OFFENDERS REAP HARVEST OF HOPE

A Spirit Of Healing And Personal Growth Thrives In Daytop Village Center's
Garden

For those searching for a meaningful life, the French philosopher
Voltaire planted this seed of wisdom: ``We must cultivate our garden.''

Forty-five youngsters battling to overcome drug addiction and
shattered childhoods have put the 18th-century writer's words into
practice by turning an illegal dump behind their Redwood City
treatment center into a garden bountiful with vegetables and brilliant
flowers.

When the teenagers started in mid-June, the lot behind the Daytop
Village drug rehabilitation center contained nothing but waist-high
weeds, rusty appliances, bottles and chunks of concrete.

Now, it has neat rows of corn, lettuce, tomato plants and melon
patches, decorated with abalone shells and a scarecrow holding a
silver-red pinwheel.

The garden is a hands-on lesson in the patient nurturing of life for
boys and girls who once escaped broken homes and teen turmoil by
living on the streets, running with gangs and dulling their pain with
everything from alcohol to heroin.

``It's really fulfilling to plant seeds and be here later to pick the
vegetables, knowing that if it wasn't for me (the harvest) wouldn't be
here,'' said Sonya, 16, a Redwood City girl whose poise belies arrests
for car theft, drug use and a childhood where she didn't know her
mother until the woman briefly kidnapped her at age 12.

Now, the young people tell of making vegetable soup, zucchini bread
and breakfast melon from their fall bounty. ``The first time we ate a
salad from the garden, I remember that lunch,'' Sonya said.

For kids who were branded early as losers and dopeheads, the garden is
living proof that they can make something grow while growing
themselves. It has also been a sanctuary, where the young people work
the earth together, learning that others share problems and hopes.

``It's like a family,'' said Steve, a 17-year-old Daly City veteran of
juvenile halls and detention camps. He said Daytop was his
``last-chance'' alternative to serving up to 12 years in the
California Youth Authority after a string of crimes that include
battery, burglary and petty theft.

``I never thought I'd ever be in a place where I could call someone my
brother or my sister,'' he added.

Sonya agreed, saying: ``I've had some of my best talks out here
pulling weeds with (classmates) Nicole and Sabrina. I feel more safe
out here to open up with my issues.''

That's the whole idea behind Daytop, to be a ``healing community''
where youngsters, their parents and staff members work together to
solve the underlying problems that have brought the families such
grief, said Mark Tintrup, the program's director. Adolescents, who
are often referred on probation, attend school and receive treatment
at the Woodside Road campus. Boys and girls live in separate
residential homes.

The garden was the brainchild of Kathy Catalano, a teacher at Daytop's
school, whose instructors work for the San Mateo County education office.

``For some reason, these kids weren't nurtured and cared for when they
were young,'' said Catalano. ``I thought that by working with plants,
they could see that in order to grow you have to be cared for.''

She scrounged for tools at garage sales, and parents donated
fertilizer and other supplies. The students, mostly city kids who
didn't know a trowel from a petunia, took to the work like seasoned
farmers.

Roberto, 17, of San Mateo, the son of Salvadoran immigrants, had never
planted a thing in his life. He had a Jack-in-the-Beanstalk revelation
when corn seeds sown in bare grown sprouted to six-foot plants under
his constant care.

``I love my corn,'' said the young man who hopes to shed a life of
thievery and drug abuse. ``I didn't think they would grow. But after a
few weeks they started getting big.''

As the garden blossomed, the Daytop kids proudly noted the amazed and
impressed looks from motorists waiting in the fast-food drive-through
next door.

``So many people think of us as just a bunch of punk kids who won't
amount to anything because we're messed up on drugs,'' said Nicole,
16, of Burlingame.

``It's more that we've got problems, just like adults,'' said John, a
Redwood City 15-year-old who lost his father at age 4. ``I had a lot
of pain from that and tried to hide it with drugs.''

Like other classmates, John said in the garden he's cultivated a
new-found sense of achievement and confidence. ``It teaches you to not
give up on yourself, because working out here every day is hard and
it's tiring. But if you keep at it, it turns outs out good and that's
something you can use in any job.''

``This is a victory garden in the true sense of the word,'' said David
Shaw, a principal for county schools for juvenile offenders.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED To donate tools, seeds or other gardening
supplies, call Daytop at (650) 367-6684.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry