Pay to play

Lynn Doan

Friday, July 16, 2004 | 4:09 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

July 17 - 18, 2004

It was just another busy day for Camp Mirabelli counselor Jodee Italiano. Papers needed stapling, phones needed answering and ice packs needed freezing.

Someone had to investigate the mysteriously disappearing alphabet letters that bordered Mirabelli Community Center's walls. Someone else had to tend to the camp's 3- and 4-year-olds who needed their lunches, pronto.

"These are the kinds of kids that are used to having their mommies kiss every owie, no matter how teeny the owie may be," said the center's recreation facilities director Sue Bartling, as she pressed a frozen water bottle to one toddler's forehead. "Jodee isn't an octopus with a million legs to kiss everybody's boo-boos."

That's what the teenagers are for. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a group of 15 neighborhood teenagers bike to Mirabelli and help Italiano with the center's activities as part of the "We Pay for You to Play" program. Volunteers earn points for community service, behavior and academic success, which can then be traded in for field trips to places such as Circus Circus and GameWorks.

Bartling said that so many teenagers have volunteered this summer that she was able to cut her camp staff down to three employees.

"The city's mission is to use as many volunteers as you can to save on expenses," she said. "What better way than to have these kids helping?"

Some of the volunteers organize activities for the children who attend Mirabelli's three youth camps. Some act as teacher's aides for the center's educational classes. And others walk between rooms, anticipating the next random order that will eventually be thrown their way.

Fifteen-year-old Jordan Rose's task last Tuesday was to remove the alphabet letters stapled around Mirabelli's walls and make a list of those missing. Letters in hand, Rose said he volunteers at the center because there isn't much else to do during the summer.

Jordan and his sister, Whitney Rose, 13, have been volunteers at the center since they moved into the neighborhood four years ago. They were lounging outside the center one day when Bartling approached them and asked if they'd like something to do. They cleaned Mirabelli's entire storeroom that afternoon.

"We found a lot of moldy stuff," Whitney said.

But that didn't keep her from coming back for more volunteer work. Whitney said she now volunteers for the center almost every day, even preferring to spend her weekends at the center instead of at friends' houses.

"I don't really want to go to my friends' houses anymore," she said. "I try to make them come here with me because I want to come here."

Like Whitney, 14-year-old Aaron Frazier was hanging out at the center with a friend when someone asked if they'd like to help. Aaron said he didn't even know they were going to be receiving field trips in return.

"I do it because I want to," Aaron said. "I'd probably be sitting at home anyway."

For Chris McNutt, 16, volunteering at Mirabelli isn't just about earning trips to laser tag arenas and football games. It's about staying busy.

Luckily, Bartling said keeping Chris busy with work is easy. And at Mirabelli, there is enough work to keep all of the teenagers busy during their eight-hour shifts.

"Somebody's got to get in that room and mop the floor and clean -- is that you, Chris?" Bartling asked, turning her head to Chris, who had raised his hand.

"If you want me to," Chris said.

Earlier this year the volunteers created a group, the "Dream Team," and went before a 15-person panel of the Youth Neighborhood Association Partnership Program to secure $3,000 in grants for the center. So far they have used the grants to coordinate day trips for senior centers and shelters such as the Shade Tree, an emergency shelter for homeless women and women with children in crisis.

In April the team used part of the grant money to bus women and children from the Shade Tree to Mirabelli to celebrate Easter. The volunteers set up a rock climbing course, a pinata and an Easter egg hunt.

"It brought smiles to the kids' faces, and I like to see them smile," Whitney said.

Lori Scharar, a part-time teacher at Mirabelli, said the most successful part of the volunteer program is that it gives the teenagers a place to feel comfortable. Scharar, who went to preschool at Mirabelli and now brings her two children to the center for classes, said Mirabelli is the group's refuge.

"These kids, this is their home," she said.

Teenagers interested in volunteering for Mirabelli Community Center during the fall should call (702) 229-6359.