SHAW AREA HOUSE GETS A FACE-LIFT FROM LUTHERAN YOUTH GROUP – 6 Jul 2000 P-D

Youths in town for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s meeting volunteered for various service projects in the St. Louis area.

Elizabeth Stervinou, 15, of San Antonio stood at a tall window carefully painting woodwork that probably dated to the turn of the century in a red-brick house in the Shaw neighborhood.

“I’m wonderful,” said Elizabeth, describing her mood to anyone who would listen. “I’m wonderful because I am helping people.” A big smile lit her tan face.

Elizabeth was one of 38,000 youth in town for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s meeting, called Dancing at the Cross Roads. The meeting will end Sunday.

Some 13,000 of the youngsters signed up to help with volunteer service projects throughout the St. Louis area. Youngsters and their sponsors built houses, landscaped neighborhoods, fixed rickety steps, read to children and spent time with the elderly.

Elizabeth, four other young people and their sponsor, Jackie Durkee, were painting the dining room and scraping the front porch at Helen Long’s home in the 4200 block of Castleman Avenue.

A few years ago, a fire destroyed much of the Long home. Long paid workmen to fix it up, but they left gaping holes in the plaster on the second floor and failed to paint much of the house. A knee injury and osteoarthritis made it impossible for Long, 75, to do the work herself.

Her daughter, Cindy Long-Busch, tried to help, but the job was too much for the two women. Long is in Carlsbad, Calif., to visit another daughter. Long-Busch has received two blitzes of help, which she calls blessings, that will aid her in getting the house in shape for her mother’s return.

The first assist was a visit the week before Fathers Day from the youth group of First United Methodist Church of Loveland, Colo. They started the painting. The hallway is a clean white.

The second blessing was the arrival of the youngsters from the Zion Lutheran Church of Helotes in San Antonio, Texas. Busch-Long’s neighbors, Wayne and Elaine Kidwell, arranged for both visits.

Last week, the Lutheran youngsters, all clad in turquoise T-shirts, swarmed over the big old house. All of them claimed to be experienced painters.

“You can’t believe how many times I painted my parents’ house,” said Brad Harlan, 15. Brad, a slender lad with a blond crewcut, said he had come inside to work because he had fallen off the ladder outside twice in 90 minutes. He blamed the ladder.

His friends laughed. Durkee, 36, the youngsters’ sponsor, took one of the toughest jobs for herself. She painted the 12-foot-high ceiling. With a paint roller on an extension pole, she smoothly rolled the white paint over the ceiling. The only telltale signs of her work were a white-paint mark above her lip and a white stripe or two on her arms. Little by little, the dingy dining room was transformed into a bright, white, light-filled space.

“These are good people,” said Cindy Long-Busch. “You see things like this on TV, but you don’t think it could happen to you.”

COVENANT HOUSE PROVIDES REFUGE FOR HOMELESS YOUTH IN ST. LOUIS – 29 Nov 1999 P-D

When staffers for Covenant House Missouri started working with St. Louis youths, they didn’t think there really were homeless children in St. Louis.

Sure, many spent their nights staying at different friends’ homes. But the Covenant House workers didn’t think they’d find children sleeping on the streets.

Now they know differently.

“Most of our kids are homeless; they’re on the streets,” said Marian Wolaver, executive director of Covenant House Missouri.

It’s for those young adults and others like them that the private, international group Covenant House last year opened its first Community Service Center in Missouri, at the corner of 39th Street and Shenandoah in the Shaw Neighborhood in St. Louis.

It wasn’t easy getting there. Covenant House ran into opposition from some residents in the Shaw neighborhood who didn’t want them as neighbors. Some argued that the neighborhood already had two social-service centers and didn’t need more.

Covenant House prevailed but it had to accept a number of restrictions on a three-story brick building it bought at 2256 South 39th Street for the new Community Service Center. It can be open only from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The agency bought the building with the idea of providing temporary housing for the youths it serves, who range from 17 to 21. But the city nixed that, so Covenant House is renting the space out to the public as seven apartments instead.

The agency wanted to provide child care to young women who have babies, but that was vetoed, too. No outside events with youth. No more than six youths for each adult, which is fine with Covenant House, said Wolaver, because it stresses one-on-one communication with a child anyway.

“It’s all one-on-one; that’s what Covenant House is all about,” Wolaver said.

The new center opened in September and now serves 21 youths. It offers spiritual counseling, high-school-equivalency classes, job counseling and a sympathetic ear.

