In his first year volunteering at the Hephzibah Children’s Association’s Group Home, Jake Johnson was paired up with a “little brother,” a young resident who, like others at the home, came from a background of abuse and neglect. The boy struggled in school, fought with teachers, and was eventually kicked out, twice. Coming from the harshest of circumstances, it’s not easy for the children who land at Hephzibah’s group home to assimilate into traditional school settings.
“It’s a big deal when they make it through school,” said Johnson. As a long time volunteer for the organization, the soon-to-be high school junior at Oak Park and River Forest High School, felt compelled to get involved with the event that honors those kids who do make it, despite the odds; the annual Rodeo Day.
At the suggestion of Hephzibah’s executive director, Mary Anne Brown, Johnson and fellow volunteer Luke Trinka, who is entering his senior year at OPRF, joined together this year to organize the annual children’s event, which plays out like an end-of-the-school year mini-festival for Hephzibah kids. They recruited members of the Hephzibah club they had formed at OPRF this year, as well as kids from Trinity and Fenwick high schools. Together, the teenagers put on an event that kept 26 children smiling through the day.
“It was really planned and executed by these high school kids,” said Molly Philosophos, director of development for Hephzibah. “The whole idea was to give these teenagers the opportunity to plan something, take a leadership role, and really do something great for the kids.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Johnson and Trinka secured a $1,900 grant from the Oak Park and River Forest Community Foundation’s Future Philanthropists group to cover the costs of the rodeo event, which included a petting zoo, ponies, inflatable bounce houses, face painting, games, and more.
They even got a permit from the village to close the block on North Boulevard where the group home is located.
According to Johnson, the group of volunteers in charge of organizing the event met every Thursday leading up to the June 10 Rodeo Day date. On the day of the event, Johnson was at the site at 5 a.m. getting things ready. Because the forecast called for rain, some of the vendors tried to back out.
“Different people were calling, trying to cancel, but Jake said no way,” Philosophos said.
For many of the Hephzibah kids, Rodeo Day is an event they look forward to throughout the year. The group home is a combination program that includes a short term treatment center and a long term residence program. The children in the program have been taken from their family or foster homes because of severe abuse and neglect.
“They have next to nothing,” Philosophos said. If they are able to integrate into the school system, they do. But many aren’t. “For our kids, they are often bounced around from foster home to foster home, so finishing a school year is a big deal,” she said.
But getting through a year of school is a hopeful sign for these kids, an indication that they might be able to break free from the situations they were born into. Rodeo Day is designed to celebrate that hope, and the children’s success.
“For the kids that have been there more than a year, they know all about it and they’re so excited about it,” Philosophos said. And those who haven’t been at Hephzibah that long pick up on the excitement of others.
“The kids had a really, really good time,” said Johnson. And he and the rest of the volunteers got something out of it as well.
“It took us just a little bit of time, but it made a difference in their lives,” he said. “I think what I pulled out of it is just the joy that you can bring kids.”
Johnson said that every volunteer befriended a child at the event, and many of the first-time volunteers have inquired into getting more involved with Hephzibah.
Johnson said that he and Trinka can’t take credit for the entire event, though they really got the ball rolling.
“We were sort of the face of things….but in all honesty it couldn’t have been done without every single person,” Johnson said. “To put together something like that, and to have it go smoothly, you need a lot of people helping out.”