What are kids thankful for?
Family, friends, pets and a return to normal
Delaney Bornheim didn’t have to even stop and think about what she’s grateful for this Thanksgiving because, well, let’s face it, last year’s just wasn’t so good.
Per the usual for most of us, Delaney is thankful for her family and friends.
But let’s just get real: When you’re 12, other things matter, too. Like the fact that she just finished her rugby season, a sport she didn’t get to play last year because of the pandemic. And she is playing percussion in the band at Calumet Christian School, an opportunity that COVID stole from her last year, too.
And even though she and her classmates wear masks in class, they don’t have to wear them while outside now, and even that little slice of freedom makes her happy.
Oh, and since there were no gatherings for last year’s holiday, her cousins from Indiana are coming in this week. That’s a big deal.
“There’s a lot to be thankful for,” Delaney told The Dispatch when we asked as she and her mom and sister visited the Karl Road branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library last week.
Her younger sister, 9year-old Avery Bornheim, was also thankful for family and friends and shelter but added that she’s grateful for other things, too, like the Harry Potter books that she reads and the paper and crayons she uses to draw and color.
The third-grader said she was looking forward to going to her grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner.
“They’re really kind and loving,” Avery said about her family.
The younger children who were roaming the aisles of the children’s section at the library had less to say than Delaney and Avery, but they made one thing clear: Kids are thankful for pets.
Six-year-old Mackenzie Sickels ticked off a simple list of what she’s thankful for.
“My family, my pets, my food and my drinks,” she said without hesitation.
Then, she got specific. There’s Pip, the gray cat; and Wally, the white and gray one; and Coco, her dog.
Her younger sister, Mia Martinez, who is this close to being 3, maybe doesn’t like the cats so much because she only said she’s thankful for Coco. And for her baby dolls.
Kaylee Luna, a 6-yearold first-grader, shrugged her pink sweatshirt-covered shoulders ever so slightly when asked what she is grateful for. Then it came to her.
“My dog,” she said. Are you sensing a theme here yet?
His name is Benji. Her older brother Christopher Luna is a sixth-grader at Eastwood Seventh-day Adventist Junior Academy in Westerville. He, too, was thankful for Benji. But he added more.
“My family, my friends, my education and the food I eat,” he said.
Amarachi Ekeanyanwu, who is 13, also appreciates her family and friends. But the seventh-grader added something else that matters: God.
She said she’s grateful for her two younger siblings — her favorite part of the holiday is celebrating her brother’s birthday, which was Wednesday — and for a cousin who is more like a sister.
“She’s everything to me,” she said. “We’re close.”
And then there’s Zainab Conteh, who is 10. She is especially grateful this year for her grandmother, Aminata Kamara.
Kamara is moving to Sierra Leone next year to take care of two other grandchildren, so Zainab is enjoying every minute of the rest of their time together.
“She’s been with me for all of my life and she’s going back to Africa for a long time and I’m not going to be able to see her anymore,” Zainab said.
Still, Zainab and her 14-year-old brother Abdul Conteh will get to spend Thanksgiving with Kamara, when she’ll make Zainab’s favorite dish, fufu — a West African dish consisting of a spongy dough made from boiled and pounded starchy food crops like plantains, cassava and yams.
Zainab is also thankful for her friends.
“I’m thankful for my friends and their support,” she said. “When I feel down, they’ll come help me.”
This story is part of the Dispatch’s Mobile Newsroom initiative, currently focused on Northland and operating out of the Karl Road branch library. hzachariah@dispatch.com @hollyzachariah mwalker@dispatch.com @micah_walker70