“Kids need to be in a place where they feel safe,” said Janice Thorup, director of the center. “They need to be loved, even if it’s just for a couple of hours a week.”

Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursday nights, the center has Dinner & Conversation, a loosely structured affair with pizza and talk about spiritual topics, such as death and dying.

The center also offers breakfast and lunch, and it’s more than food the center is offering. For youths who have not had an ideal family life, staffers try to give examples of how families interact. Sitting down for a family dinner, with conversation between family members, is a foreign concept to some youths, staffers say.

There are successes and failures.

Thorup recalls working with a young man who got his first job, one with hard physical labor in the hot summer. He would call Thorup on his lunch hour and say that he wanted to quit. Thorup would talk him through it.

The youth did eventually quit the job, but Thorup won’t quit on him. It’s one of Covenant House’s basic tenets that it doesn’t give up on a child.

“We accept that we’re going to have a high failure rate,” she said.

Covenant House Missouri was established last year after an assessment of youth in the St. Louis area demonstrated few opportunities for youths aged 17 to 21. Covenant House is an international, privately funded organization that has its headquarters in New York and was incorporated in 1972. The Catholic organization now operates in 20 cities worldwide and focuses on homeless, runaway and high-risk youth.

Thorup and Wolaver say that youths aged 17 to 21 often fall between the cracks when it comes to getting help. Younger children qualify for many services, “but once they hit the majority age of 17, out they go,” said Wolaver.

Although they’ve had a rocky start, the Covenant House staff wants to fit in within the Shaw Neighborhood. They see a population of youths who have needs, and they want to help.

“We’re not here to take anything away from anyone else,” said Wolaver. “We want to be a good neighbor.”

A block captain in the Shaw Neighborhood says residents still are worried but hoping for the best now that Covenant House has opened.

“There are still some questions and concerns about them,” said Sean Thomas, a block captain for 3800 Cleveland, which is across the alley from the center.

Thomas said Shaw residents supported what Covenant House is doing, they just didn’t believe a residential neighborhood was the best spot for the center. “A lot of people in the neighborhood offered to help them find a more appropriate location. They turned down that offer,” said Thomas. “People are hoping for the best here; it doesn’t seem they’re going to be moving any time soon.”

(SOUTH POST BRIEFS) – 22 Nov 1999 P-D

Candlelight vigil planned for “epidemic of lost youth”

Covenant House Missouri will hold its second annual candlelight vigil for youth at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at Tower Grove Park in south St. Louis.

The vigil is being held to raise awareness of the “epidemic of lost youth” in the St. Louis area, say organizers. A “Children’s Bill of Rights” will also be read at the candlelight vigil. Covenant House is a nonprofit agency that provides services to youth in 16 cities in the U.S. and Canada, and in four Latin American countries.

The public is invited to attend the vigil, which will assemble at 5 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the newly opened Covenant House Community Service Center at the corner of 39th Street and Shenandoah Avenue in the Shaw neighborhood. There will be a candlelight procession to Tower Grove Park. Following the vigil will be a reception at the Missouri School for the Blind, across from the park.

MENTORING HELPS STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS – 17 Nov 1999 P-D

What can we do about the condition of our St. Louis Public Schools? The Mentor St. Louis staff and volunteers agree that one of the main answers is working with the schools in helping students achieve stated goals This is employing “The Whole Village” concept in child rearing.

Our aim is not getting bogged down on what has not worked but concentrating on what will work. It is not a matter of who gets the credit since the student achievement is the bottom line. We choose to accentuate the positive things that are happening in the lives of our students and look for what we might do to help wherever and whenever there is a need.

Mentor St. Louis will do its part, with other community groups, in helping students earn accreditation. This organization started in June 1995. In that first school year, it provided 250 mentors to 320 kindergarten students in the city public schools. In addition to matching adults with children in need of help, Mentor St. Louis helps by providing the little supplemental materials that can vastly improve a classroom. We are gophers (Go for Excellent Results), believing that the next century will demand the best from our students.

Let’s look at just one example of a program created under Mentor St. Louis. I am well aware of what’s happening at one school because my wife, Juanita T. Doggett, is the principal of Sherman Accelerated Community Education Center. She, along with other managers in the school system, is totally involved in student achievement. At Sherman, she worked with two dedicated members of the community, Joe and Ann Hagen, to launch the “Reading Buddies” program. The Hagens highlight the school’s spirit. As Catholics, they understood the enthusiasm found in parochial and magnet schools. However, they were surprised with the activities, energy and enthusiasm of the students in Sherman school.

