Recent Articles
By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist | August 25, 2010
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/25/what_a_catch/
To be honest, I never bought into all the hoopla when a group of wide-bodied white guys opened up a summer camp for city kids on a Boston Harbor island a few years back and acted like they had just changed the world.
Give it one season, maybe two, I figured, and all those donors would move on to the next Nantucket fund-raising event for the newest cause célèbre, and poor Camp Harbor View would be dying on the vine.
Boy, was I ever wrong.
The first hint of that came when I drove over a rise and spied what looked like an open-air Cape Cod resort: a shingled great hall where meals were served, a junior-size Olympic swimming pool with a meticulous pool house, manicured ball fields, a climbing wall and acrobatics center, tennis courts, basketball courts, a 150-yard-long pier that held all flavors of boat. All around the camp, the clean waters of Boston Harbor lapped the shore, and beyond it, pristine views of the city skyline.
And most important, there were kids, hundreds of kids — kids riding bikes on smooth pavement, kids playing tennis, learning golf, painting watercolors, practicing dance, swimming laps, paddling canoes.
And then I got a dose of unimpeachable evidence that this was no momentary fad, in the form of a kid shouting, “I caught a fish! I caught a fish!’’ The news quickly rippled down the pier, where I happened to be standing. “He caught a fish!’’ another kid yelled. Someone else: “Oh man, he caught a fish.’’ Yet another person on land: “Hey, everyone, someone caught a fish!’’
And true enough, at the end of the pier, a group of preadolescents were huddled around a fish. The boys were squealing and shouting and pretending to be brave until the moment they weren’t, which was when their fingers came in contact with the slimy scales and they pulled them away in a mix of horror and delight.
The most important contrast was what you couldn’t see, which is where those kids would have been if they weren’t at this camp: surrounded by concrete, sweltering in their houses, playing ball at city parks that have been visited by random violence. Here, there are no gang colors. There’s no violence, no graffiti. The police have never been called.
Cara Gould is the director of the camp. She worked for a decade with gangs in Los Angeles and has developed a unique view of a world in which hope and reality routinely collide. She spoke as the camp wound down for the summer.
“It’s crazy,’’ she said of the impact on the kids. “I thought we’d give four weeks of fun for those who don’t have a lot of it. But it blows me away how deep the impact on some of the kids is, and how connected they feel to the place.’’
The campers, 11 to 14, arrived every morning by bus between 8:30 and 9 from their neighborhoods in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury. They were served three healthy meals a day. They left, exhausted, at 6. There were two four-week sessions, each serving 380 kids.
Tom Menino thought of it. Businessman Jack Connors scouted the spot and raised the money. John Fish got his company, Suffolk Construction, to build just about the whole thing in less than four months. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, one of the city’s most vital organizations, manages the operation. The goal now is to endow it so it continues as long as it is needed, which is probably forever.
The counselors ignore the bad and dwell on what the kids do right.
“We try to shower them with positive attention,’’ Gould said. “They get labeled as the bad kid, and everyone treats them as that, then they try to fulfill the role.’’
Imagine that — city kids, poor kids, treated as good kids. Amid the spanking new buildings, the beautiful setting, and the constant activity, that may be the biggest contrast of all.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mcgrory@globe.com. 
DANTE BELIZA, 11, of Mattapan, riding the Slingshot at Camp Harbor View -- a camp for children 11-14 in at-risk Boston neighborhoods -- on Long Island in Boston Harbor, Aug. 20, 2010 --
http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/gallery/02_13_08_grossfeld_thinking_well?pg=2
Sports: What Were They Thinking
August 23, 2010
“I wasn’t really scared. I knew what was coming because I did it twice before. You pull the trigger and you bounce a little bit and then you’re flying. What does it feel like? I got a wedgie. It was adrenaline-pumping. When I’m flying, I’m thinking I’m a superhero flying through the air. I hope I can come back next year. I made new friends. It’s fun and I get a little time to myself. I get some space out here. In Mattapan, it’s crowded and noisy. There’s gangs and you try not to get shot. I’m a little sad that it’s over. Here it’s the most fun I ever had.” - Dante Beliza, 11
City youths thrive with support staff
By Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | August 20, 2010
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/08/20/harbor_camp_offers_refreshing_break/
Shaquil Wilkie thought going to Camp Harbor View for a month three years ago was a bad idea, that it would take time away from hanging out on the streets. But he went anyway, at the behest of his grandmother, bringing along his red bandana as a silent symbol of defiance and allegiance to his gang.
