Bridges for Youth

I guess its been about 6 years ago, when the Heart of Springfield Optimist Club came to help us open up the Bridges for Youth on Nichols Street.  What an awesome group!  They helped with service projects, something like 6 Saturdays in a row.  Still, to this date, they were the most servant hearted bunch of folks I have ever met.

This blog is about the three blue plastic barrels that they brought for the grand opening cook out.   Understandably, they brought them to be used as trash cans.  After the grand opening was completed the barrels were placed in the back and were virtually forgotten about.

One day when there were 30 or so kids running all around our front, back and side yards, the barrels suddenly became an item of interest. The kids began messing with the barrels and turned them over, hiding another kid inside.  Then, of course, unknown to us they would say, “Where is such and such?”, and we would begin looking around frantically for the lost kid. That was really funny, but only worked the one time.  Then we started pushing the kids around the yard in the barrels.  It was great fun and something the kids really enjoyed.  Then we transitioned to the gently sloping hill in our side yard.  The kids we go to the top  and anxiously await their turn to roll down the hill inside the barrel.  You would think they would grow tired of rolling down the hill after awhile. Guess what?   Every day for two or three years they would beg for me to get the barrels out, so they could have barrels of fun. 

 Its been a couple of years since we had the barrels out, and most of the kids who attend now don’t even know what they are missing out on.   Those barrels really remind me of being a kid, and using what ever was around you to entertain yourselves. I encourage parents, youth directors, and people in the community to revisit your childhood and roll out the simple barrels of fun.    Pastor Steve