They talked with Mrs. Doggett and came up with the Reading Buddies concept. Time spent in the classrooms revealed that reading assistance from volunteers living in the Shaw neighborhood would be appreciated by the students. Many residents had attended Sherman School years ago and now they have discovered opportunities to meet neighbors and make friends with students. Area residents formed a think tank, which developed a “Shaw Community Spirit” initiative dedicated to making the cityschooldistrict one of the top three in the state by 2015.

Superintendent Cleveland Harmmonds Jr. sponsors monthly luncheons with local clergy and civic leaders where inquiring minds find answers. As Marian Wright Edelman wrote in the Oct. 24 Parade magazine: “Don’t Look For Favors — Count On Earning Them. Although so much in America is built on whom you know and not on what you know, don’t rely on whom you know. Those who give can also take away.”

As a retired clergyman and educator, I will assist the Mentor St. Louis staff in making contact with churches located near schools in their area. We need to expand to more schools. Cooperation with and from community organizations, such as the Urban League, the Pan-Hellenic Council, YMCA and YWCA, Matthews Dickey Boys & Girls Club, Big Brother & Sister Clubs, etc., is expected.

May our Mentor St. Louis team help you?

TWO MEN CHAIN THEMSELVES TO STATION TO PROTEST KILLING – 14 Apr 1999 P-D

Amid chants of “No justice! No peace!” from about a dozen protesters, two men chained themselves to the front door of the St. Louis Police headquarters Tuesday morning.

Police officers quickly cut the chain with a bolt cutter and arrested the two men – Cleo Willis Jr., 46, and Lester Gregory, 43 – as other protesters continued to march and chant in front of headquarters, at Tucker Boulevard and Clark Avenue downtown. No one else was arrested, and the protest remained peaceable through much of the day.

Willis and the others said they were protesting police brutality in general and a recent fatal shooting by a St. Louis police officer in particular.

On April 2, Jerome Ruffin, 22, was fatally shot as he wrestled with a police officer for the officer’s gun in a gangway in the 4000 block of Flad Avenue. The gun discharged during the struggle, police said, and the bullet went through Ruffin’s wrist and entered his abdomen.

Police said Ruffin had run away when two officers stopped to question a group of young men drinking near the intersection of Shenandoah and Thurman avenues, a troublesome corner for police in the Shaw neighborhood. The officers chased Ruffin, and one of them caught him in the gangway.

One of the protesters was Ruffin’s mother, Monyuette Oats, 39, who accused police of harassing her son and planting drugs on him in the past. In addition to shooting him, police had “brutalized” him, she added.

“There were objects drilled in his head,” she said. “At the funeral, we had to put a cap on his head. His head was as big as a cocktail table.”

Baxter Leisure, administrative assistant for the St. Louis medical examiner’s office, said he did not know what Oats might have meant.

FRIENDS, RELATIVES HOLD VIGIL FOR MAN FATALLY SHOT IN STRUGGLE WITH OFFICER – 4 Apr 1999 P-D

Huddling under umbrellas, family members and friends gathered Saturday night to remember a 22-year-old man fatally shot during a struggle with a St. Louis police officer – and to demand a full-scale investigation into the incident.

George Clower, a cousin of the dead man, Jerome Ruffin, spoke to a group of about 20 people as they shielded candles from the wind and rain. The group, some of them sobbing, stood on a sidewalk in the 4000 block of Flad Avenue, where Jerome Ruffin collapsed Friday after the shooting.

“He didn’t have a gun and he’s dead,” Clower said. “It’s not right.”

Police said Ruffin ran when two officers stopped to question a group of men drinking at Shenandoah and Thurman avenues in the Shaw neighborhood. Later, during a struggle, the officer’s gun discharged, police said.

Ruffin’s relatives raised questions about the police account and said they believed that he might have been shot more than once.

“It just don’t sound right,” said Estella Smith, a family friend. “None of it fits.”

Police Chief Ron Henderson reiterated Saturday night that Ruffin died from a single bullet that entered the left wrist, then hit the abdomen. That was confirmed by a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office.

Henderson did say that Ruffin suffered cuts and scrapes to the forehead. The police officer suffered bruises, the chief said.

