The people who help run Wilkinsburg's Hosanna House and the children who go to summer camp there and even the people who attend one of its numerous programs all say the same thing about the community center: It brings out the best in them.
For instance, there's the camp that just ended Friday, during which 125 kids spent most of the summer learning new skills and making new friends. Every year they have an evening program as a sort of camp finale where they sing, dance and show off for their parents.
Executive Director Leon Haynes III said it sometimes brings tears to the eyes of proud parents and grandparents to watch the children perform.
"People say to me, 'I didn't know [my child] could do that,' " Haynes said.
But time and time again people who go to Hosanna House for the summer camp or job counseling or just to be with friends prove they can do whatever they set out to do. And they've been proving it since the old, unused Horner School began its evolution into a vital community center more than 15 years ago when the school board turned the building over to Hosanna House Inc.
"I learned how to get along with people," 11-year-old camper Sean said from a shady spot at Sherwood Pool last week. He attends St. James School in Wilkinsburg.
Haynes asked that the last names of Sean and other children who were interviewed at summer camp this month not be used because of family or legal issues.
Sean has been attending the camp since he was 8 and probably enjoys the daily trip to the former Parkway Cabana and Tennis Club on the Wilkinsburg-Forest Hills boundary the best of all the summer camp activities. Hosanna House took over the property in 2003, and children who attend summer camp now have two more activities -- outdoor swimming and tennis -- to add to the day's schedule.
Andrea, 11, also thinks the swimming sessions are great, as are robotics class, tennis lessons, computer class, music, drama and arts classes. "I like all of them," she said.
But probably music and drama have interested her most this summer. Andrea thinks she might want to learn to play violin, and she definitely wants to participate in upcoming productions at her new school, Linton Middle School in the Penn Hills District.
Haynes, a native of Virginia Beach, Va., has been in Wilkinsburg since 1986 and is one of those behind the Hosanna House plan.
It's all about options, Haynes said. For instance, African-American children don't have a lot of opportunities to learn to swim, he said. When they come to camp, they learn.
Some may enjoy it so much, and become so proficient in the sport, that they could earn a swimming scholarship to college, Haynes said. It's something to think about, he said.
Youth director Randy Goodnight said Hosanna House's camp program for kids 5 through 12 years old is set up to make them feel safe and loved.
Unlike camps Goodnight remembers from his youth when the children would be dropped off and go on to a relatively unstructured day "willy nilly," Hosanna camp gives them structure.
Children are divided by age and gender. Their day, which starts around 7 a.m. when their parents drop them off, begins with a song, "I Am Somebody," and a prayer. Building self-esteem is a given here.
Then, much like a school day, they head off to class.
It costs $55 a week to send one child to camp. Multiple children in one family get a price break. There are scholarships available.
Between 90 and 125 children participated in this year's camp, which opened the third week of June and ended Friday. Goodnight wants to see 300 kids involved.
Markeia Craig agrees that's a good idea.
Craig, 19, believes she wouldn't have been salutatorian for Wilkinsburg High School's Class of 2004 if she hadn't become part of the Hosanna House family as she entered her teen years.
She's a graphics design student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and wants to make art her life.
But first she had to learn some basic life skills and lean on someone who could give good advice and better direction. She said she learned how to work and deal with people through Hosanna House.
Sisters Ashley James, 17, and Allison James, 19, agreed.
All three young women are working at Hosanna House this summer as instructors or counselors, and they said the work they've done at the center has prepared them for life.
They've worked in the various programs offered, from child care to food service, and learned "people skills" along the way. They also participated in the teen programs.
Allison James is a U.S. Marine reservist who is putting off school this fall until she learns her next military assignment.
Ashley James is preparing for her freshman year at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where she will major in biology for an eventual medical degree.
Also her class salutatorian, Wilkinsburg High Class of 2005, Ashley James said while the work skills were important, the support they received was even more vital.
"Coming here was like having another family," she said.
That family atmosphere is what's keeping other community youngsters out of trouble, the three agreed.
As for what they think their lives would have been like if Hosanna House hadn't been there, they just didn't know.
"I honestly have no idea," Craig said.
"There's a lot of success stories [at Hosanna House]," former Wilkinsburg Mayor Richard Depperman said.
He was one of the proponents of a center for the Wilkinsburg community that would fill some basic needs families were experiencing.
Depperman was there when the Wilkinsburg school board donated the school to Hosanna House Inc. in 1989. He and Haynes have seen it grow from a run-down former school to a true multiuse center where people can get medical care, job referrals, appropriate clothing for job interviews, health and wellness training and recreational opportunities.
The latest addition is Communities for ALL, a training program through the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, the UCP Kids Project and Every Child Inc.
The program, which began last month, is for center staff who will learn how to communicate with people with disabilities and make the center more accessible and welcoming for them.
Now Depperman is eyeing the vacant building next to the center, which could be a vocational-technical center where students from Hosanna House could work and produce goods for consumers.
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