Save the date
November 20, 2008, 5-8pm
for the Grand Opening of the
SL Green StreetSquash Center on
40 West 116th Street, Harlem, NY.
Join us for an evening of celebration,
entertainment and fun to mark this momentous occasion.
StreetSquash is a free youth program that provides tutoring, mentoring and college preparation to Harlem teens. After 10 years of moving from court to court and being kicked off of squash courts around the city, the program is moving into their own brand new, 19,000 square foot facility.
The $9 million center is located in the brand new Kalahari development on 116th Street and features eight squash courts, four classrooms, a library, and locker rooms.
The program requires participants to finish an hour of homework and an hour of squash, four days a week.
“The past 10 years we’ve been kicked off of courts and have had students study in hallways,” said StreetSquash Executive Director George Polsky. “And finally we have our own place where they can study in proper places and not have to worry about being kicked off of courts.”
Polsky launched StreetSquash as an after-school program in 1999 with 24 kids. Currently, there are 160 participants and the new facility can serve a thousand 6th through 12th graders.
Polsky says 100 percent of students who have participated in the program graduated from high school.
“That, in the end, is the most important thing that these kids graduate from high school, go to college, and graduate from college, and go out into the world and get jobs and be productive members of society,” said Polsky.
For more information on the program, go to StreetSquash.org.
See also: NY1
Posted on November 17, 2008 by D. Bell