PEL & Residential Alumni & Students host Fun Day for children in crisis centers

Back row l-r: Unidentified residential student; Madeline Streilein ’18; Kyla Isakson ’19; Anjali Boyd ’19; unidentified residential student; Bob Albury PEL ’09; Anna Klingenberg ’15, Campus Activities Intern; John Alchin; Tina Horn PEL ’14; Steve Haftke  Front row l-r: Todd DeLozier PEL ’09; Jenna Behnke ‘15, AmeriCorps VISTA Intern in Office of Service Learning; Peggy Albury PEL ’13; Donna Littell ’75, PEL Marketing Coordinator; Pam Butler PEL ’19; Janice Umbarger-LeFebvre PEL ’19; Jerry Kyte PEL ’17; Elissa Alchin ’14; Jamison DeLozier; Not pictured are Dr. Ron Porter, Director of Service Learning,Connie Murphy PEL ‘08, Sydney Cavero, Maggie Cooper, Nick Dalton, Matthew de Braun, Jesie Felipe, Matthew Hein, and Alyssa Troxel.

by Amanda Hagood

On Saturday, November 14th, Hough quadrangle came to life with the sound of laughter as Eckerd volunteers welcomed 48 children and eight staff members from the St. Petersburg Salvation Army's Sallie House and Children’s Village, two crisis shelters serving local children, to a campus-wide fun day. A group of 30 volunteers, including PEL and residential students, alumni, staff, and faculty, hosted an array of activities for the young visitors, who played field games, read stories, created brightly colored sand pictures, learned about marine animals in touch tanks provided by the Galbraith Marine Science Lab, and ate lunch in the dining hall.

Rose Harris, Director of Children's Services for the St. Petersburg Salvation Army' Sallie House and the Children's Village, said the children and teens who attended ranged from age 1 to 17 and that the children seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Children created colorful sand paintings.

"We have volunteers who come to us," Harris said, "but it's not often that the children are invited to a college."

Harris noted that, particularly for older students, activities such as the visit to Eckerd can help them see new possibilities for their own futures.

"We are always in favor of keeping the kids busy, getting them out of the [shelter] houses, stopping negative patterns of behavior, and teaching them the importance of getting an education," Harris said. 

The event, sponsored by the Program for Experienced Learners and the Offices of Service Learning and Campus Activities, was spearheaded by PEL alumna Lisa Alchin ’14, with support from PEL Marketing Coordinator Donna Littell ’75. Alchin first began her relationship with Sallie House while searching for internship opportunities in Professor Haukur Matthiasson’s human development course.

“I wanted to immerse myself in the day-to-day lives of the children and the staff in the crisis shelter in order to deepen my understanding of their experiences and needs," Alchin said. "I also wanted to understand the organization with a ‘macro’ view—from counseling to politics to processes—every aspect.”

With a fellow student’s help, Alchin connected with Harris and developed an internship that allowed her to work closely with Harris in performing administrative duties. The internship exposed her to multiple facets of serving children in crisis.

Beyond this work, Alchin’s personal and professional interest in the field of child services continued to grow. “The internships left me wanting more,” she explained. “I knew then that I wanted to be a leader in the field of child services.” After graduation, Alchin continued her work with Sallie House as a volunteer, and she currently is pursuing a master's degree in Leadership in Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health at the University of South Florida.

Organizing the Fun Day event allowed Alchin to share her passion with a larger community, build upon her expertise, and create a positive experience in the lives of the young visitors.

“The volunteers were amazing and the children could feel that the people at Eckerd that day cared about them. The activities were the vehicle for meaningful and caring interactions with the volunteers and the children all day,” she said.

Left: An Eckerd student (r) shows a child some of the wonders of the sea at the Galbraith Marine 
Science Lab as part of the Fun Day event in November.

It wasn't just the children who benefitted, according to Jenna Behnke '15, AmeriCorps VISTA intern in the Office of Service Learning.

"The event brought multiple generations together for a day of fun and conversation," Behnke said.

Littell agreed, adding that PEL students and residential students don't often have the opportunity to work together on a community project.

"It was gratifying to watch so many different groups across campus come together for the children," she said.

Overall, Alchin felt the event was a great success, with participants from across the Eckerd community working together for the benefit of wonderful group of children, making the all important connection between the lessons learned in the classroom and the communities in which we live and work. Volunteers left with a clearer sense of the important work that Sallie House does for some of the most vulnerable members of our community, and the children left, as Alchin noted, with a broader sense of perspective about what the next chapters of their lives might hold. “Knowing that they are welcome [at Eckerd],” she noted, “could change their education trajectory in a positive way.”

The Sallie House Fun Day was one of several events organized by the PEL Alumni Advisory Committee, a group of alumni dedicated to engaging the alumni community and raising awareness of PEL in the broader Tampa Bay community. For more information about this group, please contact Donna Littell (litteldj@eckerd.edu) or visit the PEL Alumni Services page.