Hospital officials declined to give details about Ruffin’s wounds, referring questions to police. Some of Ruffin’s relatives said they were told by a doctor that Ruffin might have been shot in the head. Henderson said police were not told that.

Henderson asked any witnesses to step forward. He said after homicide detectives finish their work, the case will go to the department’s internal affairs section, and then to the chief.

“We can assure the family and the community that there will be a thorough and complete investigation,” he said.

The police officer, who has not been identified, has been placed on administrative leave, which is routine following a shooting.

One witness, Mark Leachman, said he was sitting on his front porch in the block on Flad when he heard a gunshot. He saw Ruffin run out from a breezeway and fall into the street, followed by the officer about 15 to 20 seconds later. “If someone was struggling, they’d come out together,” Leachman said.

Leachman said he was the first person to approach Ruffin before police secured the scene. He saw blood on Ruffin’s shirt, around the abdomen, but not on his head. Ruffin was talking and coherent, he said.

Ruffin was a father of four and was unemployed. Family and friends said he had been previously arrested on drug charges.

As the rain continued to pour and thunder pounded in the distance Saturday night, Clower and the others said they planned to hold another vigil tonight at 7 o’clock.

“We want to be heard,” said Keith Smith, a cousin to Ruffin.

MAN, 22, WOUNDED IN STRUGGLE WITH POLICE OFFICER LATER DIES – 3 Apr 1999 P-D

A man who had been running from a St. Louis police officer was fatally wounded Friday when the officer’s pistol discharged in a struggle in a gangway, Police Chief Ron Henderson said.

Relatives identified the man as Jerome Ruffin, 22. He was shot once in the abdomen and taken to St. Louis University Hospital where he died around 11 p.m. Friday.

Ruffin’s address was unavailable.

The shooting took place about 5 p.m. in the 4000 block of Flad Avenue, in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.

Henderson said two officers stopped to question a group of young men who were drinking at Shenandoah and Thurman avenues.

The chief said the man ran, and one of the officers chased him.

The chase went two short blocks north and east down an alley and into a yard on the south side of Flad, the chief said. The struggle took place in a narrow breezeway between two two-family flats.

“The officer said the individual went for (the officer’s) gun, and in the struggle it discharged,” Henderson said.

Henderson said he did not know whether the officer was holding his pistol or whether it was still in the holster.

Henderson would not identify the officer, who was taken to the same hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

The man who was shot stumbled out of the breezeway and onto the sidewalk, where he collapsed.

Henderson said the officers approached the men who were drinking because police have received many complaints in the neighborhood about rowdiness by people drinking in public.

But two of Ruffin’s relatives accused police of harassing him and two of his friends. Iretha Pampkin, Ruffin’s grandmother, and Sandra Pampkin, his aunt, stood in the street near Henderson while the chief spoke to reporters.

When the chief was done, they had their say.

“I talked to a couple of the kids, and they said they were just drinking some beer when an officer came to arrest them,” Sandra Pampkin said.

“Jerome should not have run. But he didn’t have any weapon. He had a beer bottle, but he dropped it when he was shot, and that’s not a weapon.”

Iretha Pampkin accused police of singling out black youths for harassment. “The white kids used to sit out doing the same thing all the time, and police didn’t bother anybody until we moved in,” she said.

Sandra Pampkin said of Ruffin, “He’s no angel. He has a record, but it’s just for petty drug stuff. Somebody needs to do something about these policemen.”

DESPITE VANDALISM, THEFT, THE BAND PLAYS ON – PRETTY LITTLE THINGS, RAGING RED DEVILS CELEBRATE LIFE NOT LOSS – 3 GROUPS OFFER TO REPLACE UNIFORMS – 27 Jul 1998 P-D

The children in the Pretty Little Things and Raging Red Devils band seemed especially spirited as they high-stepped, pa-rum-pa-pa-pummed and flashed their smiles Sunday – and they had good reason.

At least three Good Samaritans have stepped forward with offers to buy the youngsters new uniforms and instruments.

Last weekend, the band’s new uniforms were stolen and their instruments damaged by vandals, while the group was on an outing at Six Flags St. Louis. The vandals also walked off with some the band’s expensive drums.

This weekend, the Hellenic Spirit Foundation, McBride & Son builders and Mercantile Bank all stepped forward with offers to replace the items.

Nicholas Karakas, with the Hellenic Spirit Foundation, said the band’s purpose was a good one. “Anything to help kids get self-esteem and pride in what they’re doing is helpful,” he said.

