BCNY Staff Blog: "From the Desk of"

FROM THE DESK OF

A BCNY staff blog series.

What Makes the Boys' Club so special?

In 1991, after working for the Boys’ Club for 13 years on

Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I arrived in Marion McMahon Abbe

Clubhouse in Flushing, Queens, as the new Clubhouse Director.

Flushing was indeed very strange territory for me; I grew up an

urban kid navigating the mean streets of Harlem, the South

Bronx and Bedford Stuyvesant. Even my work on the Lower

East Side was at a time when the streets were rampant with

crime, drugs and all the other outward signs of a city struggling

to find its way.

Working at Abbe brought me to 41st Road, a tree lined block of

one-family homes that had backyards and garages, and

bicycles left lying in the front yard. As you can imagine, no one

I knew left their bikes lying on their front lawns, even they had a

front lawn at all! The neighborhood a very big change for me,

to say the least.

My first thought was what would the members be like? I loved

working with the members in Manhattan, and while I fully

expected to integrate our new Abbe members into the Boys’

Club culture, I admit that I was afraid that these comparatively

suburban boys would not relate to the Boys’ Club, and would

not relate to me.

I shouldn’t have worried. I had forgotten what drew me to the

Boys’ Club, and what has kept me there for so many years. It

have never been about whether members are urban or

suburban, rich or poor, from Queens or Manhattan. It’s about

personalities. Yes those wonderful, unpredictable, enriching

personalities that you see growing before your eyes. Boys’

Club boys are amazing kids across the board, and being in

Flushing didn’t change a thing.

VISIT WWW.BCNY.ORG OR FIND US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE INSPIRING STORIES!

WWW.BCNY.ORG • FACEBOOK.COM/BOYSCLUBNEWYORK • @BOYSCLUBNY

FROM THE DESK OF Abbe Clubhouse Director RON BRITT

Discovering the World One Bite at a Time

Each winter, the Explorer Department at Abbe Clubhouse participates in Look

Who's Cooking, an amazing program that teaches our youngest members basic

cooking skills. Having come from an education background prior to working at

BCNY, I had been looking forward to heading the weekly program, ordering all

the supplies, laying out the lesson plans and equipment, and getting hands-on

with the registered participants. We offer so many important programs for our

members, and sometimes I miss standing up in front of the kids leading the

way, even though it gives me goose bumps to see my young front line staff

facilitating programs with more and more finesse as the weeks go on. So I was

excited! What I guess I didn't expect was the unbridled enthusiasm these 15

boys brought to the first day.

I had been warned of the picky eaters, the complainers, and an anti-

vegetable majority that I would be dealing with. But what I found was the

complete opposite. Given the opportunity to be involved in this "exclusive

cooking group", I have seen a table full of boys actually request to eat

handfuls of raw spinach, because it "looks so fresh." The conversations that

have begun over a simple healthy meal are what every parent hopes to

achieve by surrounding their young family around a table for mealtime, and

I feel so ecstatic to be bringing this to our members. The members share

their own cultural heritage and backgrounds in relation to the foods they

eat, they speak of experiences trying new foods, traveling, or learning

about a country at school. They connect.

As a group we discovered that cilantro on its own DOES taste a bit like soap.

We tried little bites of firm tofu plain, with puzzled expressions. A finished bowl

of miso soup later, 9 year old Jayden proclaimed, "that tofu really takes the

flavor of what you cook it with!" We learned who among us is immune to the

cruel sting of cutting raw onion (those lucky boys!), and who tearfully has to

suffer through it. And we even grew to accept that pancakes can be healthy

and just as tasty when made with whole wheat flour and fresh fruit.

If life is about the small pleasures, then surely it is best experienced through

children's eyes. The pride of creating something from scratch, the first taste of

a sweet red pepper, the ease of chopping vegetables when holding a knife the

proper way: are these those small pleasures that make up a happy life? It

seems so to me. And as I embark on motherhood next month with a boy of my

own, I look forward with sweet anticipation to these moments of discovery

that he will experience some day.



FROM THE DESK OF Abbe Clubhouse Explorer Director BRYNN CURRY

Members create art for Michael R. Bloomberg

In the Harriman Clubhouse Art Department we love taking

pictures, making cool things, and taking pictures of the cool

things we make. Recently, we’ve been focused on something

new altogether: healthy eating!

That’s because we’ve been brainstorming a special art project

for our illustrious former mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who will

be speaking at the 2016 Winter Luncheon. During his time as

Mayor, Mr. Bloomberg was very interested in promoting healthy

eating and being environmentally conscious. With that in mind,

we bought some fresh fruits and vegetables and we’re currently

using them to create an extra special art project to give him at

the Luncheon.



Check out the healthy-eating

inspired work that

contributed to the final

project (left).

BCNY members Tobi (not pictured)

and Christian share their work with

Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the

2016 Winter Luncheon.

FROM THE DESK OF Harriman Clubhouse Arts Director

RACHEL CASTRO

Mind Over Matter

A day in the life of a BCNY Mental Health Counselor is an

interesting, fun, and often challenging experience.

