Bob Rachlin of Downs Rachlin Martin is a former board member of ours, and the other day I found out that at an upcoming Continuing Legal Education session for the Chittenden County Bar Association, he agreed to do it for free as long as people considering making a donation to Spectrum. Thanks so much Bob, and it reminds me of what Tony Lamb, another former board member who is a lawyer, does for us every year when he delivers an Ethics seminar for the Bar Association. Great to have friends like this helping us, that is for sure.

A big thank you to the folks at Healthy Living Market in South Burlington. Starting today, Healthy Living staff members are volunteering to prepare/serve lunch and dinner multiple times a week at our Drop-in Center for the months of March and April. This is a tremendous help and eases the cost of our food budget for the Drop-In Center (we serve more than 5,300 meals annually to 500 kids). We are excited to have Healthy Living staff members volunteering and interacting with our youth.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Fr. Charlie Ranges, the pastor of the church my wife and I attend in Essex Junction, and how he donated the money that was in his wallet when it was lost. (He found it in the dumpster and gave us $144.)

Today he mailed us a $50 check with this note:

“Once again St. Anthony came through. Sr. Yvonne couldn’t find her keys and Sr. Marion showed up with them. Thank you St. Anthony, who told me to send $50 to Spectrum for a favor received.”

Thanks Fr. Charlie!

This is a follow up to my last entry, describing the interactions between legislators and a dozen or so youth last Wednesday night.

We started off the hour going around the room with introductions. One one young man introduced himself by saying, “My name is Ed and I am the first one in my family to graduate from high school.” (I know the family and it is true.)

A young woman who was present talked about her addiction to drugs, and going to rehab, and said, “If I had left there, and returned to my home town, Rutland, I guarantee you I would have gone right back to drugs, hanging around the same old friends and the same surroundings. But I came here instead, to Spectrum, and now I am living in the SRO (our transitional living residence in Burlington), and I see a Spectrum drug counselor, and I am clean and drug-free. You get the support you need here. You are living with other young people who are like you, struggling to do the right thing, to stay away from drugs, to live a positive life.”

There were several sentiments like that, young people talking about the support they get at Spectrum and how our organization is helping them.

It made me feel very proud to be part of Spectrum, that we are really doing something worthwhile to help young people who have very significant needs.

At the end of the hour, one legislator said, “I am going now to a dialogue night in South Burlington, to talk with parents and students there, and the youth there have problems with drugs and alcohol abuse, but it still pales in comparison to the situations you young people face. No one in that community is facing sleeping on the streets, especially in the winter. We have to find a way to get your stories out into the broader community.”

Another legislator asked if we can get our kids to Montpelier to speak to the legislature in 2009, same idea, “They need to know what is happening with homeless youth in our state.”

Every year at this time we invite all newly-elected legislators to come to our drop-in center for a 90-minute session with our staff, board members, and most important of all, youth from our various programs. We did it again the other night, and 8 legislators showed up, including one city councilor and 7 state senators or reps. We had about 15 of our kids there, some who live in our shelter, others in our transitional living residence (the SRO), others who access our drop-in center.

It was an enlightening hour, to say the least. Here are snippets of some of the dialogue:

A legislator asked of our youth, “How many of you have ever been homeless and had to sleep outside?”

Almost all hands went up.

“How many of you know kids who are sleeping outside tonight?” (It was about 30 degrees that night.)

Again, almost all hands shot up.

“Where did you sleep outside?”

Answers were: the woods, park benches, a parking garage, doorways.

“How difficult is it to get drugs in this city?”

Answers: “I can walk down Church St now and purchase any drug I want by approaching the right people.” “I can get drugs at Burlington High School very easily.”

Another question: “If you could go back five years, what was your life like and what could you do differently so that you would not end up homeless?”

Answers: “I grew up in a crack house.” “My parents drank a fifth of vodka almost every night and beat each other up, that was my childhood.” “I lived with my father until I told him I was gay, and then he put me out and I was on the streets.”

The other thing that came across very strongly was the expressed desire among so many youths to have had limits put on their behavior. “I wish my parents had known I was using drugs and tried to do something to stop me.” “I was snorting lines of cocaine in school, I wish someone there had at least told me to stop.” It was very interesting, I have been talking with my peers in this field about this for years, but it confirmed my belief that young people may SAY they don’t want limits on their behavior, but in reality they need limits and want limits, and we as parents and educators don’t do them any favors by not providing limits.

I will probably write about this night further in another blog entry, there is still more to say about what legislators learned and I learned.

“Do you like ice cream and charity?” This is the question that a couple of Spectrum youth were asking mall-goers last night. Ben & Jerry’s at the University Mall in South Burlington partnered with Spectrum to help raise money for our 3rd trip to help rebuild New Orleans. Mall-goers donated a dollar to Spectrum and they got a FREE ice cream coupon from Ben & Jerry’s. We raised $388 dollars that will be matched by Ben & Jerry’s.

We will be back at the Mall and B and J’s in a few weeks. The determination of our kids and staff to raise the money to get back to N.O. is incredible.

WCAX news came to Spectrum’s thanksgiving dinner, which was held at Nectars in Burlington, VT

Read The Story.

Thanks to all the staff who helped pulled this together -Mark

Last night my neighbor and IBM volunteer Tim Redmond came over to our group home to BBQ chicken and corn for the 5 boys who live there. Tim and other IBM volunteers built a granite BBQ there a few months ago, and last night he christened it with this delicious meal. You can see the pictures, including the Ben and Jerry’s cake with our thanks to Tim on it. A very nice night, the boys were grateful to him, and I was very impressed with our staff there, and the way they interacted with the boys. It is a tough thing for kids who are only 17 or 18 to be living in a group home instead of in their own family, and there are many reasons things work out this way, but I do think we do it as well as it can be done at this Murray St house. I left there last night feeling good about what we provide there for them, and feeling good about Tim and other volunteers who help us out consistently.

Have a great Labor Day Weekend!