Book of Dreams: Volunteers bring guidance and ‘Wonder’ to foster kids
It’s a Tuesday afternoon in late November and 12-year-old Ryan is visiting the Rancho Cordova home of his “guide,” Cherl Enders. They’re planning to make Christmas decorations and do some baking, which happens to be Ryan’s favorite activity.
“It really makes me happy,” Ryan said of the time he gets to spend with Enders in the kitchen. “I love to have people taste what I make and see the smiles on their faces.”
Added Enders: “Baking’s our jam.”
Ryan and Enders, 63, have been meeting, usually twice a month, for the past four and a half years under a mentorship program run through Stanford Sierra Youth & Families.
Called Wonder, it matches kids who are or have been in foster care with adult volunteers who aim to expose the children to new experiences, build their confidence and help ease childhood trauma.
“A lot of these kids have been abused, abandoned or neglected,” said Christie Shorrock, Stanford Sierra’s development director. That makes it hard for them to trust others and form close relationships, Shorrock said. But Wonder helps.
“It connects a child with a mentor who is there specifically for them,” she said. “And they can explore the world together.”
The program currently has 58 “explorers,” as the youths are called. They range in age from 5 to 15 and are hooked up with an equal number of adult “guides.” Together, they get out in nature, visit museums, ice skate or just hang out.
One of the group’s biggest annual events is a weekend camping trip that allows dozens of explorers and guides to ride horses, traverse rope courses, learn archery, make crafts, swim and meet others in the program. This year it was held at Camp Arroyo in Livermore. The year before, at Tuolumne Trails near Yosemite.
“It’s the first opportunity for many of these kids to go away to camp and have that experience,” said Christina Cagle, director of Stanford Sierra’s family and youth partnership division.
Cagle attended the camp this year and said she was blown away by “the laughter, the sparkle in (participants’) eyes. It filled me with joy.”
Funding the annual camp and other Wonder activities is the goal of a $5,000 request Stanford Sierra is making this year to readers of The Sacramento Bee’s Book of Dreams stories. “This is our only program without county funding so this will go to continue and sustain it,” Shorrock said.
An array of help
Wonder is but one of an array of programs at Stanford Sierra, which traces its roots to the Stanford Home for Children, an orphanage that operated from 1900 to 1987. The group no longer provides residential care and instead has evolved into a community-based organization annually serving more than 6,000 kids and adults.
Its programs help with placement of children in foster homes, reunification of foster kids with their biological parents and helping children — both in and out of the foster system — with issues related to mental health, substance abuse and the justice system. The Wonder program was started in 2002 and came under Stanford Sierra’s umbrella about a decade ago,
Enders, who works as a real estate appraiser, was drawn to the program after her daughter moved away from home.
“I found myself with a lot of time on my hands,” she said.
She noted she longed to help young people. One of her passions is a love of nature and she wanted to be able to share that with a young person.
“A lot of kids with challenges, if they could just be introduced to the great outdoors, it would give them a sense that there’s something bigger than themselves out there,” she said.
She ended up being matched with Ryan, who had just gone into foster care along with his two older siblings after their father, a single dad, was injured while working as a store loss-prevention agent and went on disability,
“I was struggling.” Ryan’s dad, John, said of a difficult time that prompted him to contact Child Protective Services and find temporary new homes for his kids. (He asked that his and Ryan’s last name not be used in this story.)
After two years, John regained custody of his children but Ryan has been able to continue meeting with Enders in the Wonder program.
John credits Wonder with helping Ryan through a tough time. “It changed his path,” he said. “I’ve really seen my son turn (things) around and start trusting people.”
And he’s grateful to Enders for being “a mother figure,” who has provided Ryan with love and nurturing.
Bonding through cooking
Enders said she thoroughly enjoys her time with Ryan. “I think he’s a fabulous human being,” she said, crediting Ryan’s father – a “really good-hearted person” – for those traits. Ryan, she added, is funny and unusually “deep” for a 12-year-old, engaging her in discussions about philosophy, politics and spirituality.
The two have gone on bike rides, kayaked on Lake Natoma and hiked. The interest in cooking started one day when Enders asked Ryan if he’d like to help her make a pizza from scratch. “He said, ‘sure.’” They’ve since moved on to other kid-friendly culinary challenges, including spaghetti, shrimp fettuccine, salmon and BBQ burgers.
Ryan clearly loves his time with Enders. Like a lot of kids his age, he has lofty, maybe fanciful ambitions, telling people he’d like to be a pro football or baseball player or maybe a YouTube star. But he has other goals that are solidly grounded.
Starting his own business is one of them. Continuing his education as a chef is likely another.
“I want to learn to cook,” he said, “for my future kids.”
Book of Dreams
The request: Stanford Sierra Youth & Families is looking for aid for its Wonder program, which matches past and current foster kids with caring mentors. The group also is actively looking for mentors, especially males and people from diverse backgrounds, who are willing to commit for at least one year to serve as “guides” to foster kids.
The cost: $5,000
