Camp Harbor View story, by April Yee
I liked this story by April Yee. She's a Globe Correspondent you should keep an eye on. She had a great piece on Minot's Light that made page one a couple of weeks back.
By April Yee, Globe Correspondent | July 3, 2007
The children stopped short at the porch's edge, as though they shouldn't step in a place they didn't belong.
"You can go on the grass; don't be afraid," the counselor said, and the city campers ventured gingerly onto the green expanse of a new playing field.
Just off buses from Dorchester, Roxbury, and South Boston, the children could see a climbing wall in the sunlight and a pristine beach penned in by orange buoys. Still quiet after their journey, they ran to the center of the field. This was theirs, they were told.
Camp Harbor View, conceived last year as a way to help stem summer violence in the city and to give urban children a place to have constructive experiences, opened its doors on Boston Harbor's Long Island yesterday. Its first class of 236 campers got off buses at the isolated quarter-mile stretch, where a fresh asphalt road lead to soccer and lacrosse fields, basketball and tennis courts, a rock-climbing wall, and a camp center with a wraparound deck.
"I never thought it was going to be like this," said Andrea Alvarez, 14, of Jamaica Plain, inside a cafeteria of cathedral dimensions. Seated across from her brother and cousin, Alvarez cleaned a plate of chicken and roasted cauliflower.
For the next five weeks, the campers will board buses from the city and arrive each day at the camp in time for breakfast. They will spend their days in activities that range from swimming lessons to talks on harbor ecology and trips to nearby lighthouses.
During the children's time on the island, no cellphones will be allowed. Campers get Harbor View T-shirts, backpacks and sneakers, and three meals a day. There will be prizes awarded for teamwork and leadership.
"You're the pioneers," Jack Connors, a retired advertising executive who spearheaded the drive for a camp on the island, told the children yesterday. "We raised $10 million to build this for you. So as soon as you think someone doesn't care about you, you think of Camp Harbor View."
Just months ago, the site, an old military base, was covered with driftwood, old boat motors, and concrete rubble. Since the spring, barges negotiated the tricky waters near the island to bring in 20,000 cubic yards of gravel, sand, and dirt to fill in lowlands and construct the beach. Workers pitched tents or unrolled sleeping bags after working 14-hour days. Yesterday, the stain on some wood benches was so fresh that it rubbed off.
Many of the campers who showed up yesterday were recruited through the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, which operates the program with the city and a foundation Connors created. Before the summer is out, officials hope that some 600 campers will have experienced Harbor View.
Tatiana Rodriguez, a 17-year-old camp counselor from Dorchester whose father drives a taxi and whose mother is a social worker, said she identifies with the children coming to Harbor View.
"I come from the same place that they do," she said. "I think that they will go back to their community, not be a follower, but be a leader."
She said that during two weeks of counselor training she took a shuttle each day from Blue Hill Avenue and passed over the Long Island Bridge, which gave her a special feeling.
"When I come off that bridge I feel like I'm in a totally different world," Rodriguez said.
April Yee can be reached at ayee@globe.com.
By April Yee, Globe Correspondent | July 3, 2007
The children stopped short at the porch's edge, as though they shouldn't step in a place they didn't belong.
"You can go on the grass; don't be afraid," the counselor said, and the city campers ventured gingerly onto the green expanse of a new playing field.
Just off buses from Dorchester, Roxbury, and South Boston, the children could see a climbing wall in the sunlight and a pristine beach penned in by orange buoys. Still quiet after their journey, they ran to the center of the field. This was theirs, they were told.
Camp Harbor View, conceived last year as a way to help stem summer violence in the city and to give urban children a place to have constructive experiences, opened its doors on Boston Harbor's Long Island yesterday. Its first class of 236 campers got off buses at the isolated quarter-mile stretch, where a fresh asphalt road lead to soccer and lacrosse fields, basketball and tennis courts, a rock-climbing wall, and a camp center with a wraparound deck.
"I never thought it was going to be like this," said Andrea Alvarez, 14, of Jamaica Plain, inside a cafeteria of cathedral dimensions. Seated across from her brother and cousin, Alvarez cleaned a plate of chicken and roasted cauliflower.
For the next five weeks, the campers will board buses from the city and arrive each day at the camp in time for breakfast. They will spend their days in activities that range from swimming lessons to talks on harbor ecology and trips to nearby lighthouses.
During the children's time on the island, no cellphones will be allowed. Campers get Harbor View T-shirts, backpacks and sneakers, and three meals a day. There will be prizes awarded for teamwork and leadership.
"You're the pioneers," Jack Connors, a retired advertising executive who spearheaded the drive for a camp on the island, told the children yesterday. "We raised $10 million to build this for you. So as soon as you think someone doesn't care about you, you think of Camp Harbor View."
Just months ago, the site, an old military base, was covered with driftwood, old boat motors, and concrete rubble. Since the spring, barges negotiated the tricky waters near the island to bring in 20,000 cubic yards of gravel, sand, and dirt to fill in lowlands and construct the beach. Workers pitched tents or unrolled sleeping bags after working 14-hour days. Yesterday, the stain on some wood benches was so fresh that it rubbed off.
Many of the campers who showed up yesterday were recruited through the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, which operates the program with the city and a foundation Connors created. Before the summer is out, officials hope that some 600 campers will have experienced Harbor View.
Tatiana Rodriguez, a 17-year-old camp counselor from Dorchester whose father drives a taxi and whose mother is a social worker, said she identifies with the children coming to Harbor View.
"I come from the same place that they do," she said. "I think that they will go back to their community, not be a follower, but be a leader."
She said that during two weeks of counselor training she took a shuttle each day from Blue Hill Avenue and passed over the Long Island Bridge, which gave her a special feeling.
"When I come off that bridge I feel like I'm in a totally different world," Rodriguez said.
April Yee can be reached at ayee@globe.com.
posted by joe berkeley at 2:59 AM
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