There's something about two big brown eyes set in a young smiling pudgy face that my heart can't resist. Little Fernando participated in our third pilot program last week. He darts around the room with energy like a firecracker and is actually too young to have participated in our program. Don't let his miniature size fool you though--he catches on to games and activities sometimes faster than the older kids and fearlessly runs and plays with all the campers twice his size. He's in Kindergarten and our programs are for children in 1st through 6th grades. However, he was signed up on the same form as his older sister and slipped through my lines of defense with his toothless grin and the excited twinkle in his eyes. Once I realized that we had a stow-away in our camp, it was too late to tell him to leave because he was already part of the camp family. So, I decided it was only appropriate to give him a special name--after all, he was a special addition to the camp. From the beginning, he was known as "El Pequeñito Fer".
I thoroughly enjoyed watching him soak up every activity with wonder and excitement. There's something special about the youngest children who participate in these pilot programs. I look at them and see them as the first set of kids who could possibly go completely through school while simultaneously going through our programs. I think about how the trajectory of their lives will change from the extra love, attention, and support.
On the last day of camp, it occurred to me that perhaps El Pequeñito Fer didn't like being called pequeñito (small). Maybe he wanted to be called big or strong, perhaps El Gran Fer. I stooped down as he was punching out holes in his craft and asked him about it. He looked up at me, obviously confused by the question. He was El Pequeñito Fer, why would he want to be anything else?
