Homeless project inspired by school friend

By Gertha Coffee

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Eleven-year-old Darrielle McCray was given an adult-size introduction to foreclosure.

The rising seventh-grader at M.D. Roberts Middle School in Clayton County saw a close friend and her family lose their home. She and her friend, whom she declined to name, had been friends since second grade. After the foreclosure the friend "kind of lost interest in her grades,”  said McCray, who is in a gifted program.

Her friend moved from suburbia to a homeless shelter to a mobile home park, said McCray, who has turned what started out as a social studies project into an award-winning documentary on how foreclosures affect children.  She also created and manages an interactive Web site, www.kidsofforeclosure.com, to draw attention to the crisis.

“I thought about what happened to her and I wanted to do my project on that topic,” McCray said. She surveyed and interviewed  homeless students  and has created a blog where they share their experiences.

“Two of the students stopped going to school,” said McCray, who turned what she learned into  “The Economy and Foreclosure: How Does it Affect Students’ Studies and Their Families?”  She wrote  President Obama and  called U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) to help draw attention to what McCray calls the real victims of the recession. She spoke in April at  Kennesaw State University's 8th annual Social Studies Conference.  She has submitted a documentary to C-SPAN.

“I want to help them remain in their home schools,” she said.

Georgia was in the top five states for foreclosures in the nation last year. In the first quarter of 2010, Georgia was third in mortgage delinquencies and fourth in foreclosures started, according to a report last month by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

McCray did a power point presentation of her project last week at the Clayton County school board meeting. She has received state, local and national recognition, including an award from the Friends of Georgia Archives and History for her work, and will compete this fall at the International Student Media Festival in Anaheim, Calif.

“My role -- other than supporting her -- was after she had already shot the footage, to show her how to edit the video and put it in a format where it could be displayed,” said Wendy Cotton, her social studies teacher. “She is extremely focused beyond her years. I have been surprised by her level of compassion and commitment.”

McCray lives in McDonough with her parents, Darrick and Shondel McCray, and her brother, Dysan. Her father is an assistant principal at Mundy's Mill High School and her mother teaches at Mundy's Mill Middle School. Her parents are proud.

“She wants to take it to the next level,” said her mother. “When she is focused on something she wants to do, she wants to find so many different avenues to pursue it. I don’t have to push her to do homework, or too much of anything else,” she said.

"Other than housework,” she added, teasing her daughter.

"Where this started as a project, she has now committed to a continual effort to make a change or see a difference in the world," her father said. " She works really hard in all her endeavors."

Darrielle McCray likes reading, writing and dancing and this year won a competition hosted by the National John Steinbeck Center. This summer, in addition to photography, dancing and cheerleading camp, she is drawing up business plans (with mom's help) for  Jewelry for Justice, which she hopes to launch in the fall.  She plans to make and sell locker magnets and bottle-cap jewelry with encouraging messages to raise money for homeless shelters.

When she grows up, she said, as a way to continue her efforts, “I want to be a lawyer and then a judge.”

More information...

•  To tutor students who are homeless at www.schoolonwheels.org

‘• Visit www.kidsofforeclosure.com for more information, along with information about Jewelry for Justice when it becomes available.