SummerServe volunteers teach children healthy lifestyle habits

Bright, bouncy puppets get youngsters excited about nutrition

Inside Frederick Community College's Children's Center Aug. 5, sisters Linnea and Alexis Kriete, Eric Darby and Timisha Carmon, ranging in age from 10 to 16, brought their nearly child-sized puppets to life as part of Volunteer Frederick's SummerServe.

SummerServe is a five-week program that engages youth, ages 11 to 17, in various volunteer service activities around Frederick County.

From July 7 to Aug. 7, 34 children worked on 13 different service projects, from maintaining trails in Gambrill State Park to building horse feeders at Tranquility Farm Equestrian Education and Renewal Center in Thurmont to creating photography exhibits at The Frederick Rescue Mission.

Middletown residents Alexis, Linnea and Eric, and Timisha of Frederick chose to become puppeteers for the summer and learn "bunraku," an ancient Japanese style of puppetry. In "bunraku" the puppeteer, dressed in black from head to toe, stands behind the puppet.

For the last eight years, the Mental Health Association of Frederick County has provided SummerServe volunteers with a script and puppets from "Kids on the Block," an educational puppet show based in Columbia.

Kids on the Block scripts teach young children about health issues from eating right and exercising to smoking, bullying and child abuse prevention.

This year, the SummerServe volunteers tackled a new script about proper nutrition and exercise and have performed six 30-minute shows for children at elementary schools in Frederick, Urbana and Walkersville. The show allows the young audience to ask questions and gets them dancing.

Timisha, 10, noted that working with younger children is "kind of fun because you can sing songs with them. Sometimes you get nervous with the kids because you don't know what their reactions will be," she added.

With the help of Caitlin Dempsey, a SummerServe counselor, Timisha, Alexis, Eric and Linnea had a week to memorize the script and another week of rehearsals before their first show.

Though their arms tire from holding the puppets up and manipulating their hands, "It's pretty natural," Linnea, 13, said about working the puppets. "They sort of just hobble around the stage," Alexis added.

Alexis, a rising senior at Middletown High School, said she has participated in SummerServe for six years and Volunteer Frederick's Youth Action Corps last year. During the school year, professional puppeteers visit local schools and YMCA programs and perform Kids on the Block shows, said Cathie Deadrick of the Mental Health Association of Frederick County.

Deadrick, who is coordinator of youth education outreach, said children are more likely to learn and absorb the show's information if it is presented in an entertaining manner, such as during a puppet show. "… They're quite glued to the puppets," she said.

The shows have also had a dramatic effect in allowing children to speak up, especially about child abuse.

In the past, some children have come forward after Kids on the Block performances about personal body safety and told puppeteers that they have suffered abuse, Deadrick said. The show allowed them to feel OK about talking, she added.