Glencoe Couple Sponsors Trip to D.C.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Printable FormatGLENCOE NEWS BY ERIC JOHNSON
Teenagers from Englewood enjoy a trip to the nation's capitol
Sometimes presidential candidate Barack Obama's senatorial office is rope-a-doped by reporters or Republicans, but this past March his organization took comments from Englewood high school students looking for positive change.
Organized by Glencoe's Annice Moses and her husband Mike Rosenthal and funded by the couple, their family and friends, the couple took 30 high school students from the Englewood community on Chicago's South side on a three day tour of our nation's capital from March 16 through the 20 -- a tour that included addresses to senators and staff on Capitol Hill.
"My personal goal was for the kids to feel a sense of empowerment," Moses said. "It is one thing for kids to complain to each other about their lives and it is another to expose the things they don't like about their community to someone outside of the community."
And listen they did.
To students like Lavontae Brooks, a freshmen at Morgan Park High School who spoke about issues plaguing his community.
"They were responsive," Brooks explained as he talked about lead issues, crime issues, housing problems, and educational needs.
"We were having housing problems in the community," Brooks explained. "For example, some of the houses are mostly lower class families and they have hard times paying for housing and also, is it well conditioned for a family to live in?"
Staff and Senator's from the offices of Barack Obama, Bobby Rush, Dick Durbin, and others listened to the group talk about health problems, the lack of grocery stores, gangs, safety, vandalism, crack houses, and educational needs in their area.
Volunteers
Ten years ago, Moses and her husband were volunteering with an organization in the city and met Jean Carter-Hill, Executive Director and Co-founder of Imagine Englewood If, an organization she founded in 1998 dedicated to the improvement of the community.
The couple wanted to get more involved and began working with Carter-Hill to develop a garden in the community.
Site testing revealed that the lead content in the soil was too high to not only plant, but often unsafe for human interaction. Moses attributes this to dumping or waste and says that the lead has not been abated from the area because Englewood is a low-income, black community.
The organization secured grant money from the Botanic Gardens to build soil beds above ground and the garden project began.
"It is hard to get funding and they have really sponsored some important things we have done," Carter-Hill said regarding the couple's involvement in her organization.
Her organization focuses on lead poisoning awareness, training student journalists, a youth speak-out program on cable channel 21, Carter-Hill said.
Te'Onia Hardaway, a 17 year-old at Harper High School who went on the Washington D.C. trip said, "It was my first time in D.C...and it was a learning experience for me," she said. "It is very much about going out to D.C. to make a change. We are here, we have a voice too. Even though I am not 21 (year's old), I have ideas, we see these things every day."
Difficult lives
The students do see things that frequently make it difficult to remain hopeful about positive change.
Hardaway tells the story of a recent gang fight where a bullet meant for a rival gang member struck her friend on her way home from work.
Her friend was shot in the back and can not walk.
Staff from Durbin's office asked how many students had witnessed a house foreclosure and almost all the children raised their hands, Moses said.
Moses also explained that the staff listened to children talk about the embarrassment of having crack houses in their communities.
"They don't feel safe going through warring gang territories. They take serious considerations before popping over to a friend's house. Many do well (despite challenges). On the trip the students were able to say 'I am here because I want to make a difference. I am asking for your help,'" Moses explained.
After fundraising with friends and families, Moses and her husband raised $8,000, only a part of the cost of the trip. They financed the rest.
Moses is an intake worker at the teen center, Links, in Northfield and a volunteer at her children's preschool. Her husband, Mike Rosenthal is the head engineer for Rosenthal Manufacturing, Inc. in Northbrook.
"I would like to secure funding and momentum behind this project so the kids can go to D.C. every year," Moses said.