By libby kesil
Staff Writer
RED BANK — The Count Basie Learning Center has a new name and a new focus.
Now part of the Red Bank Area Community YMCA and renamed the Count Basie Achievement Branch, the facility at 138 Drs. James Parker Blvd. is seeking to play a role in improving the education of borough youth.
"By changing the name of the Center from the Count Basie Learning Center to the Count Basie Achievement Branch, we are putting the focus squarely on achievement … on Red Bank kids reaching to be the best," said W. David Tarver, chairman of the Count Basie Achievement Branch Board of Management and chairman of The Community YMCA’s board of directors. Tarver also is head of the Red Bank Education Initiative, an organization working to improve education in the borough schools.
At an open house on Oct. 30 Y officials took parents and caregivers on a tour of the facility and detailed its offerings.
Among those offerings are an 11-machine computer center, a book room cataloged like a library and a music room with 11 keyboards.
Odette Cummings serves as the computer center’s coordinator. She is currently teaching the children how to use the Microsoft PowerPoint program and navigating the Internet. The children are encouraged to do their homework on the computer as well, and Cummings is helping them develop the organization’s newspaper at the center.
Cummings, a teacher at the Deal Elementary School, said she is enjoying her role at the center. "It fit. I like working here. I like the kids. I like the people."
In the book room the organization has a book club for older children and offers story reading for younger children, according to Katrina Parrish, the association’s Youth and Family Program director.
She said the music courses are being taught by volunteers.
Parrish said the center can always use more volunteers. They currently have a lot of high school students. Area businesses such as Merrill Lynch have also contributed volunteers.
On Tuesdays and Fridays, the branch offers an arts class.
The hours of the center are 3 to 6 p.m. unless there is a half-day or major school closing. In a case such as this week, when the schools are closed for the teachers convention the center is running "Vacation Camp."
The camp starts at 7:30 a.m. and continues until 6 p.m. Among the activities offered are bowling and watching a movie. The cost is $50 per day, and the price includes transportation and snack.
Stacey Lastella, interim director of the center, noted, "Through the Ycares Financial Assistance Program, no one is ever denied access to our programs because of an inability to pay."
She said the center plans to expand its hours to nights and weekends, with a focus on offering more family programs.
On Wednesdays, the Junior Leaders Club, grades three to five, convene and talk about values, according to Parrish. They are taught the YMCA core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.
According to Lastella, the open house was a great way to reacquaint the community with the licensed child-care center for after school hours, share some of the facility and technology upgrades that took place over the summer and familiarize people with the YMCA polices about access to programs and financial assistance.
Parrish stresses the importance of instilling these values in the children while they are young.
"If I can get them now, I’m really excited," said Parrish.