“Fifteen Years in Fifteen Minutes”

Imagine yourself in a tight, crowded room; loud music booms around, bouncing off the walls and banging on your eardrums.  You stand by a table covered in masking tape.  Drawings and names of past visitors cling to the surfaces surrounding you.  A friendly man playing an acoustic guitar smiles and asks if you would like to join in the next hand of a card game.

 Have you ever wondered what goes on in room 1002?  Have you ever pondered why people refer to room 1002 as “the emo closet,” or “the closet?”  Today, those questions and more will be answered.  First off, “the closet” has always been here at Sierra Vista in one shape or form, though it did “explode” about fifteen years ago.  There were always forty or fifty kids running around, all trying to cramp inside the small place known only as “the emo closet,” “the closet,” or simply, “Mark’s room.”  Also, do you know Lindsey Saunders?  Lindsey gave the name “the closet,” to “the closet.”  She walked inside one day, and said, “Wow…this room is about the size of my closet.”  But how the room earned the name, “the emo closet,” is a different story.  “Every year has a different theme,” Mark stated.  One year the theme was black; all the kids wore black and the room was looked at as “the emo closet.” 

When asked the question, “Is there any way that you help the kids to learn?” Mark answered, “Absolutely; yes.  Where do I start?”  Mark teaches kids to be happy with their selves, and gives them a place to have fun, away from the classrooms.  His only restrictions: “No swearing, always let me win [a hand of cards] out of mercy, and don’t hurt me… or eat my lunch!”  Mark calls himself the “referee,” or the caretaker of all the kids who choose to hang out in his room.

Mark adds “Well it’s hard to describe ‘fifteen years [of hanging in the room] in fifteen minutes,” after describing a lasting memory that occurred in the closet – it was the first time he held a “Jell-O Gulp.”  Although he did mention it was very difficult to sift through all the good times he has had over the years.

Room 1002 is always open, ready to welcome you when you decide to stop by.