From July 7 through August 22, the Police Athletic League (PAL) will launch its 2008 Summer Program for children in Queens. As part of the program, kids will play sidewalk games, develop their creativity through the arts and learn from a wide range of educational, recreational and cultural and arts specialists.
The Summer Play Street Program closes off streets and uses other public areas, such as playgrounds and parks, throughout New York City to provide children with safe, supervised places to enjoy the summer outdoors. Play Streets offer sports, arts and crafts, games, music and dance. Featured activities include Double Dutch jump rope, Hopscotch, Nok Hockey and basketball. Play Streets are open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and are free to all New York City children.
“In 1914, Police Commissioner Arthur Woods ordered New York City police officers to go throughout the city and find empty lots and streets where there were high concentrations of unsupervised kids,” said PAL Executive Director Felix A. Urrutia. “There was this notion that kids were out on the street without supervision, without the presence of an authority figure, and were going to go on a negative track. We wanted them to go on a positive track. But also, it was a way for the police to get to know the kids.”
The arts and cultural specialists rotate throughout the Play Streets during the summer. Always on premises are the director of the Play Street and the recreation specialist, who set up the play area before the kids arrive. Police officers may also volunteer. Kids will find sports equipment and irons, registration tables to become a PAL member, T-shirts and more. Urrutia emphasizes that there is “no rigorous process” for joining the play area. “The drop-in program is designed to capture that child who’s out in the streets, roaming,” said Urrutia.
Each year, the activities are based on a theme common to every site in the city, although “sometimes communities take on their own flavor,” said Urrutia. This summer, the theme will be Caribbean culture and history, “the peoples, how they live, how they eat, where they live … Kids will research the indigenous peoples, how they developed, what sports they might have played, how they hunted, how they engaged in commerce and trade. It’s really a combination of history, sociology, behavior,” Urrutia explained. “Each street will adopt a different Caribbean island. The cultural specialist’s job is to bring all that to life.”
On borough days, children will meet up in their respective boroughs to put together shows or presentations about the region. A street assigned Puerto Rico might perform the salsa, while a street that studied the Dominican Republic would do the merengue, added Urrutia. Children will adopt traditional dress for the performance, which will take place on a portable stage rented from the Parks Department. “It’s a way of connecting the entire borough,” said Urrutia.
This year, the MetLife Foundation and the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation are sponsoring the Play Street Program. PAL provides recreational, educational, cultural and social activities to tens of thousands of boys and girls annually. It is the city’s largest, independent, nonprofit youth organization.
PAL will have Play Streets in neighborhoods all over Queens. For more information visit www.palnyc.org.
The 19 Play Streets in Queens are:
Marconi Playground: 109th Avenue and 157th Street
P.S. 207/Rockwood Park: 159-15 88th Street
Wayanda Playground: Hollis Avenue and Robard Lane, 217th Place
Boulevard Gardens: 31st Avenue and 57th Street
Playground 75: 160th Street, 75th Road and 75th Drive
Springfield Playground North: Springfield Boulevard and 147th Avenue
168th Street: 168th Street and Baisley Boulevard
Sunnyside Street: Sunnyside Street and Hart Avenue
Norelli-Hargreaves Playground: 142nd Street and 106th Avenue
78th Street: Between Northern Boulevard and 34th Avenue
Colden Street: 46-21 Colden Street
Hammel Houses: 85-10 Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Woodside Houses: 51st Street and Broadway
Queensbridge Houses: 10-06 41st Avenue
Ocean Bay Apartments: 434 Queens Channel Drive, Arverne Boulevard
Baisley Houses: Guy R. Brewer and Foch Boulevard (Jamaica)
Carleton Manor Houses: 71-15 Beach Channel Drive
Bland Houses: 133-36 Roosevelt Avenue (Flushing)
Redfern Houses: 14-56 Beach Channel Drive, Redfern Avenue and Hassock Street City Line
