A Higher Glyphic

Media Credit: Eric Welch Allonte [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Eric Welch Smart Girls [Click to enlarge]

CARBONDALE - As their bus whined to a halt, wide-eyed children rushed up from their seats to hop off and see friends, read books, solve math problems, and play dodge ball and basketball, all after school had let out.
They skipped, ran and danced their way to the front door of an old, remodeled, brick building with a buzz of expectancy for a fun-filled afternoon. After seven long hours in school and during a time when most children would go home, these kids were just starting their second shift, and with big grins on their faces. That excitement and optimistic mindset is what the Carbondale Boys and Girls Club has been trying to help kids embrace every day after school for the past two and a half years.
A sea of people under five feet tall swarmed the front desk, grabbing their nametags and having them scanned for attendance by Mr. Javier. Manners and respect were highly valued, so all the employees and volunteers were called by Mr. or Miss.
Roughly one hundred and twenty children ages 6 to 18 filled the lobby, hung up their backpacks, and ran downstairs to meet with their program leader. They funneled through the hall, running past the 10-foot-long, brightly painted cardboard boat they had been working on for the SIU Great Cardboard Boat Regatta the following weekend.
In the basement beneath the gymnasium, children scattered to the rooms in which they had been assigned to for Thursdays. Some went to the game room to play ping-pong, foosball, and pool, while the older kids went to the teen room, a space with black couches that was reminiscent of a high-powered coffee house.
Across the basement in a room lined with computers and bookshelves, Kat Dieckmann played dominos with 9-year-old Allonte. Dieckmann, a psychology major at SIU, was working as a mentor/tutor in the Youth Empowerment Service (YES) center and had been meeting one-on-one with Allonte for two months.
"Oh man. He's so awesome," Dieckmann said. "He is really shy, but once you get to know him, he's the sweetest, gentle little boy you'll ever meet."
The YES program paired roughly twenty children with adult mentor/tutors to help them with schoolwork, as well as develop relationships and show them key life skills that they may not learn at home.
"He's doing really well in school and does a ton of homework," Dieckmann said. "But, it's hard for him to make friends because his family moves around a lot. He'll go to Atlanta for a while, then come back, and I know that it's just hard for him," she said.
Allonte had been through a lot more than that though. "I've been in the newspaper twice," he said, holding up two little fingers. "The police came and shot at my house because there was a bad man in our yard. Then, my house burned down," he said as he placed his last domino on the table to beat Dieckmann for the third game in a row, after finishing his homework.
"He has a good family, but he still has a hard life," Dieckmann said. "Can you imagine having your house burn down when you're that age?"
But, Allonte seemed unconcerned with the hardships he faced. Brushing his ID/nametag out of his way, Allonte held up a fanned out stack of 1990s NBA basketball cards. "I want to play in the NBA someday," he said as he stretched and stood on his toes to show how tall he was. "Either that or a doctor, because I need to get a little taller," he said.
Allonte's goals for the future are not uncommon at the Boys and Girls Club. "It's great to see and feel a sense of hope in these kids," said Sunshine Dzierzynski Wilson, the Program Director. "We try to make every moment a learning experience, so the kids can really gain some important life skills."
In fact, the club's national Web site highlights several notable figures in history, such as Michael Jordan and Bill Clinton, who have attributed part of their successes to what they learned at the Boys and Girls Club of America.
While Allonte and Dieckmann played dominos in the YES center, down the hall, a room full of girls all raised their hands and joined in a chorus of yelling in the Smart Girls program.
"Miss Kim, Miss Kim! Can we do 'Pray'? The CiCi Winans song?" Ariana asked at the top of her lungs. "No, let's do Bow Wow or Gwen Stefani," Felicia said as the group tried to decide which dance to perform for the rest of the club.
The program was designed to give 10 to 15-year-old girls a healthy idea of womanhood, self-image and to provide encouragement as they grow older. "Smart Girls teaches the girls about physical and emotional changes and how to deal with them," Wilson said. She also pointed out that she notices a measurable difference in the way the girls act toward each other and feel about themselves.
"We made collages of women in magazines we thought were beautiful," Ariana said. Ariana and the other Smart Girls had concluded that beauty did not always look the same as popular culture's images of it. This type of attitude change reflected the sort of positive changes in the majority of those who went to the club every week.
Although the wide array of programs was designed to build up and encourage the children of the Boys and Girls Club, the real difference came in the relationships built with the mentors. The mentors were hand picked and well trained, but beyond that, they truly cared about and invested in the kids.
"I know that he doesn't have a lot of friends," Dieckmann said of Allonte, "so I just try to be his friend every day."
With the help of Dieckmann and the Boys and Girls club, Allonte has grown and learned how to serve people too. "I walked in one day and Allonte ran up to me," Dieckmann said as her eyes began to tear up. "He was the first one there to tell me happy birthday."

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