Spring 2010
BYB IS THE PLACE
TO BE!
N EWS FROM THE B UCKINGHAM Y OUTH B RIGADE The Buckingham Youth Brigade (BYB) is a project of the BU-GATA Tenants Association. BYB creates a positive learning environment for youth in the Buckingham
neighborhood of Arlington. The program provides youth with leadership and community service skills and aims to focus their creative and intellectual energies.
What is BYB and How Has it Affected You???
Inside this issue:
What is BYB and How Has
it Affected You?
1
The Importance of Lubber
Run Center in My Life
2
My Famous Teacher
2
BYB Staff:
Saul Reyes & Mimi Oziel,
co-coordinators
One right of passage in
BYB is explaining the
program to guest speakers, public officials, or
community members at
neighborhood events.
This is a task that the
juniors and seniors pass
down to younger members and being able to
explain the program becomes a source of pride
for participants. David, a
BYB senior, is taking
this task a step further.
He has been working on
a video in which he asks
his fellow BYB members
to answer the following
questions:
What is BYB? And, how
has it affected you?
These are some of the
responses:
David looks down from the
balcony at a Rutgers University
hockey game
“…It’s real mad
friendly. When you
come here, we always
welcome new friends
with open arms. We’re
not mean. I thought they
[were] at first but they’re
not.”
“BYB is a youth group
that meets every week
and we do programs for
people and get to know
each other and become
friends. We do stuff for
the community.”
“I started last year, December 2008. BYB was
like a second home to
me. I grew up in a difficult time in my house
and BYB [became] like a
different family. We
stay united. I built a
bond to BYB. I became
family with them. I
started talking to them
and they helped me out
with my problems and I
was there for them. It
was something to keep
my mind busy, keep my
mind off stuff that I
shouldn’t have done…It
got me motivated to do
good in school. It also
got me more active to
help the community
out…BYB is for people
that need family.”
Continued on page 3.
See “What is BYB”
News from the Buckingham Youth Brigade
Page 2
The Importance of Lubber Run in my Life by Patricia Gaitain, BYB Senior
Patricia (left) with Andrea on a
trip to the ice skating rink
“All these
important
events in my
life took place
at Lubber Run,
which is why
Lubber Run is
so important to
me and others
of the
community.”
Let’s go back for
a few minutes to 2006,
when Patricia Gaitan
started volunteering at
the Lubber Run AfterSchool Program.
Patricia loved working
with children and so everyday after school for
two years she helped out
at this center; she met
many people but never
came across BYB. The
first time she heard about
this wonderful group
was in 2008 from Mimi
Oziel. Mimi and Francisco came to Patricia’s
home to introduce the
BYB program to her
mother and her. They
were recruiting new
members. When she
heard the good news,
Patricia got excited and
confused. She thought
to herself, “Should I go
or is this just going to be
bad?” Now, coming
back to the present, I’m
100% sure that the first
meeting went great or I
wouldn’t be here typing
this!
Since I started
BYB, I met many people
including Mimi, high
school friends, and my
boyfriend. Many Tuesdays I would walk to
Lubber Run Center for
BYB homework sessions
from five to eight. Every
Wednesday evening I
would easily walk to and
from my home to Lubber
Run Center for our BYB
meetings. During these
meetings we got to learn
about each other, current
news or anything we, the
members, wanted to do
for the community or
learn about. I’ve participated in marches for Arlington workers, made
presentations to the
Housing Commission
and County Board, and
discussed the Arlington
recreation centers’ decreased hours, including
those at Lubber Run
Center. All these important events in my life
took place at Lubber
Run, which is why Lubber Run is so important
to me and others of the
community.
Many centers in
Arlington are open much
less than before.
Lubber Run Center is
only open now during
the day on weekdays and
has a very confusing
time schedule at night. I
remember when teens
could just go there to
hang out or finish up
some school work when
the center was open
later.
Continued on page 3.
See “Lubber Run”
Having a Famous Teacher by Betis Sorto-Sanchez, BYB Mentor
Betis (left), Katty and Patricia
show off their plaster hands
I am a BYB mentor and
former program participant, now attending
Northern Virginia Community College at the Alexandra Campus. I try to
tell my BYB mentees that
at NVCC I have many
very intelligent, yet strict,
professors. Last semester
I had the opportunity to
have Dr. Jill Biden as my
English 003 teacher. To
begin the story, I had no
idea who she was. I just
thought she was an ordinary professor. I did not
have a very good first
impression of her because I was not a fan of
her teaching skills. I
thought she was a normal teacher and I didn’t
pay attention to who she
really was. After being
in her class for two
months, my classmates
and I start talking, and
we figured out that she
was the vice president’s
wife! I couldn’t believe
that I had the vice president’s wife as a teacher.
