It Takes All Kinds

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I was recently reunited with one of the best groups of people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. We all worked for a small agency in Marin County, California that provided a definitely non Marin-like service. We helped children, who through no fault of their own, were placed in group homes by California Child Protective Services because they had been brutalized by their parents and were emotionally unequipped to handle the intimacy of the foster care system. Essentially, we helped these children (and occasionally their families) heal. I thank my friend Kim for setting up the reunion of old comrades I wish I could say that Children's Garden was still a going concern. It folded years ago due to the lack of funding required to do its important work. I'm thankful I was there when I was. We all shared many stories and much laughter.We knew each other in ways most people don't get a chance to. Doing the intense work together that we did breeds such a kinship.

What was remarkable about Children's Garden was that, not only did it employ the usual social workers, special school teachers and dedicated group home house parents to do this difficult and rewarding work. Our fearless excecutive director, Bob in his uncanny wisdom, had the good sense and courage to hire the least expected employees. At least on paper. Our primary houseparents who worked 4-5 days per week were relieved 2-3 days by a relief team. While I was the supervisor/team leader of two of the group homes in the mid to late 90s, my relief teams were headed up by members of a popular San Francisco punk rock band known as "Th Bar Feeders" formerly "Hockaloogey". Now you might wonder who in their right mind would hire headbangers to care for and nurture severely abused behaviorally disordered children. Fortunately, Children's Garden did. While being the authority figure for a bunch of anti authority wild men was often no picnic, I thanked the gods over and over again for having them work for me. Trey and Cecil instinctively knew what these battered children needed in order to feel loved, and cared for in the knowledge that they were safe. To watch these guys who lived life without rules establish order, limits and security in the midst of potential chaos was amazing. By the time we all went our separate ways, the two of them taught me much more about life than I taught them. I considered them my friends and hope the feeling was mutual. While they were not at the gathering last week, one of their former band mates, Monty, who initially recruited them, was there with his wife, Renee. He gave me the lowdown on their current whereabouts. Both still play in the band. Trey is now also an award winning feature writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Weekly magazine. Check out his article here: http://www.hearstfdn.org/hearst_journalism/competitions.php?type=Writing&year=2009&id=1
Cecil is making an independent documentary movie on Engineers Without Borders. It did my heart good to hear about them and to remember that special time.

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Photos

The Bar Feeders
Left to right: Cecil, Trey, Jimmie

The Bar Feeders
Would you trust your children with these guys? I would.