The first week was tough, he said, as he did not get along with the other campers and often argued. Then a counselor who noticed the bandana told him that nothing positive comes from gangs. Wilkie then met with Cara Gould, the camp’s director.
“She told me to do this only if I want to,’’ Wilkie recalled yesterday at the camp, located on Long Island, in Boston Harbor. She told me that if I got something from the talk with the counselor, to turn my [gang] flag in.’’
On the day after that talk with Gould, Wilkie handed her his bandana, after writing on it, “I’m no longer in a gang.’’ The cloth hangs on a wall in Gould’s office. Wilkie is now a counselor in training.
“It makes me feel good to work with the kids; I’m teaching them, just like I was taught,’’ said Wilkie, a senior at Brockton High School who lives with his grandmother during the summer.
Camp Harbor View is a place where children from crime-plagued communities or troubled homes come to have fun and along the way receive guidance from people like Wilkie or the other 38 counselors. Today is the last day of the second summer session, but because of high demand, about 100 youths whose names were put on a waiting list earlier this year will be invited to an abbreviated, weeklong camp that begins Monday.
The camp has grown in attendance every year since 2007, when it first opened. This summer, about 380 youths, ages 11 to 14, attended each session.
Yesterday, Red Sox players Kevin Cash and Michael Bowden visited and answered questions. One boy asked Bowden whether it was hard being a pitcher, to which Bowden answered, “At this level, any position is hard.’’
Mayor Thomas M. Menino also paid a visit. In the winter of 2007, he and Boston businessman Jack Connors discussed the growing problem of violence among teens, particularly in the summer. Connors mentioned his visits to Long Island as a child.
From their conversation, the former military base, which sat unused for years, was transformed. The Boys & Girls Club runs the camp in conjunction with the city. Its operating costs run about $2.5 million to $3 million, money generated through private funding. Admission to the camp is $5 per session.
“It’s fun,’’ Robert Silva, 12, a seventh-grader at McCormick Middle School, said yesterday. “I would be at home playing video games, probably bored if I wasn’t here. My parents think it’s good because you don’t have to pay a lot.’’
On the perfect summer day, dozens of youths in burnt-orange T-shirts and shorts played lacrosse and soccer on a neatly trimmed field. Swimming and basketball are the most popular activities, Gould said, but boating and climbing are “surprise favorites.’’ The camp offers five areas of activities or exercises, including aquatics, arts, and leadership development.
Menino said the camp is designed for boys and girls “too old to be young and too young to be old.’’
“Sometimes I see these kids later in the day in the city, walking around with their camp T-shirts on,’’ he said. “They say to me they like the camp, but are too tired to do anything else but go to sleep when they get home. That’s the objective.’’
Brian R. Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.
Eagles spend two days with the children
http://bceagles.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/080210aaa.html
Members of the Boston College football team have made two trips to Camp Harbor View this summer to assist counselors and spend time with the children attending the camp.
On July 16, approximately 25 student-athletes attended the camp in the 90-degree heat. Mayor Menino was also in attendance that day. Last Friday, 20 more Eagles and five cheerleaders visited the camp as they ate lunch with the children, played football and basketball and even went sailing.
Camp Harbor View offers 600 children ages 11-14 who live in Boston’s at-risk neighborhoods the opportunity to leave the city during the day and participate in a four-week summer camp program. Offering the traditional activities that summer camp is known for, such as hiking, arts and crafts, and swimming, Camp Harbor View also includes programs that strive to build children’s confidence and leadership strengths.
Page 1 of 612345»...Last »
