Mario

Local Boys and Girls Club - Community Project 

For my community service project, I chose one of my regular visits to the local Boys and Girls Club. This location is in Red Bank, New Jersey and I was actually a member back in high school myself. This organization serves kids during the school year with after school and homework programs until their parents pick them up. It is a great way for them to get the help they may need with difficult homework that they probably would not have had in the household otherwise because the staff is filled with current college students and some college graduates who are more than capable of giving them assistance on their subjects. This specific Boys and Girls Club location is also open during the summer and they offer a summer camp as well. The summer camp is filled with days of fun and different adventures for the kids including movie trips, beach trips and concerts. I always speak highly of this organization because I remember back in high school when it kept me occupied a lot of days when I would otherwise be outside getting into who knows what. 

I like to give back to that specific Boys and Girls Club because I still appreciate impact they had on me when I was at that age. As a college student I have been chosen on a few occasion over the past year, most recently in February when I was asked to speak on my college journey and to give advice to the kids in the program as I was heading into my final semester. I started out on the kids working hard to avoid the distractions that they will face in the coming years. Red Bank, NJ is a small town so I understand that it will be a shock to them when they step foot onto a large campus with kids from all over the country because that was me at one time. I realized that a lot of them were a bit split on the direction that they wanted their future to go. A lot wanted to go to college, but I also got a lot of questions about venturing off into YouTube and capitalizing off social media as a plan. I realize that thus us a generational thing, this generation is heavy into apps and social media especially YouTube. Being a business major, I spoke to them about monetizing those platforms and the business side of how it all works while still promoting college as a Plan “A”.

Organization:

Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County

138 Drs James Parker Blvd.

Red Bank, NJ 07701

Contact: Scott Reeves (732-768-9406)