This past Thursday, Colin Bogart of the L.A. Bike Coalition presented plans to Bresee staff for the 4th Street Greenway Project. The Greenway project makes over 3 miles of 4th Street a more bike and pedestrian friendly street by adding green, better walk ways and intersection turnarounds. Some Bresee staff were skeptical but most embraced the concept of making our car dependent city a more humane place to place and walk, especially since many of us live within a block or two of 4th Street. Former Bresee kid & staffer Andy Rodriguez made an appearance as Andy is on staff at the Bike Coalition.
On Feb 16, Boris V and the college counselor from Central City Value H.S. took about 18 kids on a USC college tour. Kids were able to experience USC during a regular school day so they could see just what it takes to attend this prestigious university.
Bresee celebrated Black History Month this Friday with an informed scavenger hunt during which various staff led the middle school students in teams to uncover facts and information about the incredible contributions of African-Americans to the country.
The Museum of Contemporary Art sponsors an incredible teen night once a year in which high school students take over the entire Museum with a minimum of adult interference. This year’s theme was Dissent and despite the promise of an alternative, wild and artsy evening, Bresee high school staffers were unable to interest a single Bresee core high school student in attending. Then, at the last minute, Jorge Ponce expressed interest. Staffer Boris V jumped at the chance to take Jorge and his own son, little Boris, to this inspiring counter culture event.
Bresee and the Community College Administration sponsored an event at Academic Leadership Academy to inform seniors about their options in attending one of the nine L.A. community college campuses. This is an important event for those seniors who may have missed the boat in applying to 4 year colleges. About ten seniors attended the informative event.
The middle schoolers were not left out of the All Star events as Youth Center staff treated them to games and competitions in the gym. Kids pictured here had to put on jerseys and knee pads, shoot baskets wearing a bike helmet and work as a team as well. Though the tasks sound silly, you’ve never seen kids having more fun that what went on in the guy yesterday. Wow!
Bobby has mentored one of his longtime players, Raymond, into being the first one in his family to graduate high school and start college. Raymond has attended Bresee since middle school and with Bobby’s guidance achieved his degree and is even coaching at Bellevue Park. A great success story from the neighborhood!
Bobby has never won a game on his birthday…that is until last Friday when his boys declared that the jinx was over—they went on to destroy the team they played at Lafayette Park on Friday, 67-22. Unfortunately, Bobby’s Camino Nuevo girls were outplayed in their playoff game against powerhouse Dantzler, losing by the score of 60-12. Despite the trouncing, however, Bobby reports that the girls never gave up and they were even congratulated by the Westchester Coach.
Bobby with his first B-Ball Bresee Team!
(The tallest guy in the back currently plays for San Diego State)
Boris was spotted at Bresee at 8:30 am this past Saturday, already setting up for the Cash 4 College FAFSA workshop attended by 18 senior high school students who came by to fill out their financial aid papers.
At the same time, 15 MCLC students from the Social Justice Academy put in a 9-12 service day at the center.
Dr. Jampolis was back to meet with her nutrition group where she helps folks set small goals in their journey to better health. Bresee veteran Andy Rodriguez was holding a meeting with his bike group. So just know that even though Bresee is “officially” closed on Saturdays that doesn’t mean that we don’t stop serving the community.
Planned activities are starting to take over Friday afternoons at the community center, traditionally known as Free-Time Fridays AKA Facebook Fridays.
This Friday, for example, Blanca and Laura took over 12 kids on a field trip to the Griffith Park Observatory where they were met by a real-life astronomer. The group was fascinated by the movie playing but the best part was being able to take a look through the giant telescope and see it move - a truly special event!
Those who didn’t turn in permission slips or decided they weren’t interested still had something positive to turn to at the center.
A group of male USC students took the boys out to the church parking lot for touch football with Coach Bobby as ref. The USC students are interested in mentoring several boys from middle school all the way into college, and working with the families throughout. Today was their introduction to life around our typical middle school boys.
The girls spent an hour or so with Dr. Jampolis, a physican, nutritionist and former CNN correspondent who has been working with Bresee’s families for a while to increase their health. Dr. Jampolis shared stories of empowerment with the girls by detailing how men dismissed her medical ambitious when she was younger. Female staffers also attended to support the theme that girls can be whatever they want to be. In the end, though, some of the girls only wanted to talk about boys, a subject that will be dealt with at a future meeting of Girl’s Club.
Over in the high school room, meanwhile, Bresee’s traditional Coffee House for high schoolers was unfolding, led by Boris and a volunteer. Here high school students can talk openly about issues that might be troubling them.
Third Place Essay Contest Winners Alejandro & Rudy
Or is it “essay contest BIG winners” ? Either way, it was an essay contest with an important theme and the winners won big. First place went to Luis Martinez who won 5,000 points and an ice cream party for himself and there of his friends. Second place winners Kimberly Lopez and Danielle Rosales walked away with 3,000 points each. Two thousand points went to third place winners Alejandro Gutierrez and Rudy De Lao. It’s our understanding that all the winners can attend the ice cream party but only the Luis can invite his friends.
1st Place winner Luis Martinez 2nd Place winners Kimberly & Daniela
The essay’s theme (reported else where here) was New Year’s Resolutions. Students were required to write five paragraphs using standard essay structure, discussing resolutions for themselves, school & family. Every essay writer was mentored by a Goals 4 Life high school mentor. It’s a testament to the heart and tenacity of Bresee’s Goals 4 Life participants that these middle school students were able to express themselves so well and that they finished their essays on time. Congratulations to everyone involved including project coordinator Blanca O.
“I want to get straight A’s this year. I want to help stop bullying in my school because I don’t think kids deserve to get bullied. When people get bullied they want to commit suicide, it isn’t right.” —Alejandro
“My second goal is improving my writing skills. Writing is really important because you never know if your writing may be important by the time you die. Like Martin Luther King’s speech “I Have A Dream.” If it were messy no one would be able to read such a beautiful speech.” — Rudy
“Every year we get the chance to start all over again. We can regret all the bad things that we have done and we can try not to do them again. I would advise people to do this because for me, it makes me feel better. It makes me feel like I was born again and I have so many chances to do things that I couldn’t do before. I like to try new things and become good at them.” —Kimberly
“My first New Year’s resolution is to read more often because last year I didn’t enjoy reading at all. And another reason why I want to read more often is because I want to improve my reading skills. If I were to read more often I would be able to improve my pronunciation skills. If these skills were to improve I would have no trouble reading in my English classes.” —Luis
