Program gives minds and bodies a workout
Aubrey Hammond is a retired chemist who spends weekday afternoons poring over multiplication tables with elementary-school-age boys in an after-school program offered by St. Paul's Baptist Church.
Hammond, a volunteer at St. Paul's Academy on 14th Avenue, said he works best when he sits right next to the boys, looks them in the eye and tells them to settle down and work.
"These boys just need somebody to look at them eyeball to eyeball," Hammond said.
Hammond said he chose to volunteer at the program to work with boys from poor neighborhoods who may be lacking male role models. Boys such as Howard Turley, 9, whose father was murdered last year.
"He's just like a sponge, he soaks up the math," Hammond said of his pupil.
The Rev. Percius Poku, a minister at St. Paul's who runs the academy, said the after-school program began to give boys such as Howard - and girls - a safe environment where they could bolster their academics, work on physical fitness and explore character development.
The roughly 30 kids who participate in the program Monday through Friday partake in a rigorous schedule of homework, discussions and physical activity.
"We want to grow responsible young ladies and boys who have good characters," Poku said.
Poku said that in the days after Howard's father died, the child showed up every day at the after-school program. It provided him an oasis of security as chaos swirled around him.
"Throughout that whole ordeal, he kept coming all five days," Poku said.
Many children who participate in the program are parishioners' children or attend PS7, a charter elementary school started by Kevin Johnson, former NBA player turned philanthropist.
The students are bused to the program from the school, given a snack and then put to work.
The program will soon move into the newly built Dr. Ephraim Williams Family Life Center on church grounds. Parishioners have asked Book of Dreams readers to help them purchase some exercise equipment for children to use at the new center.
"We need equipment for the children to get involved with, to get them away from sedentary activities and to make it a part of their lives," said parishioner Nonie Inyang.