By Emily Kean
Partner: T-Mobile
Volunteers: 150
Service Partner: Madison Square Boys & Girls Club Columbus Clubhouse
When: August 1-5, 2010
TCF: Aundrea Dean, Emily Kean
City Year New York: Nathan Arndt, Hudley Grisham, Jordan Kiley, Kasual Owens-Fields, Matthew Patrick, Dianna Yeung, Sarah Weber
Arriving in New York City was quite the adventure. Aundrea drove down from Boston with our project manager, Hugh Harlow, and I flew in from Chicago. After we arrived at our hotel in Englewood, New Jersey, we learned about our service partner, the Madison Square Boys & Girls Club’s Columbus Clubhouse. This Boys & Girls Club provides a safe place for children in the Bronx to go after school and during the summer. This clubhouse has over a 1,000 members and engages 160 youth on a daily basis; 90% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunch. Activities at the club include fitness, social recreation, and character and leadership development. In addition, the Boys & Girls Club is used during the day by a neighboring school that has outgrown its capacity and needed additional space.
Care Force and City Year New York Senior Corps Members started working at the Boys & Girls Club on Monday, August 2nd through Wednesday, August 4th. During our prep days we had to work around the schedule of the Boys & Girls Club since the facility was being used for their summer programming. Even though we had to work late, we did have the opportunity to interact with youth and staff at the club. Those interactions with the youth and staff at the Boys & Girls Club helped to make this long prep week worthwhile!
On Thursday, August 5, 2010, 150 T-Mobile employees from across New York and New Jersey arrived at 9am to the Madison Square Boys & Girls Clubhouse to help beautify and renew the interior of the building. We transformed the teen lounge into a T-Mobile Huddle up Zone, constructed 12 benches, painted the 2 game rooms, painted 4 of their programming rooms, painted panel murals for rooms throughout the facility, painted murals throughout the hallways, and sport themed murals in the gymnasium. When the youth and staff returned from their day they were shocked and excited about the transformation that had occurred.
During the closing ceremony at the end of the service day a T-Mobile employee said a thank you to all the volunteers who participated in the day as well as gave some perspective on how this transformation was going to impact the youth at the club. He knew this because he had grown up going to this Boys & Girls Club. It was such a reflective moment to think about how giving back to your community really does come full circle!
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