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2009 Events

December:
WHEDCo Students Hit the Ice with the New York Rangers!
In November, a group of 25 of WHEDCo’s After-school students attended a Garden of Dreams skating party with members of the New York Rangers, Vinny Prospal, Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival, at their training facility.

The students, all from WHEDCo’s partner school PS/MS 218, toured the team’s locker room, strapped on their skates, helmets, pads and personalized jerseys and then took a spin on the ice.   Once the kids were geared up, the group was escorted to the Rangers bench, where they were welcomed over the loudspeaker by Rangers radio play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert.

Representatives from the Wheelchair Sports Federation and the New York Rangers Sled Hockey Team also provided demonstrations on how to play sled hockey.  At the end of the skate session, the kids received gift bags and a personal invitation by Prospal, Redden and Rozsival to attend a game and relive the excitement from a VIP box later this season.

Above: Michal Rozsival helps a student tie his skates.

Check out the Garden of Dreams Foundation for more details:
http://www.gardenofdreamsfoundation.org/news.php?news=114

October:

It was a spooky Halloween at WHEDCo’s annual After-school Halloween Hoorah, which took place on Thursday, October 29 at PS/MS 218.  About 400 WHEDCo After Schoolstudents participated in the afternoon festivities which included a haunted house, dance party and a costume parade.

To help make this event a success, WHEDCo’s staff donated the candy and teens volunteered as supervisors. Spiderman and Witch costumes were the most popular!

September:
WHEDCo Hosts 7th Annual High School Fair
WHEDCo hosted its 7th annual High School Fair for nearly 200 7th and 8th graders and 40 of their parents at PS/MS 218, the Rafael Hernandez Dual Language Magnet School, on Wednesday September 23.  The fair was hosted by WHEDCo's Project STEP (Students Towards Educational Promise) after-school program at PS/MS 218 which offers academic enrichment, service learning and high school admissions guidance for middle school students. The fair featured representatives from dozens of public, independent and parochial school in New York City and the tri-state area.

Data from the 2008 – 2009 school year comparing the high school admission of 8th grade students participating in Project STEP to their peers who did not participate in the program shows that 74% of Project STEP students were admitted into high performing high schools, compared with an only 38% admission rate among those who did not participate in the program, even though this second set of students also possessed strong academic records.