Leave the gun take the cannoli (9)

Children of the City stepped up their anti-obesity initiative with the  help of their friends at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, New York Cares and Radio Disney.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers graciously donated their time and energy to organize two events to benefit Children of the City.  In an effort to foster goodwill and teamwork Pricewaterhouse Coopers offers their employees a chance to assemble brand new bicycles for underprivileged kids.  Children of the City president and founder, Joyce Mattera and I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel Rhodes the coordinator of this operation at the Millenium  hotel in Manhattan.   

The Elvis version of “A Little Less Conversation” was blasting though the hotel auditorium as I made the rounds to thank the amateur mechanics and answer questions  about Children of the City.      Mr. Rhodes had announced to the crowd that they only had an hour and a half before Joyce and I would bring in a few kids to see their bikes.

Five kids were picked for the mini field trip to Manhattan, even though all of the students in the Create Success Summer Program would receive a bike the following day.  The kids were completely overwhelmed to see so many bikes in one place.  Jocelyn, a fourth grader, asked for a microphone so she could address the crowd.  She expressed her gratitude on behalf of all the kids.  The crowd was stunned when they realized that these bikes  would be the first ones that many of the kids would ever ride or own.  Of course, the kids invited everyone to come to the Children of the City headquarters and eventually they did.

Last Friday, Pricewaterhouse Coopers employees took a day off to hang out at the Children of the City headquarters in Sunset Park.  They  joined New York Cares program manager Whitney Hampton  and her volunteers  to host a carnival  with music provided by Radio Disney.

The kids played games, painted and ran relay races with the financial services staff.  Later,  DJ Deanna Fernandez and her Radio Disney Road Crew taught the kids a few dance moves.  They could have danced all afternoon but the weather interrupted the fun just before their parents arrived at 3 pm.     

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 10:33 am and is filed under Children's Charities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.