Success Stories

Homeless children realize some "Joy, Hopes and Dreams"

At 4 pm on a recent Thursday, HomeFront's Magic Bus pulled up to the Sleepy Hollow Motel on Rt. 1. To anyone else it looked like a regular school bus, but to the homeless children who poured out of the grim motel rooms, it meant Mr. Chris and Miss Fontella had come to take them out for a night of joy, hopes and dreams.

Thursday night is art enrichment night, and the children are bound for the Princeton Arts Council. Each week they work there with a different artist to create and appreciate art and all it can bring to their lives. In addition, they will enjoy a nutritious snack as well as fun, laughter and songs on the bus ride to Princeton.

With tutoring, music and art enrichment, recreational and educational trips, HomeFront's Joy, Hopes and Dreams program offers something for the children every night of the week. Two nights each week are specifically for teenagers, who go everywhere from the theatre to bowling alleys to hockey games.

Fontella Cawley, one of HomeFront's Recreation Coordinators, said, "Some of our kids have never seen the ocean. We take them there, they feel it, they touch it and they smell it. We spend a lot of time talking about the places we've gone and the things we have seen. Many of the parents are in such dire straits that they can't find the time – or the words – to talk to their kids about the places they have gone and the things they have seen."

At HomeFront, everyone smiles when they mention this wonderful program that served 534 kids last year. The problem is that when the Magic Bus pulled up to the Sleepy Hollow Motel on Thursday, there were 22 kids rushing to get on board, and there are only 17 seats.

"Each night we have to disappoint some kids," said Cawley, "and that's the hardest part."

Your support of HomeFront will enable us to continue and hopefully to expand this program, because every child deserves to have joy, hopes and dreams.

For more information, call 609-989-9417 or send an email to: .