My day begins long before the boys get here at 3pm. I spend a

few hours every day making phone calls to parents to set up

appointments, schedule intakes and assessments for newly

referred members, meet with staff to discuss members that are

in need of more support, and do clinical notes.

Once our members get to the clubhouse, the day really takes

off! A typical afternoon—well, there’s no such thing! Each day I

have counseling sessions with the members on my caseload,

between which I run around the clubhouse helping members

who are having challenging days, or supporting staff with a

tough activity.

Sometimes a member is displaying difficult behavior due to

interpersonal issues with another member. And sometimes

difficult behavior is really rooted in something at school or at

home. It can be hard to figure out exactly why a member is

upset, but if I’m patient and thoughtful, I can almost always

help the member feel better.

My evenings often involve meeting with parents to give

updates on their son’s progress and report to them how their

son’s day was in the building. Sometimes I run a parent

workshop, too, helping parents understand their child’s anger,

or teaching parents how to recognize bullying.

I look at my role at BCNY this way: my job is to support and

help each and every member and help him learn to express and

regulate his emotions in a healthy and pro-social

manner. While each day may look a little different from the

one that came before, the joy and satisfaction I get from

working with our members and being a part of The Boys’ Club

of New York family is a constant!



FROM THE DESK OF Harriman Clubhouse Mental Health Counselor ALEX NEWLIN

The Joan Mitchell Foundation: Abbe Heroes

Did you know that BCNY’s Abbe Clubhouse is one of only six

organizations to have programming by the celebrated Artist-

Teachers of the Joan Mitchell Foundation? And did you know

we’ve partnered with them for over a decade?

For more than 10 years, The Joan Mitchell Foundation has been

holding weekday, weekend, and summer classes at Abbe

Clubhouse. Not only are the classes free of charge to members,

but they also provide materials and instruction at no cost to

BCNY. The foundation, named after American Abstract

Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell, is an advocate for emerging

artists and provides opportunities through grantmaking,

programming, and collaborations. It has also provided an

educational component for youth in many New York City

communities, including our Flushing members.

JMF has been an indispensable resource for arts programming

at the Abbe. By providing an array of educational opportunities,

JMF has helped BCNY members to exhibit their work through

the CUE Art Foundation, work with Artist-Teachers in creating

portfolios, and helped students be selected as scholarship

recipients to attend the Oxbow School in Napa, California.

The support provided by JMF has, and continues to, helps me

and my colleagues at Abbe Clubhouse foster the artistic

development of our members. We’re extremely grateful for the

partnership that has developed over the many years, as well as

the generosity extended by the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

For more information about the artist Joan Mitchell and the

Joan Mitchell Foundation, please visit:

joanmitchellfoundation.org.



FROM THE DESK OF Abbe Clubhouse Director RON BRITT FROM THE DESK OF Abbe Clubhouse Arts Director

KARINA CERRATO

Swimming and Winning

This February, BCNY swim team members participated in the 30th Annual Black

Heritage National Swim Competition, held in Washington, DC. Hosted by the Metro

Dynasty Swim Team, the BCNY team included members from all three clubhouses,

and I watched them form a bond that stay with them for years to come.

From the very beginning of the trip, eating breakfast together at Gerry Clubhouse

before boarding the bus, I watched the boys begin to connect. Upon arrival in DC,

we all went sightseeing. We toured around the Washington Monument, Jefferson

Monument, and the White House. We made special visits to the Martin Luther

King, Jr. Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.

The boys had an early start the next morning; the competition started at 7am!

While the boys’ events were staggered, we coaches were busy all day long—no

resting for us! It was all worth it, though; being there all day gave us the

opportunity to see all of our swimmers swim.



All of the hard work meant that this competition was the

swimmers’ time to show off: and that they did! The boys swam

their hearts out, breaking personal records and finishing at the

top in all of their races. Some boys finished in the top 10 in

ranking. Abbe swimmer Kevin ranked 6th nationally in his age

group. Another Abbe swimmer, Isaac, ranked 9th nationally in

his group. IMG 0361 Harriman swimmer Ethan ranked 8th in his

age group, and Harriman member Jayden, ranked 9th in his

group. Three Harriman BCNY swimmers brought home to gold

for the team during the Freestyle relay (Ethan, Walter, and

Mohamed). Another Freestyle gold was earned thanks to

Harriman swimmers Jayden and Israel. BCNY had a lot of the

top scoring swimmers within the Metro Dynasty Swim Team,

helping to win another Invitational Competition.

Besides the competition, it was great to see the boys enjoy themselves outside the clubhouses, while still

maintaining the core values of BCNY. Some boys came in as strangers and left as friends. Others, already

friends from previous events, continued to grow their friendships. Seeing the boys build friendships on the

pool deck in between races, during a trip to the movies, meals, and history lessons, reminded me of the

importance of our work at each clubhouse.

FROM THE DESK OF Abbe Clubhouse Director

FROM THE DESK OF Harriman Clubhouse Aquatics Director ERIK DIAZ

BCNY Staff Blog: "From the Desk of"

Documents

Transcript of BCNY Staff Blog: "From the Desk of"