Continued on page 3.
News from the Buckingham Youth Brigade
Page 3
What is BYB, continued from Page 1
Lubber Run, continued from Page 2
“Most of the people that
I know here, I care about
and I’ve known them for
a while or I’m getting to
know them, like new
members. And the mentors…they’ve helped me
in advice and homework
things and studying…
Some of the people that
are in BYB now are people that I have classes
with, and now I know
them more because in
classes you really don’t
get to know people like
in a youth group.”
Also, I know that there
were many groups that
had meetings there,
other than BYB, but the
people that changed the
hours said “they couldn’t do anything about
it.” There are so many
events that used to take
place at Lubber Run and
I have so many memories from them, which is
why Lubber Run Center
“BYB has been a good
factor in my life. It is
actually teaching me
what to do to become a
leader in the community.
It’s also helping me out
to have new friends, create new relationships
with others and also how
to communicate with
others.”
“BYB has helped me out
in many ways. For example, now I’ve learned
a lot of leadership
[skills] which made me
become, well, a leader.
It also helped me to meet
important people like
Walter Tejada. It also
[taught me how] to talk
in public --like in a big
group. It also helped me
out on my grades. I’ve
been working harder because of BYB. It also
brought me new friends
and new people.”
should go back to its
regular open hour schedule!
Patricia is graduating
from Washington-Lee
High School this spring
and will attend Northern
Virginia Community
College in the fall.
BYB in our shirts ready for a meeting
Having a Famous Teacher (continued from page 2)
I was so surprised, and I
still didn’t believe that it
could be true, so I decided to google her name
on the Internet. When I
did that, it finally hit me
that it really was her. Realizing that my teacher
was someone so important helped me change
my attitude towards
her, and I adjusted to her
teaching skills. I got
more comfortable talking
to her and asking her for
help when I needed it.
Being in Dr. Biden’s class gave me the
opportunity to learn a lot
from her. As a teacher,
Dr. Biden is a sweet and
generous person. She
gave me several opportunities to redue my work
and I learned that rewrit-
ing over and over actually improved my writing to improve my writing and I am happy to
say that it was a pleasure
being in her class.
Betis will continue at Northern Virginia Community College through next year and
hopes to transfer to Virginia
Commonwealth University to
complete her Bachelor’s degree.
Page 4
News from the Buckingham Youth Brigade
BU-GATA Tenants Association & Buckingham Youth Brigade
927 S. Walter Reed Drive Suite 28
Arlington, VA 22204
Phone: 703-302-5140
Email:
[email protected]
BYB exists in order to celebrate, inspire, and reflect the dreams and goals of the youth in and
around the Buckingham neighborhood in Arlington. Become a mentor, come speak at a workshop,
help defray activity costs, or make a tax-deductible donation.
BYB is a federal tax exempt 501(c )(3) organization partially funded by the Arlington County CDBG
program and the Freddie Mac Foundation.
NEW WEBSITE!
www.bu-gata.org/
BU-GATA/BYB
Highlights from BYB activities during the school year...
The Masks we Wear At this workshop, students discussed both the literal
and figurative meaning of “wearing a mask.” They had many great examples
of figurative masks. Patricia mentioned the book When I was Puerto Rican
and how the character pretended to be something she wasn’t in order to fit in.
Betis suggested the concept of being two-faced— being nice to someone
but then saying mean things behind their back. Magdalena said that many
people have to act a certain way at work even though it might be contrary
to their inner feelings and mentioned that she often has to do this when
she is volunteering at the hospital. She said that she has to act like she is
interested in the stories people tell her even though she is very bored. We
then took this idea a step further and made actual masks using plaster and
our faces. At first some of the students were hesitant, but Diana was the
first to volunteer to have her face plastered and everyone else quickly
joined in!
Presenting to the Housing
Commission
Presentations to the Arlington County Housing Commission and County
Board With their homemade Ekeko puppet, students presented their Who Are
Arlington’s Immigrants Project and made recommendations. The housing
commission in particular took these recommendations very seriously and
passed them along in a letter to the County Board.
Meetings with Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources Staff and County
Board Members Walter Tejada and Chris Zimmerman BYB called for meetings with officials to discuss their concern in hours being cut back at our community center, Lubber Run. Students are still working hard to make sure that
Lubber Run stays open in the evenings and continues to be a resource for the
community!