Burnet’s DIVA Dawgs learn value of volunteering

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

BURNET — Mona Bible knows the challenges young girls face. After all, before she became a mother of a teenager and an elementary student, she was a girl herself.

“It is a bit different now being a young girl with all the things like the Internet and social media,” Bible said. “Something like this — DIVA Dawgs — helps. It helps the girls and moms.” Bible’s 10-year-old daughter, Kendall, gave a shy smile when asked what she’s learned while attending the monthly Dynamic DIVA Dawg Club meetings. She shrugged a bit.

“Helping others,” Kendall added with a smile. Which is good because this meeting isn’t really a meeting but one of the DIVA Dawgs’ community service projects. The elementary-aged girls, assisted by their Burnet middle school and high school mentors as well as their mothers, served the community meal at Vanderveer Street Church of Christ in Burnet.

Darlene Denton, a DIVA Dawgs sponsor, explained that just about every night in Burnet, with the exception of Friday, some church or organization hosts a community meal. This one — on a Thursday — is at the church. The DIVA Dawgs — which stands for Devoted, Inspired, Virtuous, Authentic — were filling in for one of the regular groups that serves the meal, giving them a break, Denton explained.

“It’s a chance for the girls to just give back and do something for the community,” Denton said. “We’re teaching them about helping out and other things.”

Denton started the Dynamic DIVA Dawg Club at the beginning of the school year to give elementary-aged girls a place to meet once a month, spend time together and learn different characteristics and aspects of becoming a young woman. But instead of Denton or another adult presenting the monthly topic or lesson, Burnet Middle School and Burnet High School girls do it. This, Denton explained, works on several levels. First, the younger girls look up to the older girls so they’re likely to listen. The older girls also serve as mentors for the younger ones.

“It also holds the older girls accountable,” Denton explained. “They realize these younger girls are looking up to them and watching them, so the middle school and high school girls know how they behave, what they do and what they say matters.”

Kendall agreed that having the older girls give the lessons and helping means a lot.

“I like having them around,” she said.

And it’s not just about the girls, the mothers are part of the program as well. While the girls take in a lesson, organizers have a program for the mothers, even if it’s simply sitting and sharing thoughts and concerns about raising children — especially daughters.

Mona Bible likes having that time with other moms.

“Sometimes, you think you’re all alone. But then you hear other moms going through a similar thing with their daughters, and you think, ‘OK, my daughter’s normal, and this is something everybody goes through,’” she said. “It’s nice to have that time with other moms.”

She’s even noticed that since she and Kendall began attending the monthly meetings, her daughter seems more willing to share things with her.

“Maybe that will mean she’ll continue to share her emotions with me and just talk as she becomes a teenager,” she said.

That’s what Denton loves about the program.

“It’s a win-win-win for everybody — the younger girls, the older girls and the moms,” she said.

This time, the winners also included the folks gathering for the community meal at Vanderveer Street Church of Christ. While this is one of the few times DIVA Dawgs helped with the meal as a group, Denton said when the Church of Christ hosts a meal, there are usually 80-100 people attending. And when another wave of dinners came in, the girls quickly headed back to the serving line or got ready to help people find a seat.

“I wish I could do this all the time,” said one girl. Denton hugged her.

“See, that’s what I love about this,” she said. “The girls really are seeing how they can make a difference in their lives and others.”

Call Denton at (512) 715-3668 or Melissa Alexander at (512) 715-5194 for more information on the Dynamic DIVA Dawg Club.

daniel@thepicayune.com