Endings and Beginnings

Two days ago, we celebrated the final day of the 18/19 academic year, as well as Chase’s last day with us as a student member.  He joined Deep Root Center in August 2017 and despite growing and maturing tremendously over the past two years with us, his personality remains pretty consistent with the following DRC Spotlight I wrote in November of 2017, after knowing him for a few short months.

“Thanks for the warning”, Chase responds, with a sly grin, every time someone announces they    are leaving the room, but will be coming back soon.  This is often followed up with his trademark observation – “fabulous.”  In a place where everyone takes great pride in their word play skills, Chase is always happy to engage in any witty repartee.
 
Halloween is Chase’s favorite season, yes, for him it is not one single day, but a month-long celebration of all things dark, evil, and scary.  He specializes in spooking his friends at DRC and making particularly bad puns, repeatedly. His entire collection of Halloween decorations resided at DRC for the month of October - with plastic rats (which squeaked), skeleton garlands, fake spider webs, and Styrofoam tombstones lining the stairway.  This morning (two weeks after Halloween), he was wearing a half mask from his Halloween costume, along with his customary leather jacket, black hoodie, and dark sunglasses, when I met him at the St Lawrence County bus which he rides from Gouverneur, every day.  When I asked why, he said, “I wanted to see how people on the bus would react.”
 
I knew Chase was going to flourish at DRC, when I first met him, in August, to write his IHIP … As you can probably imagine, Chase’s are filled with fascinating themes such as rituals, tragedy, super-heroes, and villains, as well as the psychology of fictional characters.  He is currently researching whether super-hero’s powers could actually be real. Not surprisingly, he has traced the history of Halloween back to its Celtic origins.  He is also studying the rituals of demonology and has instigated a class about religion – to learn about the history as well as the differences and similarities of various theological beliefs from around the world. 
 
Chase fits in perfectly at Deep Root Center. … his innate love of learning inspires others to seek out their passions and his droll observations are a perfect complement to the never-ending daily comedic routines that keep us all laughing.

This past year, Chase’s verbal jousting grew to include the statement: “this is why we can’t have nice things,” which he threw out at every opportunity, whether it technically made sense or not.  It became the running joke, which everyone responded to with varying levels of tolerance.  My forbearance, honestly, ended about two weeks into the run. 
 
Unfortunately, Chase did not have the opportunity to decorate for his favorite season because we were deeply into the process of moving from Main Street to our new home at 48 Riverside.  He made the best of it by decorating the cellar for one day, soon after moving in, with his entire collection. 
 
Chase spent a good portion of this past year studying Viking History and lore.  He also started creating and drawing “Were” characters; his drawing pad is now filled with these otherworldly creatures.  Chase delves deeply into every subject he decides to pursue, yet on the surface he appears scattered.  He has a million ideas and wants to investigate all of them, but usually ends up getting caught in the web of one or two projects, which often times remain unfinished because of the wormholes he follows in the quest for deeper understanding.  When all of that intense focus and mental gymnastics become too much, he loves nothing more than to escape (at least once a day) to either Heritage Park or the SUNY Canton trail to race, run, play, and climb.

A few scenes from Chase's last week as a student member.

The other kids have dubbed him, “Uncle Chase,” and we are delighted to announce that he will be expanding on that role to be our Apprentice starting this August.  We asked him to take on this position, due to the fact that everyone looks up to him, not only as a role model to emulate, but as another person who cares deeply about them, and who they know will advocate for them in the wider world.  
 
Everyone needs an “Uncle Chase” – that ridiculously, fun-loving guy who will put up with your antics until you have reached the limits of even his tolerance. After which, he will smack you down to reality with a drolly, precise exclamation that reflects his innate ability to connect on that profoundly human level with every person he meets.
 
Congratulations on finishing your High School career, Chase!  And, welcome to the DRC Team! I am looking forward to mentoring you in this new position and watching you continue to grow and mature, as you take it on with your trademark exuberance and passion.

DRC News
Garage Sale
A reminder that the DRC Fundraising Garage Sale is Saturday, June 1st from 8:30-2:00.  We will be accepting donations this coming week.  Please get in touch if you have something you would like to donate. Thanks!
Summer
I will be out of town for most of the month of June. I will be available through email or text.
Check out this amazing opportunity:
DRC's seedling coordinator, Christopher Raymo, will be offering Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)classes each Friday at 10am this summer, June - August. The classes will be individualized for each student and tailored to styles and technique that fits each person. The classes will be free to DRC students and open to the public for $10/class. Simple uniforms will be required. To register and get specific info about the uniforms please contact Christopher Raymo @ 315-262-7261.