Support for Children of the City's Children

Back in December, on the the 20th, the charity that I so fondly support - Children of the City - facilitated a very special Christmas for one unfortunate little girl and her family.600 children and 100 adults were invited to the headquarters of Children of the City located where hundreds of toys and gifts were distributed. There were dozens of volunteers during the entire week of December 15-19 who helped wrap gifts that were donated as well as funds.

Joyce Mattera, Founder and Executive Director said, "Children of the City was glad to facilitate receiving the donations because our partners knew we could get it into the hands of the neediest children.”

Earlier that same week, a young girl named Angela was undergoing some difficult times. Through the Winter Wishes Project facilitated by New York Cares and Morgan Stanley, Angela had not gotten her wish list in on time to receive any gifts.

“When we read her letter we all were moved" Mattera said. Angel's father had recently passed away and her mother said they couldn't afford Christmas this year.

Children of the City was able to confirm the details of their situation, then asked its partner Morgan Stanley to help us facilitate fulfilling this little girl's Christmas wish. One of their employees, George A., generously purchased clothes, other items, and assembled a brand-new bicycle for her just two days before the event. Angela exclaimed, through her tears, that this was the "best Christmas ever!"

Christmas toys and gifts were donated by several partners of Children of the City, including my family's business, Basile Builders, St. John's Bread and Life, Brianna's Hair Salon, NYCRC, Hamption Christian School in Virginia, Payless Shoe Source, New York Cares/Morgan Stanley, and many others.

"We know these are tough economic times and we are glad for the opportunity to show that we care about the children and families in the community we serve" said Mattera. "We are glad that Angela was able to enjoy Christmas this year."-- -- Rocco Basile

The New Obama Administration and Education

Prior to his election to President of the United States, Barack Obama said he will reform the No Child Left Behind, invest in early childhood education: implement a comprehensive "Zero to Five" plan to provide support to young children and their parents, and help states move toward voluntary, universal pre-school.

Obama and Biden also said they will create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for community service, covering two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university. They also said they would make community college tuition completely free for most students.

As many of you know, my website http://www.roccobasile.net/, shares news and the statistics on the state of education in the country - so any new improvements to our ailing education system is music to my ears.

At his inaugural speech at the U.S. Capitol President Obama mentioned that, "our schools fail too many." Now that they are settled into their new posts, President Barack Obama and the new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have set a tone of bipartisan cooperation on challenges that are facing our country's schools.

Despite the prospect of cutbacks in school budgets nationwide, the education community in Washington is optimistic about the future according to Jack Jennings, the president of the Center for Education Policy, an advocacy organization.

President Obama believes that giving money to education will stimulate the economy but his opponents believe that he is trying to increase long term funding to schools. He has proposed doubling federal funding for charter schools, who can apply for up to $600,000 in start up money from the federal government.

As a Board member for programs like the Joe DiMaggio Awards Committee at Xaverian High School, (my alma mater), we have long known how financial assistance helps the quality of education that the school can provides its students. Xaverian offers the very best in secondary education by serving young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, including learning disabilities and students in financial need. In fact, if it were not for the generosity of alumni, parents and friends, many of these students would not be able to afford the quality, college-preparatory education our school offers.

In fact, the Joe DiMaggio Award Gala is the major fundraiser for Xaverian, and since the inception of the program in 1994 more than 100 young men have graduated from this special initiative and all have gone on to four-year colleges. Every year the DiMaggio Award outdoes the previous in money raised and national media attention.

-- Rocco Basile

Trends in 2009: Multicultural Education

Did you know that currently 70 percent of the population that is online are white? The trend is that in 2009 more and more African-Americans and Hispanics are going to go online via their PCs and or mobile telephones. Marketers will follow to target multicultural audiences with more culture-specific messages and languages.

In fact, multicultural education is a more recent field of study aiming to create equal educational opportunities for students from diverse ethnic, social-class, and cultural and racial groups. The goal is to help all students acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are needed to function effectively in a pluralistic democratic society.

All people have the right to learn and communicate with people from diverse groups around the globe in order to create a moral community that works for worldwide peace and the common good of everyone. Multicultural education draws content, concepts and theories from specialized fields including history, ethnic and women studies, as well as from social and behavioral sciences. Multicultural education applies content from these fields and disciplines to challenge curriculum development in educational.

I am very encouraged to see these kinds of trends in education today. My website http://www.roccobasile.net/ has been focused on trends in education and my charities over the last year, and I am seeing tremendous results from my charities including Children of the City.

As evidenced in December during the Christmas holidays, 600 children and 100 adults were invited to the headquarters of Children of the City located in Brooklyn, New York, where hundreds of toys and gifts were distributed to needy kids. Dozens of volunteers wrapped the donations of toys that were received, then distributed them to neediest children from all walks of life.

The non-profit's educational programs have helped thousands of at-risk inner-city children and youth with hope, and resources to positively affect their lives via after school programs, and by connecting them and their families to resources. The goal is to educate and empower them to break the negative and destructive cycles they’ve grown up.

The result is multicultural community where people have learned to take responsibility to bring lasting change to themselves and their environment.

--Rocco Basile