Essay Contest Reveals Every Day challenges of Caregiving Youth Project Members
By Vickie Middlebrooks
“Chin Music has taken me to a place where pain meets sorrow and is conquered by love and devotion” is the opening sentence of the $1200 winning essay submitted by Kelsy Timot, a member of the Caregiving Youth Project of the American Association of Caregiving Youth since 2008. She is a senior at Atlantic High School.
Kelsy, who had to grow up quickly to care for her young niece, scripted, “Facing my own every day challenges has meant putting my own childhood behind me….I have done everything that a mother should do and have seen everything only a mother should see…I have spent many a sleepless night because my niece has had trouble breathing from birth. Furthermore, since my mom works, I do the cooking and cleaning, as well as bathing my niece, and getting her ready for school. As a result, my schoolwork has been affected. I neither have time to study nor the time to enjoy myself. Caregiving Youth of America has helped me by giving me time to be a child again. Hanging out with kids my age and meeting people who cope with the same circumstances as I do have helped me overcome the challenges I face…it takes the strength of a mighty wind within us to seek help and not feel ashamed of whom we are…”
There were significant other prizes. Cherlyn Rosemey of Boca Raton Community High won second place, an award of $750 while third and fourth place tied. The $300 third place winners were Marica Dorzin who attends Atlantic High and Marlin Keim of Lake Worth High School. Fourth place winners who received $100 were Rachelle Sagat of Lake Worth High and Kerry Maxime of Boca Raton Community High School.
The “novel” idea to make a difference in the lives of caregiving youth came alive by Lee Edelstein, author of Chin Music and his good friend Bob Haupt. Edelstein donated autographed books to CYP high school juniors. Essays were evaluated according to specific criteria by three independent judges, Edelstein, Barbara Carney of Boca Raton and Christopher Noe of Delray Beach. The BOMAR Foundation sponsored the awards and the event reception was hosted by Oceans 234 on Thursday evening, Oct. 10.
Edelstein commented, “The book is not really about baseball. It’s about the lives of people who face and overcome life’s challenges. We all have them in our lives and it’s how we learn from them that make a difference for our futures.”
At the reception, tears filled the eyes of many as Haupt announced this would be the Inaugural Reading and Essay Contest to benefit CYP members.
AACY is a Florida based 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation that began serving the greater Boca Raton community in 1998. Today AACY is the only organization of its kind in the United States that addresses the issues of children, who provide care for ill, injured, elderly or disabled family members. Its model program, the Caregiving Youth Project, works in partnership with the School District of Palm Beach County. Connie Siskowski, the organization’s founder, was a 2012 CNN Top Ten Hero.
For more information call 561-391-7401 or visit www.aacy.org.
