This year's YABC students are 'Stoked to Serve' their community

Twenty-two students from New York Center for Interpersonal Development's Young Adult Borough Center (YABC) participated in Stoked to Serve: Summer 2011 this past September.  Stoked to Serve - coordinated by Stoked and sponsored by the Quiksilver Foundation - strives to connect youth to their communities through service projects that beautify the urban environment, such as cleaning parks and beaches or improving community gardens.  This summer, they mobilized youth from all five boroughs of New York City to engage in community service projects, helping to clean up and rehabilitate parks and waterfronts.

This past September, YABC students helped clean up
Wolfe's Pond Park after Hurricane Irene hit NYC.

Originally, our students were scheduled to perform some basic clean up and light painting in Wolfe's Pond Park.  However, because they participated in the venture just after Hurricane Irene hit Staten Island, the project became a rigorous, heavy-lifting cleanup effort on a hot summer day at the beach.

All of the students who volunteered for the event were brand new to our program, and it was the first time our staff had the opportunity to engage them. The resulting turnout and the desire to help was astounding. Further, it provided us with an advocacy opportunity that we have never had before. Being out in the open, with our blood flowing and brows damp, allowed everyone to lay down their guards and get to know one another.

Check out the slideshow below for some additional photos of the clean up: