Last year when I was on my Gap year, one of my colleges coined the phrase "stuck in the Gap" to describe people who continue to serve after their gap years end. At the time, I thought people who stayed stuck in the gap were a bit, well, crazy. Little did I know that less than a year later I would not only be working for UCO, but I would be serving with AmeriCorps.
The history of CLoH is really interesting. The building that houses the library also houses an athletic center (with one of the regions first heated pools) and a music hall. It was built in 1898 for $300,000. Which in today's money equals $7-$8 million. Andrew Carnegie, Pittsburgh's steel tycoon, provided the library with it's endowment. Carnegie's legacy has a contentious relationship with the city of Homestead because of the Homestead Steel Strike of 1892 and the closing of Homestead Works in 1986.
Two months ago, I began my term of service with the Keys Service Corps, a division of AmeriCorps. Keys members serve at various underprivileged sites throughout the country and provide mentoring and tutoring to youth at their sites. Here in Pittsburgh, members serve in Downtown, the Hill District, Braddock, Pitcairn, McKees Rocks, East Liberty, the North Side, McKeesport, the South Side, and Homestead. I'm serving at the Carnegie Library of Homestead (CloH) with their after-school program.
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| CLoH. Pretty Cool, Right? |
So you might be wondering why AmeriCorps sent a member to such a beautiful building to serve? Glad you asked. The city of Homestead suffered tremendously with the closing of the Homestead Steel Works in 1986. See up until the late 1980s, steel wasn't just the main industry in Homestead, it was the only industry in Homestead. All of the stores along 8th avenue, all of the 42 churches, and all of the beer gardens revolved around the mill. Boys lacked motivation to apply themselves to their studies because they had a guaranteed good job waiting for them on their 18th birthday. Girls lacked motivation too because they thought they would grow up to marry a steelworker, and keep house just like their mothers did. When the mill closed it's doors, the entire town fell apart.
25 years after the mill shut down, the community is still struggling to re-build itself. That's where CLoH comes in. CLoH helps to address two of Homestead's major challenges: childhood illiteracy and childcare. In Homestead there is no safe, free place for children to hang out in after school other than the library. On any given afternoon, we get anywhere from 20-60 kids. My "job" is to serve the kids by helping them find something educational to do while they're at the library. I do that through book discussion groups, game nights, craft nights, and playing board games. Sometimes we do service projects like make books for the library's Steel Valley Christmas Parade Float.
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| Look what my kids made! |
The hardest part about my service is managing behavior, aka disciplining the kids. The library has rules that the kids must follow in order to use the library, and it is my job to enforce them. I really hate making kids leave when they misbehave, but they have to learn that the decisions they make have consequences. The kids will try every trick in the book to get more time on the computer, or time in the library, so I have to be both firm and patient.
You might be wondering who in their right mind agrees to serve part-time with University Christian Outreach and part-time with AmeriCorps? I ask myself that question several times a day. Especially on the days when one of my "big" kids forgets that we were supposed to meet that day, and one of my "little" kids threatens to cut my hair with a pair of safety scissors. But even on those days I love what I do. I love the opportunity to pour myself out everyday in serving others. Every single day I'm forced to my knees completely dependent upon the Lord. Everyday I have the privilege of living out one of my favorite Scripture passages from Luke:
"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them is they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?"
-Luke 9:23-25
