Summer camp helps bridge racial divide between South Side, North Shore
By Kimberly Fornek Sun-Times Media kfornek@suntimes.com July 14, 2011 2:14PM
Children gather around as Hadley Kennary talks about the flag they are to draw during TWIG camp at Greeley Elementary School on Monday. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: July 16, 2011 8:53PM
For decades, dozens of children from the South Side of Chicago have traveled on a bus to Winnetka for a special summer day camp.
Each year, about 100 children, half from Chicago and half from North Shore suburbs, attend TWIG summer camp, which stands for “Together We Influence Change.”
The purpose of the camp remains the same and remains relevant, said co-director Victor Cooper.
The purpose is “to influence positive growth between children in Chicago and children from the North Shore,” said Cooper, who works as a physical education teacher at Washburne School in Winnetka during the school year. “In Winnetka, you don’t see too many African-American families.”
Initially, some children are curious about each other.
“Some of the kids want to touch each other’s hair. And some want to touch their skin, we still get that,” Cooper said.
But once they get to know each other, “a lot of these kids form lifelong friendships,” he said.
The camp is held at Greeley School in Winnetka for children ages 6 to 11. After lunch, they head to New Trier High School’s Winnetka campus, a couple of blocks away, for swim lessons.
The camp was started 45 years ago by David and Mary James. David James was the first African-American to buy a house in Winnetka.
Inspired by their own experiences and the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke in the village in the mid-1960s, the Jameses, an interracial couple, wanted to bring North Shore children together with Chicago children from the neighborhood where James grew up.
The first setting was the James’ back yard on Spruce Street in 1966. As the camp expanded, it moved around until finding a home at Greeley about 10 years ago.
The South Side campers are bused from the Ariel Community Academy near south 46th and Woodlawn in Chicago, said Susan Keats, a Winnetka resident and member of the TWIG board.
“The purpose is to bring kids of different races together, to build a bridge,” Keats said.
Growing up in New Jersey, Keats, 41, attended an integrated school. But black and white children still were discouraged from playing together, she said.
“I had a couple of friends who were black. There was a lot of pressure on us.” But she did not want to give up their friendship. To avoid criticism, they would meet at the farthest playground, to avoid being seen, Keats said.
“I would strive for it and I wanted my kids to have the same opportunity, to grow up and be friends with kids of other races.”
She initially enrolled her first daughter in the camp simply “because it was convenient,” but when she saw how energetic and enthusiastic the children and the counselors were, Keats knew she had made the right decision. And her daughter?
“She loved it. She stayed until she outgrew it,” Keats said. She also enrolled her second daughter, Alina, who attended TWIG for six years and this summer is a counselor in training.
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