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GIRAFFE OF THE MONTH
In 1979 Gloria Simoneaux was, as she puts it, "just one person, carrying my paints and paper into hospitals." Today she's the founder and director of Drawbridge, an arts program that's feeding the spirits of over a thousand homeless children.
It all started when a child she knew was hospitalized with a terminal illness. When she visited him she saw that there were no art supplies for the kids in the ward. An accomplished artist, she came back with supplies and the gifts of time and love. She worked with dying children in this ward, then another, extending soon to three hospitals. She made art with them and she listened, despite the emotional toll of seeing so many treasured young friends die, despite the drain on her time and finances. Seven years after she started listening to these voices, she heard others-those of homeless children.
By then a single mother of two, Simoneaux didn't know how she'd find the time or the money, but she knew she had to go into the shelters. With her she brought the tools she knew the children could use for expressing their fear, pain, loneliness and rage. She also brought her well-honed capacity for listening. For many of the homeless children, she was their first art teacher, and the first adult they'd met who heard everything they had to say.
From the start, Simoneaux was surrounded by people who told her the problem was too big to take on, that she'd never find funding, that she'd burn out-but she persevered.
Drawbridge has now added programs in 16 shelters. The kids' art has gone on tour; during the year-end holidays the homeless kids take gifts of their art to children with cancer and aids. A special Drawbridge program goes into schools to help kids understand homelessness. Kids' art is being made into holiday cards that will help support their Drawbridge programs. And Drawbridge supporters can't say enough about Gloria Simoneaux's courage, compassion and "a magical quality that opens children up."
Visit the Giraffe website to learn about The Giraffe Program, a K-12 curriculum that teaches kids about real heroes and gets them going on lives of courage, caring and responsibility, and the Giraffe Partners Trunk--everything a business or club needs to help a classroom full of kids to stand tall.
Copyright © 1999 The Giraffe Project, all rights reserved.Posted with permission by New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
E-mail: info@newhorizons.org