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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at
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Each week, our photographers bring you scenes from your community. Today, take a look through Jahi Chikwendiu’s lens at a scene from the Children of Mine center in Southeast Washington.
JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
Lacking a role model, he became one
F
our school buses are sitting outside a senior center in Northeast Washington, where, amid the controlled chaos of a summer camp sendoff, a lot of sizing up is going on. Parents are sizing up counselors. Kids are sizing up kids. No one is doing more sizing up than Darrell Smith Sr., head counselor for Deerhorn, the group of cabins for 12-to-14-year-old boys at Camp Moss Hollow. “Some of the kids are nervous,” he tells me.
“They don’t know what to expect. It’s a normal first day. Everyone’s trying to feel each other out.”
Darrell checks each boy’s name against a list on his clipboard and then shakes each boy’s hand. “You got a grip,” he says to one camper, impressed. “What’s up, T?” he says to another, a boy who’s returning for a second week. “You ready to rock? You ready to go?” Darrell points two fingers at the boy’s eyes, then his own. “Me and him, we’re right here.” Psychic connection, eye of the tiger. A boy lumbers up with a rolling suitcase.
“Take it to the back of the bus,” Darrell says. “Do me a favor: I want everybody in line.” About a dozen boys fall into a ragged queue next to the bus.
JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST T
requan Jenkins, Romeo Brown and Nikaja Pace play at the Chil- dren of Mine center in Washington, a community center found- ed in April and run by Hannah Hawkins. Some have called her an institution, but she shuns the title. She refers to herself as a soldier, a stern disciplinarian whose sharp words are usually
laced with religion. The center is the outgrowth of an after-school program that Hawkins and a small cadre of volunteers had run for several years out of a two- bedroom apartment in the once-blighted Anacostia housing projects of Sheridan Terrace. The center is now at Mount View Place SE, with a bas- ketball court, playground and garden. On this day, children skip rope across the asphalt front yard, a multi- hued map of the United States covering most of the surface. “I do what I do because I saw the neglect many years ago when they classified the nation’s capital the city under siege,” Hawkins says. “And they were talking about
our young men and women committing crimes, hanging in the street, not going to school. I knew these casualties were occurring through neglect.” Her mission has been to fill the void of lost potential. “Every day, we feed them nutritional meals. . . . We provide tutoring, counseling [for children and parents], Bible study, arts and crafts, field trips. I visit the schools to check on them, fuss at them. We send them to camp in the summertime. We help with their graduations from high school, having to sometimes buy caps and gowns. It’s constant follow-up.” Through private donors and what Hawkins calls the “grace of God,” she has helped thousands of children. “We’re all volunteers here, including me. Like I always tell people, the price of real love is no charge.”
To see a gallery of Jahi’s pictures from the Children of Mine center in Southeast Washington, log on to postlocalcom.
Darrell grew up in the projects of Elizabeth, N.J., where he attended a summer camp a lot like Moss Hollow.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Darrell Smith Sr. is a counselor at Camp Moss Hollow.
JOHN KELLY/
“I can remember being one of these campers,” he says. The experience was a blessing, a chance to get out of the city and into the country. But as fun as the camp was, there weren’t any counselors who looked like him. They were all white; the
They fixed it!
Post readers are alerting the powers that be to things they want fixed in their communities by using our online Daily Gripe feature.
Light is restored to spooky tunnel
Entering the Foundry Branch Tunnel under the C&O Canal in Georgetown a few weeks ago had the feel of a caving expedition, even in the middle of the day. The problem: All of the lights in the passage between the trail and the Foxhall neighborhood had been out since the spring. “If it’s cloudy and there’s more than one person in there, the perspective gets thrown off, and you can’t tell if they’re coming or going,” said Mimi Castaldi, one of more than a dozen people who flagged the problem. Bill Justice, a spokesman for the C&O Canal
National Historic Park, said the park brought in a contractor to look at the issue. After repairing a control panel, the contractor restored light to the tunnel.
Read more Daily Gripes, learn about fixes that have been made and suggest more problems to address at
washingtonpost.com/dailygripe.
✔ Hot topic: D.C. without AC?
Writing for The Post’s Outlook section, agricultural researcher and author Stan Cox envisioned a return to pre-air-conditioned Washington in an effort to reduce energy use. In the workplace, this would mean lighter business attire, more fans, open windows and shorter summer hours. In neighborhoods, residents would crack windows to get a breeze, paint roofs white to reflect the sun and spend more time outside getting to know one another.
Readers left nearly 600 comments discussing the idea. Amen! vs. are you kidding?
jamesgrosser: This article should have been published in the fantasy section of the newspaper. . . . We won’t get very far in addressing legitimate environmental concerns by haranguing people to live a pre-WWII lifestyle.
