My favorite day of the year at Sam and Ari’s school (they are my 9 year olds) is called Service Day.
On Service Day we forgo the regular school routine and dedicate the entire day to community service. One of the organizations we work with is called Coalition for the Homeless. It is the nation's oldest advocacy/direct service organization that helps homeless men, women, and children. Coalition has two incredible programs for kids. The first is Camp Homeward Bound – the country’s first sleep-a-way away camp for homeless children. The other is Bound for Success – an after school program that gives 30 children a safe and stable place to do their homework and participate in after school activities. This year, the seventh graders at Sam and Ari’s school helped get Camp Homeward Bound ready for this summer’s campers. The students spent the day building the tents and assembling the beds that Camp Homeward Bound’s 300 campers will sleep in this summer.
Our friends at NY Family are hosting an event to benefit Coalition’s children’s programs - Camp Homeward Bound and Bound for Success. We know this is NYC and there are a lot of benefits, auctions and galas. This one may be of particular interest to you because you can bring your kids. In fact, you have to. They will be very upset if only you get to go to Victoria Gardens (NYC’s very own amusement park) and partake in the rides, games, face painting, magic show, Ga-Ga and book signings.
Have a great night out with your kids and help support the kids of our city that do not have a place to go tonight. Here is the invite:
*Tonight, a record 23,000 children will sleep in homeless shelters. Roughly one in every 20 NYC public school kids have no home to return to at the end of the long school day. Although the trauma of homelessness can have terrible effects on children’s development, those tragic effects can be overcome with support from programs like Camp Homeward Bound and Bound for Success.
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