Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
October 30, 2002
When home not so sweet, Boys Hope provides family
Home for at-risk boys undergoing improvements
By Jack Bacon
It's a typical family afternoon — chicken frying for dinner, boys trooping in from school, around-the-table conversation. This is a home, not a shelter or a treatment center — although shelter and healing are among the benefits, as they are in any family.
And this is a family, one living in an attractive, clean and well-furnished house on a one-acre corner lot in the near-rural suburb of Foxfield in southeast metropolitan Denver.
Four of the boys attend nearby Regis Jesuit High School, the younger three are students at St. Pius X Elementary School in north Aurora. All seven, ages 10-17, live here because the homes they came from were too chaotic, dangerous or nonexistent.
They live at Boys Hope Girls Hope of Denver, part of international network of homes founded by Jesuit Father Paul Sheridan in St. Louis in 1975 that is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first home there on Nov. 9-10.
Boys Hope opened in Colorado eight years ago, thanks in large part to the Home Builders Foundation of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver. Boys Hope Girls Hope owes its existence entirely to the generosity of metro-area residents and organizations — and not just material generosity.
"People are still so good, and so concerned about other people," despite an economy pinching both businesses and individuals, Executive Director Debbie O'Dwyer said.
She has a lot of evidence. Currently the house is being remodeled by the Home Builders Foundation — entirely with donated materials and labor, including replacement of all 51 windows in the residence by Chuck Guete of Home Lumber.
Boys Hope Girls Hope in Colorado is still for boys only. O'Dwyer said a site is being sought for a Girls Hope home near the boys residence and that ideally the project can start "in a couple of years." Like the boys home, it would accommodate six to eight young residents plus three adults who live there, Kirsten Broady and Michelle Tinsdale as "house parents," Rob Ostheimer as a counselor. The "parents" are full-time, permanent employees; Ostheimer is a one-year, live-in volunteer from Richmond, Va., who graduated this year from the University of Iowa.
Candidates for residence — usually referred by concerned social workers, school personnel, doctors etc., but occasionally by an overwhelmed natural parent — aren't juvenile cases; there are no court referrals because they can have no "judicial problems," O'Dwyer said. Screening is thorough, with strong emphasis on academic potential — high school boys must be "capable of succeeding in a competitive private, college-preparatory high school."
They are boys considered "at risk" because of their home environment but must have no serious emotional and behavioral problems or severe diagnosed learning disability, be able to relate positively in group-living situations and "want to be a Boys Hope Girls Hope candidate."
Transition to a demanding college-preparatory academic program is usually a problem, likely to require special tutoring by volunteers — a regular continuing part of the Boys Hope Girls Hope program.
Volunteer tutors are readily available and constitute one category of a wide range of volunteers virtually on call. Members of the Regis Moms cook and deliver two evening meals every week. Volunteers also are provided by Our Lady of Loreto Parish. Numerous volunteers serve as drivers for the school transportation and other errand-running demanded of families. The trips are made in donated vehicles.
The range also includes a call-list of members of the Knights of Columbus who make minor repairs. The Knights who answer a call always take one of the boys along to buy parts and help fix the problem.
"We hardly need to change a light bulb" without help, O'Dwyer said.
In the kitchen, frying that chicken, is Jim Kent, who cooks the home one meal a week "because I enjoy it." He welcomes the boys' help and teaches them his culinary skills, including baking bread.
He was a cook "a long time ago," Kent said, but he's retired from operating leather tanneries in Australia and for 10 years in Yugoslavia before the Communist nation disintegrated.
O'Dwyer said Boys Hope's remodeling was "adopted" by the Home Builders Foundation with Joe Padilla, who has his own remodeling company, as volunteer "team captain" for the foundation. He oversees the work and rounds up needed supplies, equipment and labor. Major elements, in addition to the 51 windows, included re-tiling the kitchen, bathroom and "mud room."
Most of the home's support comes from the Jesuits, who issue full scholarships to all the boys. St. Pius X Parish also scholarships boys attending its classes, with help from Most Precious Blood Parish. The Archdiocese of Denver's Seeds of Hope program also assists.
O'Dwyer said Regis Jesuit also has agreed to issue scholarships to the high school's girls division, opening next fall, when the Girls Hope home opens. A different type of aid came from the high school last year: 30 truckloads of dirt from its construction site to build a berm between the home and East Arapahoe Road.
The scholarship investments pay off, O'Dwyer said. Three high school graduates from the home now attend college. A fourth, Curtis Tunson, will graduate from Regis in the spring.
"The most important (decision) I made was coming to Boys Hope," Tunson said. "The staff must be the most genuinely caring people that you can find."
Boys Hope Girls Hope is governed by a 16-member board of directors and eight-member "junior board," which "does the same thing — fundraising, public relations, public awareness ... they're really the future board members," O'Dwyer said.
She said the size of the home, up to eight student residents, was fixed by the national organization as the optimum to maintain a genuine family atmosphere and the strong academic and spiritual encouragement that go with it.
Two hours, 6:30-8:30 p.m., each evening are dedicated to study by all the boys, in addition to "reflection" time. All the boys go to Mass on Sundays, whether they're Catholic nor not — "That's part of it," O'Dwyer said. Non-Catholics, however are free to attend other services if their families take them; two of the boys are Muslim. Boys Hope admits residents without regard to race or religion.
The boys live at the home year-round but can visit home every other weekend and on holidays.
Padilla said the volunteer work his organization performs is a privilege.
"Boys Hope is offering an opportunity of a lifetime for these young men and we want to be part of this," he said.
To contact Boys Hope Girls Hope, call Debbie O'Dwyer, 720-524-9131.
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