| who am I? |
| - really ...
nobody ... a good friend of ours was caretaker here when the baseball camps were here. I had coached his nephew in soccer for a few years. I also am involved with music and was allowed to do some recording here in the chapel -- what an awesome experience! Well, I fell in love with the place and it's history. It was going to be salvaged and that broke my heart so I went into the chapel and said "Lord, what can I do?" Through divine intervention I came to own the property at least in an earthly sense. I don't believe in destruction for modernization but, rather, that we should use the past as a bridge to unite yesterday with today in order to create tomorrow. The other thing of importance to me is the children I call them tomorrow's garden and though I agree with some that the garden needs tending -- if we don't the weeds will take over and the garden will die! I thought this was God's plan for me! To save this property and work with kids! Oh, but it has been a long road. We had done several programs both with sports and music and things were going ok until we brought in our first nat'l. act. The county -- to put it mildly -- screwed us to the walls. No, I'm not a devout Catholic; I was born Jewish (at least part), baptized Catholic; my 1st husband was S. Baptist and my present husband (18 yrs. so far) is Lutheran ... so if there is one true religion, I probably have my bases covered. Seriously though, what I do have is a deep and unfaltering faith and belief in what I'm trying to do here. As for the order we call the place the Dehon Center after the founding Father of the SCJ. I think his title is venerable ... Father Dehon was the founding Father of the SCJ's which is the order here at the seminary. He was from Holland and he so much believed in helping the helpless and educating the children! We felt that more than appropriate in keeping in sync with what we are trying to accomplish here. This county alone spends 1.9 million sending kids to Ariz. boys ranch and other facilities but my question is what have you changed? You haven't counseled entire families or worked on peer groups, etc. and guess what -- they'll be coming home at some point. When one of the first things out of my kids' friends is wow its so peaceful here -- to me that's the beginning of change because you've touched the heart. Anytime you can get them off the streets and doing something besides getting into trouble you've done the right thing. They asked us why the music and told us if we would just forget about music they wouldn't have a problem with us. My answer is still the same its simple -- not every kid is a jock! Besides the music, we do sports camps, instructionals, banquets, weddings, etc. We don't have the main dorm up and running though. It needs about 1/2 million in renovations and repairs. The irony here is that I came here to save the place and I'm probably the one who is going to have to tear it down!! My husband says I'm a hopeless optimist. I keep trying and praying I figure until the ball swings there's a chance! I won't kid you though it has been more than hard to hang on I don't even have a mower except for a push mower (which, as crazy as it may seem, I have tried to use to mow the place). TJ (my husband) asks why and all I can say is it just wouldn't be right not to try and at the very minimum keep His house from looking too shabby. |
