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A volunteer's January weekend, by Zoë Brunson
Returning home from honeymoon I found out my name had been
volunteered by my husband to help out at the trials for City
Squash.
City Squash is the newest urban enrichment program, run along
similar lines to its cousins, SquashBusters in Boston, and
Street Squash in New York. Based out of Fordham in the Bronx,
the program is run by Tim Wyant and Brian Matthias, the City
Squash staff.
After two weeks of trials with 30 children, I was hooked.
This was something I wanted to help with! So, each Saturday
morning I become a City Squash volunteer and work with the
team of 16 pupils from Middle School 45. Other regular City
Squash volunteers include Kate Rapisarda, Ricardo Gonzalez
and Justin Muzinich.
The latest exploits of the City Squash team saw the team
in their first individual tournament competing in the Bronxville
Future Stars (Jan 24-26).
9.42am and I met Tim, the team and supporters on the train.
A caravan of taxi-cabs later we all arrived at the Bronxville
Field Club to meet Brian and the team members who had early
start times.
The team stood in amazement as they watched a 7-year old
boy play his match, his body being just slightly bigger than
his racket, and hitting the ball to length. "We have
to play against him?" and "How long has he been
playing?" were questions being asked by the team. Their
concerns and worries soon dissolved as their keenness to start
playing took over.
10.30am and as Tim took the girls to another location for
their matches, the boys matches continued with a number of
City Squash players starting their competition. The City Squash
boys faced tough competition by the fact that most of their
opposition had been playing for at least a year of two. It
was up to Brian, Kate, Ricardo, Justin and myself to provide
the needed support and encouragement.
Regardless of the score most players came off court with
smiles on their faces and realizing what more practice could
do for their game. For those players with roller-coaster emotions,
it was time to become the comforter as tears slowly turned
to smiles.
6.00pm saw the end of the day's activities and Sanel and
Omar had made it to the semi-finals of the boy's consolations,
Leslie had placed third in the girl's main draw and Sabrina
had won the girl's consolations. The only issue left was how
to get everyone to the train station since no taxi-cabs were
available! Amazingly, everyone made the 6.21pm train thanks
to the hospitality of Bronxville Field Club members.
I arrived home at 7.00pm exhausted and recounted the day's
events to my husband.
So what keeps me going back?
Working with a group of kids who want to learn from you and
from whom you can learn. Seeing the team spirit develop and
how each child is improving each week. But most of all, to
see the kids smile and having fun with the sport I love.
If you would like more information on the City Squash or
Street Squash programs, or are interested in helping out in
some way, please contact
" Tim Wyant for City Squash at tim_wyant@citysquash.org
" George Polsky for Street Squash at george@streetsquash.org
The New York Times published an article Feb 5th 2003 on the
programs, and can be found through the following link..
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/education/05SQUA.html
Another small report on the programs was in the Feb 3rd 2003
issue of Newsweek
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