Holiday Festivities at CYO and Vincent House

This week has been full of holidaying happenings throughout our programs. Yesterday was a particularly busy day with present distribution at the CYO and a holiday party at the Vincent House Youth Center. CYO present distribution was made possible by Governor Cuomo’s regional office; OTDA Commissioner Sam Roberts was on hand to help kids make their choices. At Vincent House, staff, parents and supporters put together a party with activities, dinner, presents and gift bags after school.

Thank you to all who help make the holiday season brighter for the people we serve. Because of your support, over 400 families were supplied with Christmas presents for their kids, more than 220 turkeys were distributed, our centers were able to hold special events and much more. Your generosity is a true show of the spirit of the season, and we are deeply grateful.

Staff had a very helpful crew to help set up the present selection at CYO.

Holiday-themed M&Ms are a must.

Commissioner Sam Roberts, Director Mike Melara and CYO kids and youth waiting on tenterhooks.

Post-present activities.

Commissioner Roberts helping navigate the choices.

Vincent House regulars waiting for the party to start.

Holiday coloring time.

“The brothers can’t be beat!”

Joseph, at left, a Vincent House youth-turned-mentor, is defeated in a game of foosball by a mentee.

Posted by Bridget Dunn, Communications Coordinator

An Appreciation for the Game

Above, youth at our Bishop Foery Foundation neighborhood center run in the backyard.

The dog days of summer.  This irrepressible heat reminds me of my boyhood growing up in Watertown, NY.  My friends and I would make our way to the local city park, Kostick’s field, to play sandlot baseball.  The first pitch was thrown somewhere around 9am and the last out was usually made around dinner time.

We were serious about “America’s pastime” and would make all types of adaptations to the game in order to play the game.  Not enough players?  Not a problem; we’d close left field and even center field.  If you hit into one of those fields, it was an automatic out.   Older kids had to hit opposite handed when playing against younger kids.  And there were no walks; either you hit the ball or struck out.  This rule could sometimes lead to what seemed to be an endless stream of pitches being offered up, with the batter lamenting “get one over the plate,” and the fielders drowning “take a swing!”  Games lasted anywhere from four innings to infinity… or at least it seemed that way.   There were no coaches or umpires.  We lived by the honor system and were ruled by the oldest and meanest kid on the field.

We learned a lot of lessons playing sandlot baseball.  If you’re waiting for me to say sportsmanship and team work, well, I guess there was some of that.  What we really learned was an appreciation for the game of baseball: how this sport could transform a dozen kids, all from different backgrounds, into organized teams with clear boundaries and purpose.  It wasn’t about being the best or worst athlete; it was simply about playing the game.

A program participant (and his bunny ears) at Bishop Foery neighborhood center.

I recently visited one of our Catholic Charities neighborhood centers during the height of our summer program.  During the summer, Catholic Charities provides daily summer programming to over 1500 children living in some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city.  On this day, a group of adolescent boys were playing basketball.  They had made several adaptations: half court rules, teams were evenly divided based on size and age, and fouls were called on each other, with no disputes.  I was reminded of my own childhood and thankful that our agency can offer these youth a safe place to meet, recreate, play sports, and learn the value of friendship, team work and an appreciation for the game.  Not a bad gig.

 

Sharing the Sun on Skaneateles

Kids from our summer youth programs around Syracuse enjoy field trips out of the city every week. The programs are a great chance for the kids to explore the area and, for many, provide a rare opportunity to travel beyond their neighborhoods. One such field trip in particular is a summer institution: Beach Day on Skaneateles Lake.

Beach Day on Skaneateles is a day of fun in the Finger Lakes hosted by the Skaneateles Vincent House Guild. The Guild has been a generous supporter of Vincent House on the Near West Side for decades. In edition to a day on the lake, they hold an annual fundraiser ever year which provides crucial funds to the shelter.

To take part in the fun, see below!

Enjoying the sun

A young program participant prepares himself…

…and leaps.

Enough sand to go around.

Jumping or flying?

Snack time.

Photos provided by Guild member Kathleen Morrissey.

Fighting Summer Hunger in Syracuse

Many of us look back on childhood summers as a time free from worry – no school, no homework, lots of sunshine and free time. Many of the great things CNY has to offer are in abundance when school’s out. There are great city pools, ice cream trucks, salt potatoes, lots of festivals and community events, and upwards of 15 hours of daylight.

Sadly, for a lot of the kids we serve, summer can be a time of stress, particularly due to lack of food. Outside of their school days, access to healthy meals can be very limited for children living in poverty. This is true around the country – 22 million kids in the US receive free or reduced price meals through the National School Lunch Program during the school year, but only 3.2 million of those kids are reached through the USDA Summer Food Service Program*.

We and our peer organizations in Syracuse work to close this gap every week. We offer snacks and lunches to kids through summer programming at four of our locations in the city.

Of course, our summer support goes beyond snacks and meals. In our youth programs, kids have opportunities to play and learn in a healthy, supportive environment. We also offer respite programs for families with children with developmental disabilities, allowing families and caretakers a respite while providing integrated activities for the kids. For all the kids we serve, the summer weeks are punctuated with field trips out of their neighborhoods, including to local pools and beaches, museums, community events, the arts and more. Some are even sponsored to spend a week at Lourdes’ Camp.

Last year, nearly 1,500 children under the age of 18 were served by Catholic Charities’ youth centers. Imagine this – Grant Middle School on Syracuse’s Northside has just over 600 students**. That’s fairly typical for middle schools in our region. Our services reached the equivalent of two entire middle schools.

What that adds up to is a lot of kids in need all year. Our programs work together to meet the unique needs of the different seasons – meals in the summer, cold weather gear in the winter, toys at Christmas. Together we can work to make sure every child in our community has a chance to enjoy being a kid.

 

To support our summer programs, visit us online or call 315-362-7579.

*Summer Food Service Program. 2016. <www.feedingamerica.org>

**Receivership Quarterly Report. 15 April 2016. <http://www.syracusecityschools.com/tfiles/folder258/Grant%20QR3%2015-16%20Receivership%20Report.pdf&gt;