10, 5th-grader at Oakbrook Elementary
Let‘s get this part out of the way: Yes, her name
is Mrs. That‘s capital-M-r-s-period. misiz
Mrs.
For Mrs., Our House was half-a-lifetime ago. After
the Barnums moved out of our Family House,
Mrs. stayed in our summer youth program for a
couple more years. Like most of Our House‘s
kids, all she remembers of her time here is the
fun she had. ―When I went to summer camp
[Our House‘s summer youth program] we went
on a lot of field trips. We went outside and rode
bikes and scooters, and we played basketball.‖
―
Mrs. is another Barnum dancer, and, like her
brother, she has cheerleading experience. Before
coming to Our House, she was a cheerleader for
Dante‘s football team. She plans to get back to
cheering in the future. ―When I get in middle
school I want to try out for cheerleading.‖
‖
Ten-year-old Mrs. doesn‘t have much to say
about her memories of Our House, and that‘s
just the way we like it. One of our goals for our
youth programs is that our kids can continue
their normal lives with as little interruption as
possible, and that when they move out of the
Shelter or Family House they can move on to the
rest of their lives without any negative effects
from their brief time in homelessness. Mrs. and
her siblings are some of our greatest success
stories. In their minds, Our House was just a
place to have fun for a while.