It was too soon to get the replacement equipment by Sunday, so the band played on – in makeshift style – at one of the North Side’s favorite parades.

With instruments patched up with tape and with saggy pompons, the Pretty Little Things and Raging Red Devils marched in the Better Family Life Parade, celebrating Black Family Week.

“Nothing can keep us down,” said Juanita Nelson, who heads up PLT.

All in all, 42 units took part in the parade from Union and Page boulevards to Steinberg Rink in Forest Park.

Music reverberated off buildings, and families marched side-by-side. Families sat on front porches to watch the show.

The 50 children in the Pretty Little things and Raging Red Devils band, based in the Shaw neighborhood, had wanted to perform so much Sunday that their families found a way.

The girls wore regular, black play shorts and white shirts instead of their fancy little skirts with tops with the snazzy pink, white and black logo which were stolen. The boys had to go without their Red Devil T-shirts, but wore red T’s instead. They used old drums and patched up what had been vandalized.

“`We’re just doing the best we can,” said Lonnie Pettis, who heads the Raging Red Devils and played a xylophone with some missing pieces.

The Red Devils proudly wore their red-and-white feathered marching hats, which were not stolen.

Charrice Woodson marched in the parade with her two daughters, Rachel, 15, and Adrienne, 11, who perform with PLT.

“We managed to put some uniforms together for the kids,” said Woodson. “We’re going to make it.”

Before they marched Sunday, members of the group huddled together in prayer.

Nelson said she felt blessed Sunday with the offers of help. “It seems like a dream.”

Her daughter, Brandi Cockrell, 15, a drum major in the Pretty Little Things, was thrilled that people wanted to help the band. “It is great, really great. I love them, really.”

The thefts were a blow to the band members and their families, who had raised money to buy the uniforms.

Six Flags says that the company is not responsible for thefts in its parking lot and won’t replace any items.

According to Eureka Police, the theft and vandalism occurred at Six Flags on July 18. The losses exceeded $3,000, not counting the uniforms. The children had performed at Six Flags and had put everything away on the bus before heading back to enjoy the park.

BAND’S INSTRUMENTS ARE VANDALIZED AND UNIFORMS ARE STOLEN AT SIX FLAGS – 25 Jul 1998 P-D

The group, which is based in the Shaw neighborhood, was scheduled to march in an anti-drug rally today.

The Pretty Little Things Marching and Performing Band won’t be high-stepping and shaking pompons today. Their uniforms were stolen and their musical instruments vandalized during a recent outing at Six Flags St. Louis in Eureka.

The 50 children in the Shaw neighborhood band were scheduled to march in an anti-drug rally today on the city’s Near South Side. Now, the children, their parents and band sponsors are wondering how they’ll get enough money to buy new uniforms and instruments.

What began as a day of fun for band members July 18 ended up anything but. Besides taking the uniforms, vandals smashed drums and ruined pompons.

Ahjanea Walker, 6, was so upset she cried. She and her cousin, Kiara Mason, 9, had brand-new uniforms.

“It kind of hurt their little feelings,” said Pam Walker, who is Ahjanea’s grandmother and Kiara’s great-aunt.

Ahjanea’s mother, Neatria Walker, said, “We didn’t know what to think, and the smallest ones were very upset.”

The losses exceeded $3,000. Six Flags says that the company is not responsible for thefts in the parking lot and that the company’s policy is clearly posted.

Girls in the Pretty Little Things perform dances and pompon routines, while the boys march with drums in the Raging Red Devils band.

The band members, who range in age from 3 to 22, raise money with the help of their families and friends. Walker, sold snow cones and barbecue to pay for her family’s uniforms. Some of the children had raised money on street corners. Most families don’t have much money.

“The kids are really getting discouraged,” said Juanita Nelson, who heads up the Pretty Little Things. “We teach them you don’t take other people’s things. The law is justice. We teach them family values as well as self-respect, dignity and discipline.”

The band and chaperones – more than 70 people in all – also paid $951 admission to Six Flags for the day. Six Flags discounted the tickets at half-price and gave the group four free tickets.

Parents and grandparents say that the band is a wonderful idea and that they want it to continue.

“We’re trying to keep the kids out of trouble,” Walker said. “We work with the kids and walk with them when they perform.”

For many years, the group operated in north St. Louis. For the last eight years, it has been centered in the Shaw neighborhood.

