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The Lowell Sun
July 17, 2009
By Jennifer Myers, jmyers@lowellsun.com
On Tuesday nights, Mariah Kennedy and Mike Neagle play.
Zebra and elephant hand puppets. Colorful balls of every size. Blocks. A xylophone. A Sit-'N-Spin. A wall of books. Giraffes, toucans and monkeys smiling from the walls.
A tiny peanut of a girl, 2 years old, dressed in her best sundress, miniature clips holding her hair in place, climbs into Kennedy's lap dragging along a book bigger than she is.
"Elmo!" she screeches as the book is opened and the furry, red Sesame Street character, a favorite of the preschool set, is revealed behind a concealing flap.
Kennedy laughs as she helps her little friend discover the other characters hiding throughout the book.
Meanwhile, a purple ball goes flying across the room, careening off the far wall before bouncing off of a boy's noggin.
"Roll it!" Kennedy instructs 21-month-old Nicholas, seemingly for the 200th time. The boy knows what he wants, and it does not include rolling the ball. An arm like a rocket, the kid is ready for his Spinners tryout.
Neagle is busy, having become a human jungle gym, as a hyped-up 2-year-old boy climbs across his back and over his neck.
It looks like the playroom of any day-care center or the waiting room of any pediatrician's office, but it is not. The five kids Kennedy and Neagle are entertaining this night have more in common than a desire to play and have fun.
They and their families are homeless, living at Milly's Place, a family shelter on Merrimack Street operated by Community Teamwork Inc.
Seven mothers and 13 children are living in the three-story building across the street from the old St. Joseph's High School. It is a place for them to sleep and eat while working to get back on their feet. Most land there for six to nine months before being placed in permanent housing.
The shelter's playroom was installed courtesy of Horizons for Homeless Children, an independent, nonprofit organization established in 1988 that serves homeless children and their families. Since 1990, 147 play spaces have been created in shelters statewide. About 11,000 volunteers have gone through an extensive, six-hour training program to become Playspace Activity Leaders, a corps that boasts 1,400 active members.
Last month, Kennedy, a project manager at Iron Mountain, a Boston-based data-management company, and Neagle, a social-studies teacher at Community Day Charter School in Lawrence, were honored as the PALs of the year for the Northeast region at Horizons for Homeless Children's annual recognition dinner at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston.
The Lowell couple, who are both working toward master's degrees in education, were looking for volunteer opportunities in early 2008 when they heard about Horizons for Homeless Children. In February, they went through the training, which focuses on child development as well as how to navigate the special needs of homeless children, who may be having a difficult time with the transitional nature of their daily lives.
Homeless children often face developmental and health problems, as well as educational delays.
Volunteers must commit to staying with the program for a minimum of six months. Colette O'Neill, spokeswoman for Horizons for Homeless Children, said nearly three quarters of the volunteers stick with the program beyond the six months.
Since March, Kennedy and Neagle have spent two hours each week playing with, mentoring and just being there for the kids at Milly's Place.
"In the scheme of things, two hours is nothing really," Kennedy said. "The experience has been awesome, but it is also bittersweet. We get attached to the kids we see every week, and then one week they are not here anymore, which is good, in some respects, because in most cases it means they are moving into permanent housing. But we still miss them."
O'Neill said dedication like that of Kennedy and Neagle is difficult to find.
"They have gone above and beyond, even attending literacy workshops," she said. "They took those skills and have applied them to their work in the playroom. They take the initiative to further the experience for the kids and look for ways to make it more enriching for everyone involved."
The two hours Kennedy and Neagle spend with the kids give their moms time to study, look for work or even do laundry.
"The focus is on the child, but by doing that, they are helping the entire family," O'Neill said.
Neagle has attended recent Horizons for Homeless Children training sessions to speak about his experiences. His involvement is particularly important, O'Neill stressed, because the majority of homeless kids served by the organization do not have a positive male role model in their lives.
"They are just drawn to him," Kennedy said of her husband. "It is really sweet."
There are more than 100,000 homeless children in Massachusetts, more than half of whom are under the age of 6, according to HFHC. The organization is always looking for volunteers.
For more information, visit www.horizonsforhomelesschildren.org.
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Mike Neagle and Mariah Kennedy play with 21-month-old Nicholas at Milly's Place, a Lowell shelter. The couple were honored last month for their volunteer work. SUN / JENNIFER MYERS
On Tuesday nights, Mariah Kennedy and Mike Neagle can be found breaking out the puppets, or the blocks, or the storybooks anything to keep their young friends smiling at Milly's Place, a shelter for homeless families in Lowell. SUN / JENNIFER MYERS
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