|
Public
Employee Press Black
History Month at DC 37 We are family
The
focus this year was on fitness and fun for hundreds of union children at the annual
DC 37 Black History Month Family Day celebration at union headquarters Feb. 7.
The
Sports Expo and Educational Seminar was sponsored by the Black History Committee,
MTA Clerical Employees Local 1655 and the DC 37 Retirees Association, and featured
an array of interactive activities for toddlers, teens and adults.
Youngsters
learned the ABCs of golf from LaToya Finney of the Finer Life Golf Foundation.
U.S. Olympian Kamara Jones (2004) and Donovan Holtz, a 2012 Olympic team hopeful,
taught kids fencing basics, while Columbia Universitys womens archery
coach Derek Davis helped 8-year-old Dorian Noel and others hit their marks using
bows and arrows.
Family Day also featured high-energy activities like double
dutch, track and field and syncopated step drills, the traditional dances practiced
by historically Black fraternities and sororities.
Local 299 member Bruce
Cannon, who is the artistic director at the Central Parks Swedish Cottage
Marionette Theater, told children the history of Harlem through songs, dancing
marionettes and his hip-hop hand puppets Uncle Marvin and Abdul.
DC 37
volunteers painted childrens faces and added colorful tattoos to little
hands. Parents and teenagers learned about nutrition and how to be more budget-savvy
to save for college.
Local 436 Nurses offered weight loss tips and measured
members blood pressure, and massage therapist Vance Allen gently eased members
aching muscles. This was my first time at Family Day, said Local
372 member Frances Lamour, who attended with her children. I didnt
know DC 37 had so much going on. Were having a ball!
Diane S. Williams | |