Children of the City Toy Drive

This last weekend included the last night of gift wrapping parties for the Children of the City Toy Drive. It's been a great week - wrapping presents and giving out the gifts. We still will be giving out more presents this week. Some of the neediest families from the younger group that came in on Saturday will be able to pick up an additional presents, and the group will also be distributing more toys to after school kids this next Wednesday. Saturday was amazing! It was packed. The upstairs session included the 8-14 group of kids, while ages 2- 7 were downstairs.
As you can see, we got some great photos too! It was wonderful to see how good people felt by participating.

I spoke briefly with the charity's Executive Director Joyce Mattera who said that this has been a powerful time. She mentioned that the first floor fellowship hall was filled with parents and a woman who represented State Farm was there to speak with them. The parents were all talking about their challenges and getting encouragement, advice and much needed support from her, plus our staff, who all hail from silimlar backgrounds.

Some time this week we will know how many toys were raised, how many kids benefitted, and how many volunteers we had.

People who are interested in helping out or donating can go to ChildrenoftheCity.org

Child Abuse in Brooklyn NY

Did you know that there are 17 thousand cases of child abuse in Brooklyn? 48 percent high school drop out rate. Of the 30 thousand students, 15 thousand are dropouts. One out of every three families lives below the poverty line. Some kids wear sandals in the winter. There are drugs, disease, gang violence, and crime. There are about a thousand deaths per year.

I decided eight years ago to join the Board of an organization called Children of the City - to help do something about these statistics. This is happening right in our own back yard in Sunset Park. There are hundreds of people in need of intervention, children in need of education, and families in need of counseling, and hope. And our motivational quote is that Children of the City "is an organization making a difference."

This group was founded in 1981, and is a volunteer-based outreach that connects these people in need with basic services, educational and employment training, health care, counseling, and many opportunities for personal growth.

If you are familiar with my work (Rocco Basile) then you already know that I am helping to reach children at risk and who can be resilient if they are given the right intervention and education. In fact if you would like to help, please join us at http://www.childrenofthecity.org/