The girls’ uniforms were white tennis skirts and white polo shirts with pink, white and black emblems. The boys wore white slacks and white T-shirts with a red devil emblem. The boys also wore red-and-white feathered marching hats.

The theft and vandalism were discovered about 6 p.m. The children had performed at the park and had put everything away on the bus before heading back to enjoy the park.

The vandals “took 55 pair of shoes – there were six shoes left that were all mismatched,” Walker said. “They took uniforms and tore up drums and drumsticks. They even stole medicine.”

They poured soda over the pompons and ruined them, Nelson said.

The big bass drums were too heavy to cart away, so the vandals wrecked them, Nelson said. They stole three purses, she said.

Eureka police have recovered the group’s first aid kit, which was found in the bushes at Six Flags. But nothing else has been found.

“Hopefully, with publicity, someone will be able to provide information that will lead to the recovery” of stolen items, said Lt. David Wilson.

Police have no firm suspects but have ruled out anyone in the group.

Six Flags spokeswoman Tammy Stankey said she hoped the perpetrators could be found. “It’s such a shame,” she said.

“My understanding is that they have performed at our park before and they were aware of our policy that equipment is the responsibility of each group and cannot be stored in the park itself,” she said.

“We post our guidelines about our policy with signage and on the back of the ticket stub for the bus driver. We have never had a problem with performing groups’ instruments or uniforms being vandalized or stolen. We were very shocked and surprised.”

Stankey said the items apparently were left on the bus unattended and that the vandals apparently went in the emergency door.

“We do patrol our parking lot with security, but unfortunately . . . sometimes unfortunate events occur.”

NEIGHBORS FORM CHOIR – 27 Nov 1997 P-D

The diverse Shaw neighborhood has formed the diverse All Shaw Community Choir. It is composed of 100 children and 50 adults who live, work or attend religious services in the neighborhood. The children come from Sherman Elementary School, St. Margaret of Scotland School and the Missouri School for the Blind. Formed to help build the community, the choir got a Danforth Foundation grant and has been rehearsing for more than a month. Its debut performance will be at 7 p.m. Monday at St. Margaretof Scotland Church, 3854 Flad Avenue.

CLEANING UP – TEAM SWEEP’S YOUNG VOLUNTEERS PICK, PULL AND PLANT TO HELP IMPROVE NEIGHBORHOODS – 30 Sep 1997 P-D

Youngsters in St. Louis are getting the chance to improve the appearance of the neighborhoods they live in.

Team Sweep is an up-and-coming program that encourages youngsters to clean up their own communities. Nearly every weekend this fall youngsters can be seen picking up trash, pulling up weeds, planting flowers and shoveling debris in neighborhoods from Shaw to Lewis Place.

The youngsters – all volunteers – range in age from 8 to 14. The program’s accomplishments are easy to see.

“There used to be bags of trash ripped open by dogs. There were used diapers, half-eaten fruit, and junk everywhere,” says Susan Turk, an adult volunteer team leader in the Shaw neighborhood, where she also lives. Thanks to Team Sweep’s efforts, Flad and Cleveland streets look serene.

Team Sweep is growing. It has expanded from a pilot program in Forest Park Southeast two years ago to a citywide program with eight sites. A local law enforcement block grant and private donations pay for the program.

The groups meet most Saturday mornings, and are usually made up of two or three adults and six to 12 children.

Matthew Baskett is a third-grader at Mason Elementary School. For weeks he and his brothers have shown up on Saturdays to help the Shaw group. Much of the cleanup takes place in the alley behind their house. What motivates Matthew to skip Saturday cartoons?

“I like the people,” he said. “And we get to go to neat places.”

On Sept. 6, 200 youngsters, along with 60 adult volunteer coordinators, took a free trip to Six Flags, with a steak dinner.

“I believe in motivational perks,” said Velma Bell, the program director. The kids will also get the chance to attend a recognition ceremony soon with food, magicians, storytellers and possibly the mayor.

Tiffany Lovings, an eighth-grader, said she’s met a lot of new people and the neighborhood is cleaner since they started the program.

Last week members of the Shaw group finished their work in about an hour, then stayed around to drink sodas and hang out. Turk says this isn’t unusual. She says the program has more than fulfilled initial expectations.

“Our goals were to clean up the neighborhood and give the kids something to do on the weekends. What we didn’t know was that the block would become such a tight community, like a village. Now, the moms are talking and the kids are playing together.”