-Apparently the EZ Bake Oven has become an incinerator of death and destruction, so it’s getting recalled. Wow, and here I thought an oven for two year olds to bake things was a good idea.

-Remember how when you were a kid and you saw those secret rooms on Scooby Doo and totally wished your house had a “secret room”? And then remember how when you got older you wished you could spend all your free time doing drugs with hookers? Well, this guy made both of his dreams come true! If you can believe it, you can achieve it!

–A nuclear reactor in New Jersey leaks some radiation. Tragically, it doesn’t kill any Jerseyites.

-As people continue to be justifiably outraged at Michael Vick’s crimes against animals, keep in mind that our vice president also enjoys participating in animal cruelty.

I spoke with Kim, who runs the Red Shield Summer Camp, and asked her a few questions about the program and about homelessness in general, so that you’d know where the money you are donating is going:
Kim, please give me the basic details of the program.
The Red Shield Family Residence is a homeless shelter that houses forty-two families. Of an average population of 140 usually 90 are children under the age of eighteen.

I work with the kids who are ages 6-12 years. Before arriving, many of the kids have been subjected to being bounced around from place to place, trauma, food insecurity, and early parentification to younger siblings. The program’s goals are meant to address the needs of the kids to stabilize and have the shelter experience be one that is a positive.

We use many activities to achieve our goals.

Art helps the kids express themselves when they may not have the words to do so. The kids volunteer in the community to allow them the opportunity to realize that they too have something to give and are not the bottom rung of the charity ladder. For example we box food for MANNA to help those living with AIDS. The kids have their own garden, which is used to supply the shelter residents with fresh produce in their diets. This gives them the ability to feel that they are able to contribute to their family needs with kid-grown and kid-cooked dishes, as these are kids who want to have a way to help. This year the kids are being taught photography and we will have a gallery show at the end of the summer. In addition, the kids are participating in Capoeira (Brazilian martial arts/dance). They will be a part of the martial arts community ceremony and be belted.

In addition to art as therapy the kids also are participating in therapy groups and conflict resolution and anger management workshops. Academics are a huge and daily focus of the program as well, as are life skills.

2) How long have you been doing it?
It was five years this past April.

3) Do you think there are any wrong impressions the general public has about the homeless?
Absolutely. Most people think that the homeless and poor are lazy people who don’t want to work. Few consider the broader oppressive structural issues that fuel poverty in this country. We as a society have been trained that if you work you get ahead. Not everyone is offered opportunity or can see beyond the inequality they were born into. My goal is to expose the kids to as many things as possible outside their typical experience as possible. People cannot dream about things they cannot fathom. I want to encourage them to realize there is no goal beyond their abilities.

4) How can the money we raise benefit your program?
We need film, money for field trips, art supplies, everything really. We need so much.

5) What the toughest part of your job? What’s the best part of it?
The toughest part is seeing so many kids falling through the cracks. It is hard to see that all kids do not all have the same starting point. It is hard when people don’t treat the kids with respect. In addition, some of the kids have had to deal with so very much, and yet with it all they are so receptive to even the tiniest bit of love, attention and affection.

If you would like to donate your time or money to this program, please contact Kim at kberk7@juno.com.

In the dregs of summer, finally a fun little summer rivalry. Steven Wells, the kind-of-like-Lewis-Black hipster from the Weekly, took another cheap shot at Joey Sweeney, the talented and funny yet seemingly cocky hipster dude from Philebrity who has never returned a single email of mine even when I’ve asked for assistance in charity related events (Dude, WTF?). Anyways, one thing I do admire about Sweeney is his insistence on coming out swinging when someone takes a shot at him, and he didn’t disappoint. My favorite part from the Wells PW column: the gossip blog’s still raking in money from advertisers too dumb to realize they’re associating their product with the hipster equivalent of Benedict Arnold. What? How does one become the hipster equivalent of Benedict Arnold? Go to the gym? Watch a baseball game? Laugh at something for being unironically funny? Stop drinking the High Life? Aw man, generalizations are fun. Anyways, we’ve needed this. I mean, the Phils are mediocre and we haven’t had a good rivalry in this city since Danny Ozark vs. that reporter with granny panties.
Previously: When hipsters attack.

–Trivia Art talks about Buy Fresh Buy Local.

-Al Gore celebrated his daughter’s wedding by Buying Threatened Buying Foreign.

-A column Willie Gee would love! Is ESPN racist?

-Hey, don’t look now, but Pat Burrell is calling July his b****. He’s batting .520 since July 4th. Now, if we can just teach him how to pitch…

We’re going to be raising money for the Red Shield Family Residence. Each year, they have a summer camp for homeless children. They need art supplies for the children and money to help pay for tokens to go on various field trips they are taking this summer. So we’re going to help. It costs $1 to play this week, with 100% of the proceeds going to this charity. I’ll have more info on the charity shortly.

Not much going on today, but the classics never really go out of style, so how about a little summer short story reading? Here’s former Philly resident Edgar Allen Poe’s classic, the Cask of Amontillado.