PeterDM: The author makes some good points about air conditioning, but I would like to suggest a more practical middle ground: Keep using air conditioning, but use less of it. The thermostat does not need to be set at 65, or even 70.
salkelly: Amen! I read this on my shady, screened porch, a feature almost every Washington home used to have. Under a ceiling fan, I enjoyed not only gentle breezes and hot coffee, but also the sounds: cicadas, birds, the summer hum of a lawnmower. . . . AC brings cool at the
cost of sensory deprivation.
alf_erikson: Thank God for air conditioning. Prior generations suffered horribly from the heat. My grandfather used to have to sleep on the roof in the middle of the city, despite the noise and being dive-bombed by birds.
somethingsomething1: Please save the world from your horribly thought out and poorly researched ideas. Since the mid-1970s homes have not been built to take advantage of natural wind conditions, and thus we CANNOT go backward. Why would we?
Get the latest forecast and weather news from our gang of meteorologists at
washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang.
campers, mostly black. Why, he wondered? Retired last year from the Treasury Department, Darrell, who lives in Bowie, was recruited to work with the older boys at Moss Hollow. He’s a role model for kids who might not have too many. Last week, he had the Deerhorn campers reciting Langston Hughes. In those few minutes at the door of the bus — and then on the 90-minute ride to the Fauquier County camp — Darrell tries to read the boys — their attitudes, their body language. He has cabin assignments to make, and he’s looking to see who would make a good match. Who should he twin as cabinmates? Who might need some special attention from a counselor? Who’s likely to get homesick halfway through the week? Darrell asks one boy to lift up his shirt, checking to make sure there’s a belt on his jeans. Everything appears to be in order. “We don’t do sagging pants,” Darrell says to
me.
A woman in a floral print dress is hovering near a round-faced boy of 12 or so. “Eric, say goodbye to your mother,” Darrell commands. Eric makes a fist and taps it down on his
mother’s fist, then holds his fist still as she taps down on it. A secret family handshake, or just the way a boy on the cusp of teenagerdom shows affection when he’s surrounded by peers? “No, give your momma a hug,” Darrell says. And the boy does — gladly. Hey, it was an order from the man in the cool sunglasses holding a clipboard. “I’m 41 years old,” Darrell tells me. “I still hug my mother each time I leave.”
Another camper comes up and hands a piece of paper to Darrell. “Larry,” Darrell says, reading the paper then shaking the boy’s hand, “welcome to the Hollow.”
The heat is on Last week was the first time this summer that
You voted Where’s the beef?
The Washington area is fertile ground for ground chuck, as “better burger” chains have become the fastest-growing segment of the restaurant industry. Five Guys, the first local success story, is based in Lorton, Elevation Burger in Arlington County and
BGR-The Burger Joint in Lansdowne. Although Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington isn’t a chain, it has developed a national profile after two lunch visits by President Obama. So which local burger maker is best? We polled
washingtonpost.com readers. Here are results as of
6 p.m. Monday. Five Guys:35% Ray’s Hell Burger:20% Good Stuff Eatery:8% BGR-The Burger Joint:5% Elevation Burger:4%
President
Obama orders at a Five Guys in Washington, left, and Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington.
JIM YOUNG/REUTERS KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS
Want more tips on dining, including lists of the Washington area’s best desserts, ice cream and more? Get guidance from the Going Out Gurus at
washingtonpost.com/gog.
THE DAILY QUIZ
People who constantly wear “toning sandals” are at risk for which conditions?
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POINTS & REWARDS Jim Koons Auto
Magruder’s Signature Theatre Today on
POSTLOCAL.com
Vote now There are only two days left in America’s Next Great Cartoonist Contest. Vote for your favorite finalist — most of them are locals — at views.washingtonpost. com/cartoonist.
the heat really descended on Moss Hollow. “We called it Southern heat,” said Hope Asterilla, the camp’s director. That’s the kind of breezeless heat that just sits on you like a sheet of lead. The solution? More time in the pool. Could the temperatures be responsible for the increased black snake activity campers have noticed this summer? Then there are the wild turkeys, two sets of which were spotted strutting through the camp, one with eight chicks, the other with 12. Sending a kid to Moss Hollow? The cost is $700 a week. Seeing a turkey family? Priceless. You can make a tax-deductible gift by mailing a check or money order payable to “Send a Kid to Camp” to P.O. Box 96237, Washington, D.C. 20090-6237. Or contribute online by going to
www.washingtonpost.com/camp and clicking on the donation link. To use MasterCard or Visa by phone, call 202-334-5100 and follow the instructions on our taped message.
kellyj@washpost.com
Read more of Kelly’s columns at
washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
A complete list of PostPoints Spots can be found at
washingtonpost.com/postpoints.
Whether you want a new or pre-owned car or a quality repair job, Jim Koons has it. See
koons.com.
Don’t cook in this weather—just stop by Magruder’s for a delicious entrée. See
magruders.com.
Check out the award-winning shows at this Arlington venue. See
sig-online.com.
washingtonpost.com/postpoints
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TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2010
OTTO STEININGER
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