So, Sob Story...

Hmm. Well, let me start at the very beginning (a very good place to start).

I'm involved in the Jessie's Gift program here at Albion, which is a combination full-year sociology seminar/youth mentoring program. Although similar mentoring programs have been around for awhile, they recently renamed this one for Jessie Longhurst, a student at Albion who was killed in a car accident a year or two ago. Jessie actually grew up in Albion and was very active in the community, especially in working with children.

Basically, this class focuses on building one-on-one relationships with kids from the community who have been identified as potentially "benefiting from a positive adult mentoring relationship" (we're not supposed to use the term "at-risk", apparently it's politically incorrect now). That's all kiss-kiss-hug-hug-save-the-world, but it's also a really intense, 400-level yearlong class in which we design and carry out our own research studies on the sociology of the Albion community, particularly concentrating on childhood issues. I'm doing mine on the social structure of the fifth grade, concentrating on issues of "popularity" - development and nature of friendships, and how these factors affect children's identities. In case you were wondering.

So, what does it mean to be a kid in Albion, Michigan? It's pretty crazy. Albion may be a small town, but it's got some big issues. It used to be a thriving community - that is, back in the day when the automotive factories were around and you could live a comfortable, upper middle-class lifestyle with just a high school education. Not so much anymore. Jackson started growing, which sucked a lot of jobs out of Albion, and the automotive industry died down. The town began to struggle financially. I bet you all can guess where this is going...

Poverty is rampant. Albion now has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the county, and something like the third-highest in the state. Since it's right off I-94 and exactly halfway between Chicago to Detroit, it's become a major depot for drug trafficking. Naturally, these problems have trickled down to the public school systems, and people who care about their kids getting a quality education (i.e; college faculty who constitute like half the town's population) have ripped their kids out of the Albion schools and are sending them to Marshall, Concord or Battle Creek. That = less tax money for the public schools which = a crappier school system which = the production of more troubled kids who will stay in Albion and become troubled adults. Oh yeah, did I mention that the town is about 50/50 black/white and severely racially segregated?

Plop an outrageously expensive liberal-arts college that serves of some of the whitest, richest young people in the country right in the middle of this maelstrom and you're made in the shade. Albionites, understandably, are fed up.

Cycle. Struggle. Arrrrrgh.

OK, I'll cut to the chase. Like countless other fifth-grade classes, the fifth grade at Washington Gardner Elementary usually goes to camp for a week every year (I believe it is called Battle Creek Outdoor Education Center or something). OK, so we're all camp people and we all know how amazing camp is and how much they'll learn and how they'll come back great people ready to face the world, yada yada.

But for the kids at Albion, camp is bigger than just a week of playing around. For some of these kids, it'll be an escape. An escape from their dad who sexually abuses them or their mom who sells crack on Broadwell or or their 19 brothers and sisters or the needles on the ground everywhere or their freezing cold house without running water. For some of these kids, the only time they will sleep in a bed without four other people will be at camp in their own bunk. It may be one of the only times when they can walk outside and enjoy nature without being jumped or shot. It may be one of the only times they will just get to be kids. Today I talked to one of the fifth-grade teachers about this, and he said all the amazing activities the kids will do will just be icing on the cake. Simply giving them an opportunity to be safe for a week is a blessing in itself.

And they just can't afford it. $197.50 per kid. That's enough to clear out most of these families' bank accounts. Every year, the fifth grade teachers pour hundreds and hundreds of dollars of their own money into sending these kids to camp. They beg with organizations far and wide, and it's still an enormous struggle. Every year.

I need to do something about it. Ali and I are thinking can drive. Beer for Camp, or Cans for Camp. I'll put up fliers and go to all the frats and sororities. I don't know how much money I'll be able to raise, but I have to try. The teachers have already gotten $500 from United Way, another $500 from a church and the handful of kids' money who can actually afford it.

These kids need to go to camp.

Any other ideas?!