YMCA night puts premium on caring about the world

Staff Writer

By Theresa A. Boschen

YMCA night puts premium
on caring about the world

MARLBORO — The setting sun, with the twilight’s backdrop of peaceful woodsy serenity, provided a natural environment for the contrasting lively and bouncing rhythmical crowd, complete with balloons, enthusiastic children, proud parents, food and fun for all.

The school bus filled with chattering youngsters on the night of July 31 made its way through the winding road to the top of the hill, Camp Arrowhead, Route 520, where, for two hours, families enjoyed games, entertainment and the great outdoors.

The end result of the night’s activities, however, were intended to bring a different kind of smile to the face of some needier children and their households.

Proceeds from the Community YMCA World Service Carnival, an event for and by the children attending the Community YMCA Camp Arrowhead and their counselors, benefit the World Service International Fund.

According to event organizers, the fund contributes to projects such as providing housing for refugee families, fulfilling the needs of street children, preventing child prostitution and supplying health care and nutrition programs for mothers and young children. Through various world service programs, volunteers in Gdynia, Poland, have served the homeless hearty meals; the Indo-China Emergency Fund has helped to feed lost and orphaned children in Vietnam; and literacy has been perpetuated, job training has been offered and recreation has been made available to the blind. YMCA world service began as Foreign Service in 1889.

The World Service International Fund supports the work of YMCAs in 120 countries. On July 31, the children were educated with international flavor, with games featuring posters and themes of different nations.

Children laughed as they tossed rings onto a painted wooden bull with a banner of Spain in the background. Other youngsters giggled as they struggled to pick up colored fish magnets with a pole with the word Bahamas boldly illustrated behind the game. A poster featuring Greek laurels provided the backdrop for a bottle toss. There were jugglers, too, and a young boy, blindfolded with an orange bandanna, pinned the tail on an Australian kangaroo.

Camp counselor Meredith Weiss, 19, of Marlboro, called it a "special" night, known as Family Night for the campers and their families, a get-together where parents get to meet one another and even bring grandparents and other relatives for a family night out.

"The kids bring their families and have so much fun," Weiss said.

"I think a worthy charity like this brings attention to world needs," said Tina Freedman, whose 7-year-old, Maxwell, attends Camp Arrowhead. "I think it’s important that the community understands world issues. This way you are donating to something worthwhile from a local level,"

While last year’s event was canceled due to rain, Elaine Geiger, executive director of the Camp Arrowhead branch of the Community YMCA, said that in 1999 the carnival brought out nearly 600 individuals and raised $1,300. This year, she said, organizers were hoping to do better.

"The campers are very involved in making this carnival a success," Geiger said.

"It’s a way for the kids to be creative in giving back," said Camp Arrowhead Camp Director Susan Goldberg, explaining that many of the youngsters helped the camp’s arts and crafts directors create the posters and games for the event and assisted in setting up the props for the carnival.

"It’s a nice family night to have fun and do something positive together. This is a fantastic opportunity for kids to give both locally and globally, to be introduced to service learning and to realize that giving to others can be fun," Goldberg said.

Lenny Klein, 11, has enjoyed attending Camp Arrowhead for four years.

"You get to hike in the woods," he said with a smile. "It gives me something to do during the summer."

And Lenny was happy about supporting the world service cause.

"All this money probably goes to needy children around the world, so it’s good," the youngster said.

"There are a lot of poor people in the world … a lot less fortunate than we are," said Lenny’s mother, Lynn, as she stood beside her 10-year-old daughter, Allie, who was cheerily consuming a cherry, watermelon and pina colada ice refreshment.

As DJ Mike Callahan, a camp staffer, provided the jump-inspiring tunes of the Village People’s "YMCA," Helene Taragano, who was visiting her 6-year-old grandson, Steven, talked about the awareness a community gathering of this sort brings for important worldwide charities.

An event like the carnival "would get (people) to be aware that certain people are not as fortunate as they are," Taragano said.

Amanda Maloney, 8, of Hazlet, was "happy" to be at the carnival helping out other folks.

The event was open to the public.

Camp Arrowhead, founded in 1958 and situated across the sprawling hills of 36 acres, is one of four Monmouth County branches of the Community YMCA. The other branches are the Community YMCA of Red Bank; Family Services of the Community YMCA in Matawan; and Wall Township’s Camp Zehnder, the only branch that is a collaboration between the Community YMCA and the YMCA of Western Monmouth County, Freehold Township. In addition to its athletic and recreation programs, the Community YMCA locally provides various forms of counseling, including mental health, substance abuse, intervention, relapse prevention, anger management, and other community education.

The summer camp at Camp Arrowhead is for children ages 3-15; the camp has between 700 and 725 children enrolled each day, said Geiger. It also offers a Leaders In Training program, where teen-agers who have completed their freshman year in high school may sign up to become a camp counselor apprentice.