The Hampden Family Center helped make Easter a little brighter for Christine Bennett.
Unemployed and living on disability checks, Bennett, 41, of Hampden, and her daughter, Courtney, 12, came in last week to pick up a purple bag filled with free fixings for Easter dinner, plus a $20 voucher for a ham or turkey at a Giant supermarket. The bag was being held for them even though they didn't ask for one. Bennett had come in at Christmastime to sign up for a similar bag and was surprised to learn she was still on the family center's radar.
"They were nice enough to remember me from Christmas and told me to come in, which was a blessing," Bennett said.
When asked what she would have done for Easter dinner without the family center's help, she said, "Truthfully, I don't know."
The family center, a longtime resource for everything from utility bill assistance to after-school tutoring for children and GED classes to help adults get their high school graduate equivalency diplomas, has been helping needy Hampden residents since it opened in 1995. This week, the center is celebrating its 20th anniversary — and preparing for its signature fundraiser, the annual Hats Off to Hampden, at the Mansion House on the grounds of the Maryland Zoo at Baltimore.
"I'm so excited about the 20th anniversary," said the center's founder and Hats Off to Hampden committee chairwoman, Alice Ann Finnerty, co-owner of The Turnover Shop and former president of the Hampden Village Merchants Association. "It's so important to walk through those (center) doors and find hope and strength, and programs that are missing in the schools."
Also excited are longtime volunteers, such as Peggy Utermohle of Roland Park's Evergreen neighborhood, a member of the center's board of directors and coordinator of last week's effort to fill 100 purple bags for Easter. As Bennett was getting her bag, Utermohle, a pre-kindergarten teacher at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ruxton, was coming in after work to drop off posters by local artist Greg Otto as auction items for Hats Off to Hampden, the family center's biggest annual fundraiser, which raised about $60,000 last year.
"It's important to keep this neighborhood thriving," said Utermohle, who got involved with the family center through her Episcopal church, St. David's on Roland Avenue. Utermohle also serves on the setup committee for Hats Off to Hampden, and helped solicit donations of gift certificates and other items from local businesses and residents as auction items for the benefit. She even got her aunt, owner of an antiques store on the Eastern Shore, to donate a set of wine glasses.
The dichotomy between Hampden's many low-income residents and its upscale restaurants and boutique stores on The Avenue is not lost on Utermohle.
"You can have all these restaurants and stores, but the people who live here are the most important," she said.
Surviving struggles
Also mindful of the contrast is Lisa Ghinger, executive director of the center, who first came soon after it opened in 1995, left in 2003 to work for the Weinberg Foundation, and came back in 2008.
"I see the struggles that the community faces and I think a center that provides programs and resources for the well-being of the people who need it is critical," said Ghinger, of Homeland. "You're on 36th Street, but just a block in either direction, there's a lot of poverty and drug addiction."
Long before The Avenue gentrified, "We recognized the need in the community" for such a center, said Finnerty, who started it with a coalition of the merchants association, the Hampden Community Council and the Hampden-Midtown Kiwanis Club.
Finnerty said Hampden had high rates of pregnancy and drug abuse, but "There weren't many places Hampden residents could go to find some hope."
The Junior League of Baltimore committed $250,000 over a three-year period to get it off the ground, Finnerty said.
"We couldn't have done it without them, or it would have taken us a lot longer," Finnerty said.
Like the community it serves, the center, at 1104 W. 36th St., has gone through its own hard times, suffering employee furloughs, the loss of several grants and the suspension of some services in 2009.
Now, Ghinger says, "It's all good."
"I think we're stable and that's what we can count on," Finnerty said.
Wide range of services
Today, the center has a budget of about $400,000 a year and offers a wide variety of programs and services, often in conjunction with the business community and area private schools, colleges and universities. Board members include Chad Gauss, chef/owner of The Food Market, one of Hampden's most popular and critically acclaimed restaurants. Gauss is catering Hats Off to Hampden.
The center's program and social services offerings include:
• adult literacy classes in partnership with the Greater Homewood Community Corp., in an area with a high school dropout rate of nearly 14 percent.
• food stamps and other services to eligible residents.
• after-school enrichment in the arts and Study Buddy after-school tutoring and homework help, using volunteers from area colleges and universities.
• a youth photography program and a recording studio.
• luncheons and computer classes for seniors.
• holiday toy drives and an annual Christmas party with gifts for children.
In the next 20 years, the center is eyeing expansion of its programs and renovations to the building — "I think sooner than later," Finnerty said.
Phyllis Rhoten, 69, and her family have used the center for many years.
"They've been really good to a lot of people. Everything they've got going on, I've had help with," said Rhoten, 69, who raised her three grandchildren and now is raising a nephew, who has gotten a scooter and a jacket as gifts at the Christmas party.. She said she also takes advantage of programs for seniors and has helped set up lunches.
Flowers and karate
Last week, Sheila Peter, of Roland Park, and Ginger Suchy, of Timonium, representatives of the Roland Park Garden Club, were at the center, teaching children about various flowers with the help of volunteer Caitlin Meehan, who is majoring in psychology at Towson University and hopes to earn a master's degree in social work. Peter said they come only several times a year but that the children know who they are and say, "Here come the garden ladies."
Drawing flowers at one table in the center's multipurpose room were Kaylen Johnston and Kayla Savage, both students at Hampden Elementary/Middle School. They come daily after school.
"I like all the activities," said Kaylen, a third-grader, especially walks to a nearby park and a homework help session, which she said gives her more free time at home.
They also love tae kwon do lessons.
"She's a blue belt. I'm an orange belt because I just started," said Kayla, a fifth-grader. Kayla also likes the fact that "You get to hang out with your friends."
Bennett came to the center April 1 not just for an Easter bag, but to find out about other programs there, including the GED classes.
"That's something I need to get into," she said.