Boys and girls in the programs at Duggan Park, Moxon, Pine-James and Riverview apartments have been learning the past year about poverty and need among residents of the Dominican Republic, which shares an island with Haiti.
Besides an ongoing pen-pal program with a youth program in the Caribbean country, they recently worked together to help raise funds to send 40 new pairs of sneakers and many more pairs of socks that will enhance basketball skills for players at a mountain village court.
"They play without shoes on, and we really wanted to help them," said 10-year-old Savier Morales of Duggan Park Apartments. "Knowing that we can help them makes us feel good. It makes us feel grateful for the things we have."
The after-school and summer programs at the housing authority developments are run by ADC Prevention Services & Associates, which has developed a growing partnership with youth programs in the Dominican Republic.
On a sunny afternoon recently, children and adults from ADC gathered outside the Duggan Park resident services center to showcase the new sneakers and to thank children and corporate sponsors for helping make the plan a reality. ADC President Arnold D. Cox headed south the next day to deliver the footwear.
Among those thanked were Traci Gaynor of PeoplesBank and state trooper Orlando Medina. Both Gaynor and Medina have been frequent contributors and participants in the ADC after-school program activities.
Cox said ADC has been working for several years with two Dominican Republic youth programs, one in Puerto Plata and the other in a tiny mountain village called Moca. It is the Moca program where the sneakers and socks are headed.
"It's been a great partnership for the children here, as well as in the Dominican Republic," Cox said. "Our children here are learning an awful lot about children who have even less than they do. It's good for them to see that they can help others, and that they should be grateful for what they do have."
ADC Marketing Manager Antoine McLoyd has visited the Dominican Republic with Cox, and found it to be an eye-opener.
"For me it was a life-changing experience," McLoyd said.
Gaynor and Medina said they were happy to be a part of the sneakers-to-DR campaign.
"I believe in the work that AC (Cox) is doing to help underprivileged kids, and I love working with kids because we want them to see the police as good rather than bad," Medina said.
Savier and his friends Eduardo Santos and Javien Lopez said they are proud to be a part of a project that is helping children living on an impoverished island.
"They don't have shoes, or supplies, and they just have a little bit of space," explained Eduardo, who is 10. "It makes me feel lucky and sad at the same time."
Seven-year-old Javien added, "I'm thankful for the education I get in school, and for the food I eat."