GOTTA GROOVE

(Article published in HWW April 2009)

Kids from Crotona Inn and Town and Country Hotel were stars of a party celebrating the first anniversary of GOTTA GROOVE DANCE PROGRAM.

Once a month for the past year Steve Thomas, recreation coordinator at Crotona Inn, has bussed boys and girls from these two Bronx shelters to a lively dance space in midtown Mnahattan for two hours of creative fun. At the birthday party, two little girls from Crotona sang and performed a song they had written about being best friends. Then three little girls gave a performance of cheerleading, right up to and including airborne summersaults. Then, a dozen boys and girls from 7 to 17 demonstrated the hip hop and ballet moves they had learned.

Then the kids sat down to pizza, served by adult volunteers. Among them Wendy Clark, founder and manager of the program, and Betsy Hilfiger whose brother’s Tommy Hilfiger Foundation sponsor it.

Recreation may sound just like fun. But for the 15,000 children in NYC’s homeless shelter system and their parents, programs run by recreation staff like Steve Thomas make an important difference. They include homework help and college prep, cooking and nutrition classes, violence and sex abuse prevention, trips to museums and sporting events events and concerts – and, of course, fun and dancing.