8/22/2004
Journal News pg 2B
Naomi
program wraps up for summer with awards
13
young people honored as part of annual ceremony
AnnMarie Marano
Special
to The Journal News
Thirteen
children who took part in Naomi¹s Program of Excellence were honored yesterday.
The third
annual awards ceremony was held at the home of Wayne and Pamela Charles, one of
the program¹s founding families.
Naomi¹s Program
of Excellence was named after president and founder Jacqueline Cherry¹s
daughter, who died at the age of 2 from a bone disorder.
It is a
family-based program designed to provide cultural and spiritual enrichment to
children who live in and around east Ramapo.
³This
organization is saying we are doing right by our kids, and we want to do right
by our kids,² Cherry said as she addressed the small
group of children and parents. She said the point of the program is to work
with and learn from one another.
The program¹s
curriculum is designed by the parents. It consists of a six-week summer program
and various volunteer opportunities that the children participate in every
three to four months.
The ceremony
was the culmination of the summer program. The honorees were ages 3 to 14.
Pamela Charles,
parent and founder, explained to the group how the program keeps academics in
mind, as well as social experiences. This summer, the children enjoyed skipping
to Double Dutch and learning the fundamentals of soccer. Each child also
decorated a posterboard that was meant to represent
his or her personality.
As their
parents held the posterboards, the children described
the collages of pictures they had put together.
³The best way
to predict the future is to create it,² 8-year-old
Amber McGloster of Hillcrest read from her poster. With aspirations to be a
pediatrician, she pasted pictures of children around the quote.
³I want to be
the best of the best,² said another magazine clipping
on the poster of 13-year-old Lawrence Jackson of Spring Valley.
This year, the
summer session was held at the CEJJES Institute in
After hearing
that the parents of Naomi¹s Program of Excellence had been using their own
homes to conduct the program, CEJJES offered its facilities.