing we can do. They need a place and people that they feel they belong to/with.

Other than that, I definitely enjoyed myself. We did some out of the box things, like a blindfolded partner obstacle course, and a hospitality game where the kids had to present their snack as if I was coming over for dinner. I think everyone enjoyed the different structures we set up. I'm not sure how much they learned explicitly, but I always enjoy hearing their thoughts about things they most likely don't talk about in school. The kids might not know it, but their perspectives are in such formative stages right now and they're taking in everything around them.

In addition, we got to hang out with some of them at "the feast" afterwards (the dinner hosted by Rock of Faith). Sharing day-to-day life with them, if only for a weekend, was such a delight and privilege. It's easy to get caught up in school and even in IV ministry, so I'm grateful for the time I got to spend away from campus and kind of just hanging out with the kids.

 

 

“The Best Way to Not Feel Hopeless is to Get Up and Do Something. Don’t Wait for Good Things to Happen to You. If You Go Out and Make Some Good Things Happen, You Will Fill the World With Hope, You Will Fill Yourself With Hope.” ~ Barack Obama

Election Update
Let's see... last I left off was being excited about the election at Pomona Hope, right?  Well, the results are in, and they look something like this:

Yup, one of our kids figured out they could write in a candidate, and voted for herself.  Love the creativity.

The Conquerors (the group who voted) with their "I Voted" stickers.

Speaking of creativity, one of the students, while he was voting, asked why we weren't doing some kind of class president election for Pomona Hope.  Besides it not having occurred to us before, why aren't we?!  Stay tuned for more...

HS Bible Study

In other news, the high school girls bible study (still looking for a name!) is now meeting on Tuesday nights, in a really sweet room in the Pomona Hope building that I had never seen before.  That building is like a maze, and it's creepy and awesome all at once.  We also eat ice cream. :-)

The study we're working on is all about Jesus (which, I guess all of them technically are.  But this one is specifically about Jesus).  Last week, we discussed how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the Law.  I gotta say, I know I'm not incredibly well-versed in the Bible and all its nuances, but I seem to know more than I thought I did.  Most of the lesson was based in Matthew.  We started by following Jesus' lineage all the way back to Abraham.  We ended with the Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32) and the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46) and a discussion about the fact that you can SAY you believe in Jesus all you want, but you have to actually DO something for it to be true.  And that people who have studied and learned what God wants them to do, and then go around telling other people what that is, will ultimately be in way bigger trouble for not doing it themselves.

Junior High Retreat

This past weekend, our 6th-8th graders were invited to a retreat put on by 4 of our volunteers, 3 of whom were our interns in charge of the Summer Enrichment Program this past summer.  I tried to stay out of the way, since it was their thing, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun when I was there on Friday.  Here's some proof:

Yup.  Stuff's happening!

If you like the work Pomona Hope is doing, please visit the "Donate Now!" tab at the top.  If you want to support my work in particular, please type "Kids Coordinator" in the Comments section on that page.

“Hey You, Don't Tell Me There's No Hope at All. Together We Stand, Divided We Fall.” ~ Pink Floyd

Funny kid story:  Last Tuesday, I walked into the kitchen at Pomona Hope, where the youngest group of kids was having snack, to hand a note to a volunteer.  When I got inside, one of the more spirited girls in the group ran up to me and asked if she could write on the white board.  The conversation went as follows...

Me: Well, why don't you ask the volunteers here if you can?
Kid: I already did!
Me: So why are you asking me?
Kid: Because they said no!
Me: Well, as much as I admire your persistence, I'm going to have to go with the volunteers on this one.

I figure any parent will identify with that conversation to some degree.

Now, for adorableness!




Halloween 2012

  You're welcome.

They also helped me on an international scavenger hunt that I'm doing on the side, but I can't post pictures of that until it's over.

Now updates:

Pomona Hope had its anuual fundraiser this Saturday night and it went very well!  Really classy.  I got to dress up.  And I got a fancy nametag.  But my favorite part of the night were the presentations.  Joe George, current and founding board member, explained to everyone how it all began.  Emily, Program Director, had beautiful stories about watching the kids grow up over the past few years.  Barbara, beloved volunteer, talked about the personalities of several of the kids.  And Veronica, one of our high school students/volunteers, talked about how much she loved Pomona Hope because of the help she both gets and gives there.  She is so well-spoken and poised, you wouldn't peg her as an 11th grader.  Seriously, she did better up there than I could ever dream to.  Love that kid.

