The Time of Naps and Clifford

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Inscribed on silver plates, these words adorn the wall of the training center of Sheltering Arms’ headquarters in downtown Atlanta.
A not-for-profit daycare organization, their numerous branches in the Georgia region were our main service destination today. We broke into three groups: two volunteered in Sheltering Arms’ classrooms while the last group co-op’d with Tommy again on landscaping and construction at a site soon to become a rehabilitation facility for addicted substance abusers. My group was one of the two with Sheltering Arms and I was lucky enough to work at two different branches.

The first branch was approximately 20 miles outside of Atlanta and had age ranges from ruddy-cheeked 6-week infants all the way up to self-confident (and surprisingly strong) 5-year-olds. Like most new relationships, both parties were 20% anxious and 80% frightened; however, this soon turned into 100% fun. Without much delay, we were making ramps with wooden blocks and riding our plastic airplanes, helicopters, and cars (the last of which gained the magical ability of flight relatively soon). Unexhausted, we soon moved to a dollhouse and enacted a scene involving a doctor, lawyer, and a dog with a broken leg: anyone over the age of 10 would be envious of these kids’ creative imaginations.

Then we started construction of a Lego castle at whose completion I moved to another section of the classroom while Raeann Stengel took over my group. This next group of kids were certainly my favorite: using little balls and long wrench-shaped pieces (which the balls fit into), we became wizards armed with oddly shaped wands. Soon transfiguration spells were abound (I make quite the cat) and soon the table was full of conjured snacks which dropped from the ceiling as they recounted their favorite scenes from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. One look into their twinkling eyes and carefree, wide-brimmed smiles is enough to make one rethink the purpose of life. Soon our magical adventures turned to age as they all wished to be my age (and stood on their knees in their chairs when cast with the spell) while I wished to halve, at the minimum, my age (and brought my head down so as to only creep above the table). While we joked about our fantasy lives, for the few hours today I spent with the organization, I was back to sharing toys, back to midday naps, back to the clear and pure, the hilarious and unexpected, the defining happiness of every child.

The last part of the afternoon was spent in the same building as the inscription; the headquarters contained an administrative portion, a training center (for new instructors), but also its own daycare facility. For a short amount of time, relatively speaking, myself and Brantley Gunn entertained six or so 1-year-olds, just waking for their well-deserved naps. Just like us college students, every period of shut-eye is followed by a short phase of crinkled faces and unwilling eyes. Soon we fed them their last snack of the day and then explored the enormous book collection, with the likes of Dora and Diego and Clifford The Big Dog. Sheltering Arms’ keeps a constant educational environment; it was amazing to see such high-caliber work from a non-profit. Surely the fun we had with the one-year olds, though, can be summarized into a single quote, “So, when is your daddy coming to pick you up?”

While I’ve rambled on about my own experiences, the work of the instructors was phenomenal, taking every precaution to make these first crucial years of life as close as amazing as possible. And, it goes without saying that the kids were having the time of their lives.

Ibrahim Jadoon
Class of 2013