FRONT-LINE HEROES
DELIVERING SMILES
At parks department distribution site, families get packets of fun.
Families get a packet of fun when they visit community center
Sindy Barnett serves food to dozens of children almost every day. But she can’t connect with them the way she’s used to.
As a supervisor at southeast Houston’s Charlton Park Community Center, she normally oversees classes and an after school-program for the area’s residents.
When the center closed due to the coronavirus, Barnett donned gloves and a mask each weekday from 1 to 3 p.m., serving food to the children she used to teach. It’s different, but through social distancing, Barnett can still see the kids she has grown to love.
“I was in the kitchen, getting the meals ready to take outside to distribute, and I had my back turned to the door. The next thing I knew these two little girls embraced me from behind,” Barnett said. “When I turned around, and I saw who it was, I just told them, ‘Babies, I can’t hug you right now.’
“I felt so bad because all they wanted was just to have me embrace them and say hello.”
Barnett, 62, is a breast cancer survivor; that puts her in a high-risk category for contracting coronavirus. To combat some of the anxiety she’s been facing due to the pandemic — and to cheer up the children — she adds something special for each child who receives a meal.
“I took it upon myself to start creating crafts, or activity pages or coloring pages for the children,” Barnett said. “They’re always so excited when they come, and we talk to them from a distance. Sometimes I wish I had a see-through mask so they could see me smile … but I guess they can see it in our eyes.”
A mother of five with 10 grandchildren, Barnett said she’s been in the business of entertaining children a long time. Karmelette Rice, division manager at the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, said Barnett is also known as the “mom” of the neighborhood for how close she is with the community’s children and their parents.
“They’re not just getting food. With Sindy, they’re getting words of encouragement, they’re getting a joke, they’re getting a craft, they’re getting an idea,”
Rice said. “They’re getting more than a meal when they come to Charlton.”
Barnett’s younger sister, Sonja Shannon, said she’s always been proud of her sister and the work she does, but she realized Barnett’s impact after Houston ISD suspended its food distribution.
Sindy Barnett “Sometimes I wish I had a see-through mask so they could see me smile … but I guess they can see it in our eyes.”
Shannon knows Barnett loves her group of kids at the community center, and seeing her sister tirelessly serve children showed her how essential Barnett was to so many.
“I feel like she goes beyond what is called for,” Shannon said. “I mean, all she’s being asked to do is to hand out a package of food … And I think she’s going beyond that by trying to find something that she can enlighten the kids’ days by giving them a project to do.”
Although Barnett finds the riddles, jokes and coffee-filter butterflies that the center has handed out during food distribution, she said the work is a team effort for her and two other Charlton Park employees.
“Just seeing people step up and help others is what we need right now, and I hope that it continues,” Barnett said.