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Stand Up for Kids, San Diego
Day 5: Friday, March 31, 2006
By: Amy Peterson
Drexel University, Junior Chemical Engineering

When writing the story of Friday, I can’t be certain where I should begin, since I didn’t fall asleep until 8am, yet so much happened during what was technically Friday.  We were encouraged to host an overnight for the street kids in lieu of spending 24 hours on the streets, since there were no street kids in San Diego that were interesting in doing this.  The overnight began Thursday evening and was an educational experience for everyone involved. 

The hardest part of the experience for me was when four street kids that I had never seen before showed up at the door around 12:30am.  The rule with overnights is that only kids that were at the Outreach Center between 5:30 and 8 (when the center is usually open) can participate in the overnight.  As trip leader, it was my responsibility to tell four street kids that they couldn’t have a warm, safe place to sleep that night.  This was difficult for me, but rules exist for a reason.  One of the “kids” told me that he was under 22 when he was clearly much, much older.  Another one had just gotten out of prison and asked to speak to Bill.  After I called Bill and that kid talked with Bill, they left.  I still feel like scum.

The last kids finally went to sleep around 4:30am, at which time our group felt somewhat comfortable going to sleep.  I stayed awake.  At 6:30 we woke up the kids, despite much resistance.  After they left, we slept the day away.

In retrospect, this was a valuable experience.  Despite our worries about safety and the feeling that we were not in the least in control of the situation and that anything could happen at any time, we did provide nine kids with a place to sleep.   Also, it greatly reinforced what Rick said to us earlier that week.  This isn’t volunteering you do because it’s personally rewarding.  The kids disrespect authority, don’t trust you, constantly test boundaries, and rarely express gratitude.  This volunteering is all about doing it for the kids.

After we all woke up and got showered and dressed, it was almost time for the Outreach Center to open.  We got food and sat in the park for a while, just to get away for a while.

I had the opportunity to go on outreach with Megan and Garrett that night.  We visited Ocean and Pacific Beaches as well as downtown.  However, we didn’t see any kids out.  The men that we went on outreach with were really great.  Even though it was personally somewhat disappointing that we didn’t meet any kids, they reminded us that no kids on the streets hopefully meant that they had safe places to stay that night.