The art being auctioned off was beautiful!  I didn't even get to see it all though, because there were so many people!  It was just a great event all around.

But everything is getting "back to normal" at the program.  Our one different thing coming up this week is Election Day!  While adults all around the country are voting for politicians and issues tomorrow, our 4th, 5th, and some 6th graders will be voting in a mock election as well!  We gave them time to do some research at the computer lab, on who they should vote for according to their take on the issues, by sending the here: Vote Smart.  We also showed them a few episodes of Schoolhouse Rock and explained to them why it's important to vote, and what the world would be like if we didn't get to!  One thing I had to get used to telling them, when they asked "What's the right answer?" was that if there was an obvious right answer, we wouldn't need to vote!

They seem to be excited about it (they probably hear about the elections everywhere they go too).  Should be an interesting result!  And more importantly, they'll be interested in voting for real when their chance comes.

"But the Needy Will Not Always be Forgotten, Nor the Hope of the Afflicted Ever Perish." ~ Psalms 9:18

Been REALLY busy the last week and a half!  I've been running the program for over a week now, while Emily took that time to work on a huge grant.  That is, until I would call her down for various things, like random people walking in looking for food, or moms of our kids coming in looking for her.  Mostly because they know I don't speak Spanish.  I need to learn Spanish.  For reals.  Someone add that to the list.

LAST Sunday, many of our kids participated in the Inland Valley Hope Partners' 39th Annual "Walk for the Hungry."  I explained most of it in my last post, but I didn't tell you how it went!  By Thursday, I got permission slips from HALF of the kids in our program, and they were really excited about coming.  Now, I've never really had to organize something like this before: getting permission slips, scheduling start and end times (if you know me personally, I'm pretty much late to EVERYTHING... it's part of my charm), finding qualified drivers with open seats, figuring out the best route to the location, making sure we had enough volunteers to keep everyone together, not losing anybody, etc. etc. etc.  Turns out it's a lot of work.  But Pomona Hope has wonderful volunteers who are ready to help out even outside of their normal volunteer hours.  And that's the way we like it.  We had enough volunteers signed up to have two kids to every volunteer.  And we actually had fewer kids come than signed up, so the ratio was even better!

MOST of our group.

As you can tell from the group picture, there was FREE POPCORN!  There was also free face painting (which our kids went crazy with!) and free balloons! The kids had a lot of fun, (I think) the volunteers had a lot of fun, the dogs had a lot of fun, and I took a nap on the couch when it was all over... I'd say it was a success!  (My dog, Rosie, is the one in the picture, and her best friend, Hurley, joined us.)

On the way to the Walk.

All the kids took turns walking Rosie.  I didn't even see her for most of the Walk, since she was dragging whatever kid was walking her to the front, while I was hanging out toward the back making sure we didn't lose anyone.  Every so often, whatever kid was walking her would get dragged back through the crowd (mostly made up of our group) until they found me, because Rosie realized I wasn't where she could see me.  Once she found me, she would charge back to the front, kid in tow.

I bring all this up about my dog because I was never really concerned that anything would happen to her.  If the kid was walking my dog, I was pretty sure they would take on the responsibility and make good decisions.  They even picked up the dog poop!  And then promptly handed it to the closest volunteer.  Close enough.

They met Tremor!

And Gumby!

Face painting!

Taking a break

 One awesome thing about the Walk location this year was that it was around (and through) the Claremont Colleges, where many of our volunteers come from.  It was a chance for the kids to see what a college campus (or 7) looks like.  They were fascinated by the bathroom at CGU (sorry CGU, they had to go and the door was open).

The little kids were REALLY tuckered by the end... actually, some of them were complaining about being tired before the first checkpoint.  But they made it (though one or two may have gotten piggyback rides, or rides in the wagon)!  I'm sure their families were glad for the break in energy too. :-)

The balloons were a challenge, but I imagine, well worth it.

Not just on the face.

This is where I found them when the walk was over.

Unacceptable.

"Hope is the Companion of Power, and Mother of Success; for Who So Hopes Strongly Has Within Him the Gift of Miracles." ~ Samuel Smiles

We've got some big things coming up at Pomona Hope, and a lot of enthusiasm from participants (kids, parents, volunteers) and those who want to participate!

