A splash of good news in Rexdale-Jamestown
Khudaija Sheikh is a program manager for Albion Neighbourhood Services-Boys & Girls Club camp.
“I’m the bored-est kid in the universe,” my 12-year-old told me the other day. I get it, which is why I didn’t further exacerbate his ennui with my usual “boredom is good for creativity” lecture.
There is an unnatural monotony to being so unstimulated this year. Summer holidays don’t feel any different from the last few months of school that were shut down by the global pandemic.
As with other kids, being away from his classmates feels isolating and lonely for my son. Picking fights with his younger sister can only be interesting for so long. The novelty of getting hours and hours of screen time has worn off.
This is a kid with the privilege of yard space and greenery around, not to mention rollerblades and a bike on which he can finally wheel around the neighbourhood with a friend.
Those activities still paled in comparison to his sister, who got to go to a canoe camp last week. Summer camps this year are as much about learning and fun for the kids as they are about parents being able to afford a break.
That is the single motivator for my family to choose to donate to the Toronto Star’s Fresh Air Fund in this, the 120th year of its operation. Donating to causes is what I call drop-by-drop work; every drop of water in a bucket goes toward filling it, and the Fresh Air Fund has a fundraising bucket that needs $650,000 fill it up. The fund has raised $494,283 so far. The campaign ends Aug. 2, which means there is still a ways to go; understandable, as it is jostling for attention with many just causes in a tough year.
I’m not always a fan of philanthropic models of bolstering societies, but I am biased towards helping parents and caregivers catch a break, especially during a year when the world is reeling from the compounding effects of even higher health, income, gender-based and racial vulnerabilities than usual. The fund sponsors 56 residential camps, but COVIDrelated safety restrictions mean there are no overnight camps this year. For camps that are unable to open their doors, donor funds carry over to the next year. Many of the day camps — the Fresh Air Fund sponsors about 53 — are in neighbourhoods where poverty intersects with race and other marginalized identities.
The Albion Neighbourhood Services has been serving north Etobicoke for more than four decades. It was to this neighbourhood that Khudaija Sheikh arrived when she first came to Canada 18 years ago. One of her earliest experiences in the country was volunteer work in children’s programming at the community group.
Her background from her native Pakistan was a degree in computing systems, and she helped kids with a robotics program. She was quickly hired, first part time, then full time, and she’s now the program manager of the Boys & Girls Club Camp.
The day camp was funded to run virtually this year with students meeting online twice a week, where they engaged in hands-on activities or played games together or even, she said, to “express their feelings, anxieties with all the uncertainties going on.”
When we spoke Thursday, Sheikh had emerged from a meeting about reopening in-person camps.
She has news.
“We do plan to open up now that we have the permit to do so.” The Boys & Girls Club Camp will run for the first three weeks of August at the North Kipling Junior Middle School. While the camp’s usual capacity is about 120-150 kids over six weeks, this year it is going to be far less. “We can have maximum eight children and two staff in a room, no more than 10,” she said. The organizers are planning cooking classes and arts and crafts, and inviting guest speakers. “But this year most activities will be outdoors.” There may or may not be trips — depending on what’s open and what’s not — “but hopefully we can go to a park or a water park,” Sheikh said.
Sheikh has her fingers crossed for a choice of safe avenues for the children to let their hair down because she’s aware many in the RexdaleJamestown neighbourhood don’t come from material wealth. Many are newcomers. Many racialized. From Jamaica, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan.
“It also depends on global events,” she said. “Three years ago, we got a lot of youth who were Syrian.”
There really should not be underprivileged children, particularly in rich countries. In our city — sponsored camps translate into opportunities for children who might otherwise be shut out of a fun exercise in bonding with others and maybe learning a thing or two.
This year particularly, summer camps are a lifeline, for more than just the children.