Summer Action

This year at Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation, the Neighborhood Youth Program has expanded its range. Other than just working all day long in the blazing sun, we have taken a few adventures. We have attended Harpers Ferry, West Virginia for a camping trip, a HIP Conference at the Crown Plaza, and The Sun Trust Bank. From these trips we have learned a little more than we already knew. But when we are working outside we work from 8 am until 12 noon. We have six hardworking and dedicated employees this summer. The names of these workers are Andre Trotman, Shyel Coats, Michael Riddick, Sha-que-tta Tolliver, Jacob Young, and then there's me, Bucky Reynolds. We are supervised by an amazing boss known as Coach Carter. He is great for the job because he knows how to interact and work with teenagers, or as he calls us, "Young Adults". When we are out in our communities working, our jobs, or better yet tasks, are to get up the weeds from the cracks in the streets and/or trees, mulch tree pits, sweep up the weeds that we pull up, and sometimes pick up the trash that we see. Sometimes on Saturdays we work in Patterson Park with The Friends of Patterson Park, but not every Saturday. When we come in from lunch every day we write down six words so we can build our vocabulary hoping to grasp these words for future references. Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation's Executive Director is Ms. Jolyn. Without her here at Banner we would not have a job - no, an opportunity to exploit our character - here at Banner this summer. She doesn't just want us to work all day, but she hopes that we can grow and become better people. This summer at Banner Neighborhoods Community Corporation has been a great experience for all of us. We just hope that people will continue to keep their neighborhoods and communities clean and in great shape.

The AvP \ HIP project

The AVP\HIP training was fun because it showed us how to deal with certain situations and one of the situations we had to deal with was how to deal with the police. If you were stopped or in your car what would you say and what not to say and if the police came to your house or if you just walk to the store. But it was cool because they showed you in a form of a play about your rights. We also met different people from different parts of the United States.Places like Paris, Syracuse, New York, Florida, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and also Baltimore. We had so much fun there at the conference. At the AVP\HIP training we also played a game called the Big Wind Blows which is just a game that makes you feel like you have nothing to hide about being locked up or any thing to do with the police. It's a good game to know about the people around you. We also played a game called Birthday Lineup which is a game to see how much you have in common with somebody before you judged them. When we did that we found out that people had more in common than we thought. But I had a lot of fun and I will love to go back some day. I learned a lot and the people were so fun to be around. AVP\HIP was fun and good times.

Our Trip To West Virginia

My experience in Harpers Ferry,West Virginia was great. We stayed in a Retreat House which is known as a hostel. We learned how to work better with each other as a team and also enjoyed white water rafting with Allison and Moose. That was the first time we all have tried that and it was a great experience for us as a team to work together. During the rafting we all worked together in paddling so we could get through the rapid water. The trip to West Virginia was a great experience for me and the rest of the team.

THE 2008 NYEP CREW