Firstly, the high school girls bible study group.  We still need a name.  I will entertain suggestions from the audience.  Maybe I'll make it into a contest.  The struggle with the group is that they get permission to come, and then at the last minute something comes up and they have to watch their younger siblings or school activities or something.  I had similar issues when I was in high school and missed out on a lot, so I'm not deterred by this.  I do think it will be easier for everyone to show up regularly once we move it to Tuesdays, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, we'll keep trying to meet, and (if it turns out like last Friday), only one person can come, we'll hang out and watch a movie instead.  I also had two of the girls come over on Monday night to eat some of my dinner, but I didn't turn it into a bible study (which was all prepared!) because I didn't want them to feel tricked into it, though I don't think they would have really minded.  We watched Once Upon a Time instead.  So now they've seen the most recent episode, and that's it.

Secondly, volunteers.  I've been in contact with 4 new volunteers from places I never expected, just in the last few days. My favorite has to be the one who sent me a facebook message basically saying, "I was waiting around in the choir room of the church waiting to get married last week when I saw a flyer for an outreach in Pomona and I think it said to contact you."  The only way I can think to answer my automatic question of "Who does that?!" is "It's a miracle!"  I'm going to frame it and put it in my office someday.
 
Thirdly, the Walk for the Hungry.  The Walk for the Hungry is Inland Valley Hope Partners' big fundraiser for the year.  Most of the money goes to local food banks.  Every dollar raised can be used to leverage 5 pounds of food!  The kids of Pomona Hope are going to be participating in this year's Walk.  When we were originally approached, our issue was that many of our families are just getting by, and some may even benefit from the local food banks, so who would they fundraise from?!  But then we had a donor come up with the idea, and commit to donating $10 per kid who participates!  So now, all the kids need to do is get permission from their parents, and show up!  I'm in the midst of arranging volunteers to keep track of all the kids the day of, and to provide rides to and from the Walk.  Should be an exciting (and exhausting!) day. :-)

Fourthly, Pomona Hope's Annual Fundraiser.  This is our big fundraiser for the year, so it's usually a big deal, but this year it's taking on a totally new format.  Instead of a sit-down dinner, it's an art show (well, art auction, but I know I can't afford anything, so for me, it's a show), with tapas.  I'm excited about it, it should be a lot of fun.  It gives everyone more of a chance to talk to each other, network, etc. and it gives us an ice breaker or two to boot!  The art is being donated by local artists, and they were specifically asked to create something that reminded them of Hope.  The event is called "Impressions of Hope."  If you have any questions, or want to attend, please contact Tanya at teveleth@gmail.com.

It's weird.  I'm tired, from lack of sleep, because I keep stressing out about whether or not something was done, but only for the things I've already finished.  But I'm too excited for it to stop me.  And that problem will probably be solved once this is my only job. :-)

"There is No Hope of Joy Except in Human Relations." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

This week, I trained a new set of volunteers (from 3 different places!), had someone offer to sponsor (without even asking!  I actually hadn't even thought of this!) each of our kids to walk in the upcoming Walk for the Hungry (still have to figure out the logistics of how to get them there and how to keep them together), and had one of the boys admit to me that he started liking the girl at school that he'd been complaining to me for a couple weeks had been calling him a name (not a bad name, just not his own).  Didn't ever think I'd be the one he'd tell this to, but I'm not gonna complain.

It occurs to me that the kids who have been with us for a long time are starting to open up more on a different level now.  What we learn from them and see them understand during the ensuing discussions just blows us away.  It's amazing, but it also catches us a little off guard.  It requires us to be prepared to listen when they are ready to talk (with no advance warning).  So far, we've risen to the occasion, but I also wonder how many opportunities we may have missed because we weren't ready for it.  If you're reading this and are of the praying variety, please pray that we continue to rise to the challenge and can continue to help these kids realize that they're special and important, and that they can make a difference too.

Oh yeah, I also got to spend more time with the younger kids in the program this week.  They love gym games, and this week they really loved playing with the parachute.  Tuesday, I nearly passed out after blowing up a beach ball for them (not really, just got winded) and Wednesday, they showed me how to play Sharks & Lifeguards... or some title with those positions in the game.  It was really cute.


