A Great Thing to Donate to!!!!

My friend Jewel Cash introduced me to her friend Patrick Williams [(617) 851-5602 or e-mail him at pwilliam@bates.edu.] who is putting together a wonderful summer program for disadvantaged youth. Both Jewel and Patrick are college students. I encourage you to read below and get in touch with Patrick and please donate some money. Even $25 makes a BIG difference. Here is Patrick describing what he will do with the money:

Patrick Williams
Lewiston Summer Squash Camp


The service project I am going to undertake in this upcoming summer involves holding an 8-week squash enrichment summer program for refugee youth from downtown Lewiston. The camp would run Monday through Friday from 8-4 each day starting June 22-August 14.
My goal for this summer program is to work with a group of 10-12 middle school age boys teaching them the game of squash and working on a small curriculum of reading and writing. The students will also participate in art enrichment activities and service projects organized and planned by the group. Through learning the game of squash, these kids will learn integral life skills such as teamwork, integrity, respect, appreciation and care for their fellow teammates and others. Beyond this, one of my main goals is focused on getting these students off the streets by providing them with organized activities to occupy their time during the summer. I want to make a positive impact on these kids’ lives while showing them that there are alternatives paths to take and the value each of them has.
Though each day will be slightly different, they will all follow a similar structure. We will begin each day meeting up at Trinity Jubilee Center downtown before heading to the courts. Once at the courts we will begin with a warm-up involving running, stretching, and talking as a group. The rest of the morning will involved teaching the youth skills and rules of squash. As the students make progress over the summer these morning drills will become more challenging and push the students to improve their squash skills. At the midpoint of the day students will eat lunch as a team. The afternoon schedule will vary, with many afternoons focused on writing, reading, or other creative literacy projects such as poetry. The goal of each session is for students to practice and improve their language and writing skills in a supportive, enjoyable and safe environment. Other afternoon activities may involve art enrichment projects, community service projects in Lewiston, other teambuilding activities, and potentially guest speakers.
The students I will be working with attend the Trinity Jubilee Center or DEC after school programs during the year. The group of 10 boys will be made up of 5 Somali Bantu boys and 5 Sudanese boys, ages 9-15. These 2 groups and the individual boys themselves are all handpicked because they have extreme potential to go far in life but sometimes struggle academically and behaviorally in school due to their past and present experiences of being refugees. In particular some of these boys have begun to take out their frustrations on each other which this program will help to temper by giving them common ground, as well as a forum in which to outsource their frustrations.
This project is extremely personal for me because I began playing squash in 6th grade for the Squashbusters Urban Squash Program in Boston. This program taught me values that greatly impacted my life and made me a huge part of who I am today. I have been teaching kids how to play squash for the past 6 years. This past summer I co-ran a summer program at Squashbusters. Beyond these work experiences, I was once a young African American boy growing up in the streets and I feel like I can really relate and offer support to these youth as a positive role model, friend, and coach. Academically, as Sociology major I am interested in writing my thesis on this very topic of how an urban squash program can impact the lives of refugee youth and this summer is the perfect opportunity to run a pilot program. After college I am potentially interested in pursuing a career in running my own squash team or program.
I really see this summer as an extremely remarkable opportunity for these youth, Bates College, and myself to create long-lasting if not life-changing experiences in the lives of these youth. It happened for me and helped get me to Bates, and I want to make sure it can happen for them too. Thank you for considering my camp as a possible organization to donate to.
Profile:
Name: Patrick Williams
Birthday: June 19, 1989
Race/Ethnicity: Black American
Home-town/Birth-town: Boston, Ma
Mailing Address: 478 Bates College
Contact Info: (617) 851-5602
Email Address: pwilliam@bates.edu
College: Bates College, Lewiston Maine
Graduation year: 2011
Education level: Rising Junior
Major: Sociology
Minor: Theater
Varsity Sport: Squash
Years playing sport: 8 years

Finally,

I am working on creating a budget for the kids I will be teaching in my summer camp. The kids are the Sudanese and Somali and refugees living in Lewiston.

The budget will be used to pay for their Breakfast and lunch everyday Mon-Fri. Also cost free
Field trips, Squash equipment, books, pencils, camp T-shirt and etc.

I will be working on improving their reading and writing skills as well as teaching them
to play squash.

In learning squash I will teach them a value system I learned "I-Care" values; Integrity,
Concern for others, Appreciation, Respect, and Effort.