Children and Code Blue

                                            Children and Code Blue  

By Albert B. Kelly

A couple of weeks back, I took particular notice of the children in our Code Blue warming centers. When you think of Code Blue and warming centers, certain images come to mind and it usually does not involve children. In these instances, there were not too many children, but enough to get your attention, so I found myself watching them move about in these circumstances. Of course right about now you’re recoiling at the thought of children in a quasi-shelter setting or a warming center, but that’s exactly where they belonged. Before you react in horror though, it’s not what you think.

I’m not talking about homeless children forced to seek safety and refuge at a shelter or a warming center…for that is a tragedy on every level. But I am talking about children who accompany their parents as they do volunteer work serving in our warming centers. What caught my attention in our own Code Blue warming centers are the children, working side-by-side with their parents, as they served the poor and those in need. The more I think about it, the more it seems like an extremely important thing to do.

For starters, it’s about what children see in their parents. It’s one thing to tell your child about kindness, good character, compassion, treating people with dignity, mercy, and everything else we associate with character and morality. It’s quite another thing to show them what these things look like by what you do. What I see in our Code Blue warming centers are parents modeling sacrifice, kindness, generosity, and compassion and you know that there’s simply no way the lesson is missed by the kids.

In fact, parents probably don’t have to say a word because it’s all right there for their children to see. But there’s more. If you’re fortunate enough to have been raised with a decent standard of living, it’s easy to look down on anyone who is poor. It’s easy to get snotty about them and assume they’re always to blame or they’re somehow inferior. In a word, it’s easy to despise them.

But the mere fact that a parent is willing to dedicate time and effort helping the less fortunate, the message becomes clear; namely that these are people and they are worth the investment simply because they are people. Human nature being what it is, we naturally gravitate toward “judgmental” and those judgments are usually it’s not good. In fact, we have to work at taking people as we find them; without malice and rancor. So letting your child see you expend a little of yourself on behalf of another; it’s a perpetual teaching moment.

But there’s more. Children brighten up a room just by being in it. Watching those children interact with these less fortunate souls in our warming centers; you could see the “hardness” of their lives melt away as they talked with these kids. The children have a natural enthusiasm about them and they invigorate the room and everyone in it. They serve with eagerness and sincerity and it has a positive impact on everyone involved.

Of course there will be a few who would go to great lengths to drum up a list of reasons why they wouldn’t bring their children around such “riff-raff”; after all, these might be scary people with poverty cooties and we can’t have that you know. But I’m not talking about leaving children alone in vulnerable situations, I’m talking about letting children see and understand what’s it’s like to care for a fellow human being in need.

I’m talking about helping children understand that people of all colors and ethnicities struggle and need help and deserve dignity. It’s one of the best ways I know to put to rest the sort of quiet and subtle prejudice and bigotry that lurks just beneath the surface of those who claim otherwise.  

And while I’m on the subject of children and Code Blue, I was delighted to receive donations from Buckshutem School for Code Blue. The crochet class donated to the program and the children provided hats and gloves from their own resources. They did this with excitement and enthusiasm and it reminded of those admonitions regarding cheerful givers. So I was extremely grateful to these young people for their kindnesses and generosity. 

In short, the lessons learned here are ones that can’t be taught in a classroom and they can’t be learned in a book. These children are the future and if bringing them to the warming centers to watch or work with their parents as they serve, to experience the gratitude from those they help, to see that poverty is not a respecter of persons; then it’s worth every minute they spend there. We really don’t get that many opportunities in this life make a deep and lasting impression on our young. Maybe this is one way we can do just that.

Bridgeton Mayor Albert Kelly visits with students from Buckshutem School to thank them for the hand-made quilts, hats, and scarves they donated to the Bridgeton Code Blue program-which provides temporary shelter for the city's homeless on the coldest winter nights