New Haven Independent

Josnell and 129 other kids from the Quinnipiac Terrace projects didn’t know what they would find Thursday when they received new backpacks.

They found the bags filled up not only with pencils and crayons and dictionaries and notebooks, but also with toothpaste, soap, deodorant and stuff your family just might run out of at the end of the month. And maybe even a few surprise toys.

It all came free, delivered Thursday with love.

Josnell and the other Q Terrace kids were the latest beneficiaries of the Back-to-School Backpack and Supply Drive of Marrakech, Inc. Marrakech is a not-for-profit that provides social work services to the residents of Quinnipiac Terrace.

Getting 130 kids, age four to 13, who live there ready for school was the focal point of Thursday morning’s happy event, held on the grass of Dover Beach park across from the splendid new houses of the rebuilt public-housing complex.

The program, in its third year, was initiated by Annemarie Crews (at the center of the photo above), a senior case manager at Quinnipiac Terrace. She formulated a list of all the kids in the development, by age and by gender. Then the employees of Marrakech, along with the Regional Water Authority, bought the backpacks and the supplies. With each kid named and in mind, gender and age-wise, the employees individually prepared the backpacks and brought them over.

Which was why it was a fine surprise when Marrakech events manager Lindsay Foster, on the right behind Josnell in the photo above (and across from Nikeysha Wright, also a case manager and volunteer Alexandra Millan), exclaimed, “Josnell, I packed this bag myself!”

“Wow,” he said, ” I really love it.” He was referring also to his notebooks, colored pencils, erasers soap, and no fewer than three packs of serious Right Guard deodorant. Foster must have known that Josnell, a sixth-grader at the John Daniels School, is an athlete. He picked the backpack, he said, because he liked the red and the black design, his favorite colors.

He’s looking forward to going back to school in two weeks. “I’m a busser,” he said, referring to his mode of transportation to school. Then he happily went back to inventorying the sharpener, crayons, glue, and other stuff way down at the bottom of his new backpack.

Five-year-old Luis Jimenez (pictured with his mom Jackie, along with Alderman Sergio Rodriguez, who dropped by, and Marrakech’s executive director, Frank McCarthy) had completely different tastes in backpacks. He chose a mellow pattern in green, but mainly because the gaping face of a friendly Shrek decorated the back.

“Marrakech,” said McCarthy, who himself grew up in public housing in the Bronx, “implements the housing authority’s Hope VI program at Quinnipiac Terrace, which is dedicated to providing social work services, training, jobs, removing the obstacles impeding people’s next step to self-sufficiency.”

“It’s all about giving people a hand up, not a hand out,” said Rodriguez, who came by not in an aldermanic capacity, but because he’s the community service manager at HANH’s Monterey Place, which is a similar model. He helps out at Quinnipiac Terrace as well. “If people need a G.E.D., basic job preparation skills, computer training, if they have a condition that’s impeded their moving to the next step in life, the program tries to address it. The other aspect of HOPE VI,” he added, “is to work with residents to foster entrepreneurship here as well.”

Carla Johnson, at right in this picture, is the entrepreneurial mom of a 13-year-old and a 7-year-old, for whom she had chosen backpacks. She was nice enough to pose with two of her kids’ friends (some of the mothers were working). Maliesha Johnson is going to be taking her backpack - she picked a pink and gray to hold the novels she likes to read — to the 8th grade at the Troup School next month. Nicholas Cox, her little pal, is four. Maliesha said that when she turns 14, she hopes to go into business babysitting for Nicholas and the many other kids in the development. With 130 backpacks, amounting to about that many kids, future business should be good, she was assured.

Johnson, who lives on Del Rio Drive in Quinnipiac Terrace, was entrepreneurial in her own way. “I’m running for president of the residents’ council,” she said. “It’s really important to have a good organization. And after that we’re going to organize a block watch.”

She said that there are 86 families in residence already, and 34 spots waiting for the completion of the remaining buildings, which should be ready in February. The yet to be finished buildings will house a social hall, which will be the focal point of future community programming.

One of those programs is already in full swing. Senior case manager Crews asked for word to be put out about it: She calls it a Sneaker and a Smile. “New York Knicks Guard Stephan Marbury grew up in public housing,” she said, “like these kids. He knows that sneakers can cost a lot of money, often beyond the budget of kids in public housing. And for kids, sneakers are big thing. So he put his name on a style that costs only 15 dollars.”

Crews has raised 20 contributors to give $15 each. Since there are 116 kids she’d like to take to the particular store that has Marbury’s sneakers, she needs another 96 people giving $15 in order to have the money in hand to get the kids fitted before school starts. They’d be the same Quinnipiac Terrace kids who today received their backpacks. As with the backpacks, while the idea of giving to an individual child is preferable, she would probably not mind a single donor coming up with about $1500 either (96 x $15, approximately). There are only two weeks remaining before school begins.

To reach Annemarie Crews and to make a contribution to the kids of Quinnipiac Terrace for the Sneaker and a Smile program, call her at 389-2970 ext 2120. She’ll tell you how to mail it in, or, if you want, she’ll grab a small friend with a new backpack and they’ll come over to meet you.