Tonight was the first meeting of the high school girls bible study.  Only two of the girls could make it, but I think it may have been the two that need it most.  We got frozen yogurt, talked about what they'd like to learn about and what kind of background they have and whether they have bibles, and then we played Just Dance 3.  So it looks like our group is made up of one Catholic, one Scientologist, one Agnostic, and two girls I don't have a read on yet.  Between the wide variety of religious backgrounds and the things these girls have to deal with that I never did just by virtue of their school and neighborhood, I'm back to being a little nervous about leading this group.

Lord, give me the right words.  Your words.

"Be Joyful in Hope, Patient in Affliction, Faithful in Prayer." ~ Romans 12:12

Looking back on it, this week could be considered a rough week.  Only one of the days seemed rough at the time, but it felt like there were fewer wins overall this week than usual.

Tuesday, I stepped in as the Program Coordinator for about an hour.  I  also had one student in particular who was absolutely driving me crazy.  He argued with everything I said to him, and some things I didn't say to him.  Normally, when it's that constant, I would give the kids a warning, but he didn't even realize he was doing it!  And when I pointed out that he was arguing with me, his reaction was, "No, I'm not."  ARGH!!  He's not normally like that.  I'm chalking it up to him having a particularly chatty day and not carrying it around with me forever, but on that day, I was feeling like his special project.

Wednesday was better.  I was not as hesitant to give warnings and it turns out, they (meaning any and all the kids) only needed one.  Ok, so that was the problem (maybe).  I'll just have to remember that next time!  Sad that I had to give out warnings, but glad that it stopped at one.  Count as win.

On Thursday, I had one of our kids confided in me, through tears, that he basically blames himself for his mother's miscarriage when he was a baby, because if she wasn't carrying him, she wouldn't have fallen.  She never blamed him or told him it was his fault, and I told him that if she knew that he thought that, I bet she would be really sad.  I also shared with him about a loss in my family when I was very young that I often felt blamed for, and then he needed to learn a lot sooner than I did that it wasn't his fault, it couldn't have been, because he was a baby.  Then we had a group hug and he smiled again.  So that one I count as a win.

Thursday was also the day that the kid who drove me crazy on Tuesday apologized to me!  What?!

Friday was a busy day.  After leaving my morning job, I led a volunteer training for someone we may partner with to provide more volunteers during the homework/tutoring times.  He seemed really excited about it, and hopefully it will all work out very well!  We'll be getting volunteers from CalPoly, so that will really expand our volunteer base.

Friday was also the day of our first High School Girls Bible Study (we're working on a name).  At least it was supposed to be.  But despite the seeming excitement from each of the girls every time I reminded them earlier in the week, no one showed up.  They all had valid excuses (school events, family issues), but it was disappointing because I was probably a little too excited about it.  So maybe it's a good thing that it's getting postponed, so I don't overwhelm them.  And it did give me a chance to fall asleep early... after dogsitting.  Yeah, I'm that cool.  In my defense, it had been a looooooong couple of weeks.  Anyway, not getting discouraged.  Still trying for a meeting again next week (I think this will all work out better when we can have it on Tuesday nights and all of our girls can be there).  This thing WILL happen!



Gotta keep telling myself this...

Next week should be better.  These kids always surprise me.  And I start getting paid (at quarter time... which actually means I'll be cutting the hours I'm helping out back for while)!  This will almost double my current income (yes, quarter time at a nonprofit where I'm fundraising my own salary will almost double my income from a City government where I'm working half-time).  Sign of the times...

There's always a silver lining though, right?  That's why there's a saying.

"And Now These Three Remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the Greatest of These is Love." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13

First week back this school year with a whole ton of new volunteers (from the Claremont Colleges)!  And they're pretty incredible.  The kids seemed to latch onto them almost immediately, and these volunteers, being college students, seemed to remember how to do whatever the kids were working on.  Perfect!

This was also the first week of taking the 4-6th graders up to the computer lab again.  This week they were working on drawing a picture of themselves in Paint, copying it and pasting it into a Word document, and then writing a story about their week, as a form of "autobiography". 

There was ONE day this week where we only had one student show up for the optional homework time.  So I got to help our one student while a pow-wow happened in the background.  It's a good example of what we're doing as an organization: helping with schoolwork, yes, but also creating community and sharing with each other about church, God, life, etc.

 

 

 

Courtesy of Dave Evans.

Now admittedly, the discussion corner didn't last the entire time, and towards the end of our homework help session, we were both getting the tired-crazies... the last math problem was drawing a box of the dimensions that she had already done the complex equations to find.  It took 15 minutes.  But the homework got done!