This week our guest blogger is Hallie Marie McErlaine. Hallie Marie is a Mountain T.O.P Summer Staff Alumni, after serving as a Service Project Ministry Coordinator, Program Manager, and Director from 2019-2021. She currently works as an elementary school teacher in Decatur, Georgia and is a professional doodler.
Cultivating Belonging (in a Weird Wonderful Way)
“Can I draw on your arm?”
That question directed at a 15 year-old-girl in my Youth Renewal Group (YRG) became a catalyst of a bigger movement across the Mountain T.O.P. camp community last week. I had noticed this girl sitting by herself at our work site and grabbed the Sharpie clipped onto my name tag. The other members of my YRG quickly requested their own doodles. I had no idea that drawing a worm wearing a cowboy hat could make an impact, but as the day wore on, I saw how happy these Sharpie worm doodles made my YRG. When we got back to camp, they proudly showed off their forearms to the Summer Staff, who also asked for their own worm doodles. Soon, students I’d never met before appeared, asking me to draw a worm on their arms. I got to learn their names and where they were from and what they did that day. Whenever I noticed someone standing in the margins, I’d ask if I could draw on a worm on their arm.
I had no idea that drawing a worm wearing a cowboy hat could make an impact, but as the day wore on, I saw how happy these Sharpie worm doodles made my YRG.
Eventually, I heard questions like, “What’s with the worms?” “What do they mean?” or “Why worms?”
At the moment, I would reply by simply saying the worms make people happy and I like drawing them. However now as I write this, I’ve reflected more on my awesome week at camp and the 2023 theme of “Cultivate.”
Cultivation is the preparation and nourishment of land for gardening. An essential part of that preparation is fertilization, which ironically, worms provide. According to Sarah Johnson, a PhD Researcher in Environmental Science at King's College in London, “Ecologists consider earthworms “keystone species” because of how much they influence the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil.”
I observed worm doodles cultivating a sense of belonging across the camp community. They drew in people outside of my YRG, Major Group, or church; people standing on the margins received a worm doodle. Seeing a huge smile light up across someone’s face as they showed off the doodle that made them feel known was powerful to watch.
In our daybreak devotion on Friday, we were challenged to cultivate belonging by creating what you crave. That statement was perfect closure to explain what spread through our camp community, because the worm doodles were my way of cultivating what I craved. When I was asked to be an adult for a week of Youth Summer Ministry at Mountain T.O.P., I was a little nervous. I still get worried about not knowing anyone or anxious about meeting new people. However, Mountain T.O.P. is a safe place to be the most outgoing version of yourself and I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, because I crave community. I crave connection. I crave feeling like I belong.
I hope you will … … cultivate belonging in your community through whatever weird, wonderful way you can. It could be extending an invitation to play 9 Square, picking up a basketball, going for a walk, or doodling together. Draw in people on the margins, the ones standing on the sidelines, to create what you crave.