July 9, 2003
Teens attend training camp at museum
Five-week camp teaches basics of being a community volunteer
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With arms tied behind her back, Emma Fromholz, 14, slowly inched her way through the tunnels of an exhibit Monday morning at the Great Lakes Children's Museum. Scooting along, with help from Lauren Dyer, 12, Fromholz eventually managed to get to the slide and swoop down.
Portraying a person with a major physical disability was an eye-opening experience.
"Having no hands was really hard, it made me realize how different their lives are, how special they are," said the ninth-grade student at Traverse City Christian School.
The two girls are participating this summer in a Teen Volunteer Camp, a new program offered this year by the Great Lakes Children's Museum. Seven area teens are enrolled in the camp, giving up five hours a week to both learn and volunteer their time.
The five-week camp will teach participants the basics of being a community volunteer. The program includes two hours of lecture, discussion, hands-on workshop activities and journal writing every Monday morning. Students also complete three additional hours of volunteer work at the museum each week.
For some students in the camp, this aspect of the program is both the most challenging and the most rewarding.
"It is pretty fun to come and help with the kids," said Mike LaSusa, an eighth-grade student at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School. "The most challenging thing is being around 40 kids, five and six years old. They are from summer camps for kids, visiting the museum."
Monday's session was the second week of the series and its workshop focused on diversity. Program director Katie Crowell had her students use the exhibits in pairs, one person portraying a person with a disability and the other being a helper. Each participant tried being a blind person, a person who could not talk and a person who could not use their arms. They then switched with their partner and tried helping someone with these disabilities.
Dyer, Fromholz's helper, said it was challenging being the assistant and allowing the person with a disability to work out a solution.
"You wanted to help the person but they kind of wanted to do it on their own," said Dyer, a seventh-grade student at the Grand Traverse Academy.
Helping people of different abilities who attend the museum is important to being a successful volunteer, noted Crowell.
"It is important for them to learn to accommodate them," said Crowell, a senior studying secondary education at Grand Valley State University.
Lecture topics during the camp range from the importance of play to the basics of philanthropy to civic responsibility. Speakers include John Noonan, executive director of the Great Lakes Children's Museum as well as community leaders such as Traverse City Mayor Margaret Dodd and Alan VanderPaas, Give'm 40 community coordinator. Workshop topics include diversity, making programs and dealing with museum visitors.
The goal of the camp is more than just increasing the museum's pool of trained volunteers. Mary Manner, director of education for the Great Lakes Children's Museum, noted that the Teen Volunteer Camp hopes to instill the love of volunteering in the participants.
"The real focus of the camp is to build capacity in our young people," Manner said. "That's such a vulnerable age and one way we can help them become productive members of our community is through volunteering."