nothin Summer Ends With The “Chicken Noodle” | New Haven Independent

Summer Ends With The Chicken Noodle”

When 18-year-old Tamika Flowers talks about the group of children she mentored as a summer youth counselor with the New Haven Family Alliance, it’s easy to tell that she connected with them. Her heart is in her voice.

I feel like they’re my kids,” she said. I really felt like I built a relationship with them. And I can tell that they care about me too.”

Youth counselors Tony Howell, Angela Djirangaye and Tamika Flowers.

Flowers (pictured in the red shirt) was one of 27 teens who worked as youth counselors during a seven-week summer program that culminated in a Community Day celebration at Monterey Place on Ashmun Street Saturday.

Kyisha Velazquez, program manager for the New Haven Family Alliance Juvenile Review Board, said the summer program drew nearly 70 children ages 4 to 13, for days filled with arts and crafts, soccer, basketball and dance. They did reading and writing everyday,” she said. “[Saturday] is just a party for the children and their families.”

It also was the beginning of saying goodbye for the youth workers. Velazquez said money from the city’s YouthStat and Youth At Work programs helped fund the teen workers for five of the seven weeks of the summer program.

The last two weeks they did as community service,” she said. They loved the kids so much that they wanted to finish the program with their kids. They worked 25 hours a week, coming in early and leaving late.”

She said the program also got support from the Board of Education, which made the Monterey Place Community Resource Center (pictured) a summer food site. That meant that the camp provided lunch everyday.

Individuals and community organizations like the firefighters union and the Beacon Community also stepped in to provide supplies for arts and crafts, food, clothing and back to school supplies like backpacks and notebooks.

Angel Djirangaye, 15, said that the children she mentored were shy at first, but once they warmed up it was like they’d always known each other. They just really got used to me,” she said.

Tony Howell, 16, said he remembers the first day being terrible” because he didn’t know what to do when he realized the 12 to 13 year olds he was working with were doing an activity that was designed for younger kids. But once he got over that initial hurdle, things got easier.

When asked about her favorite part of the summer program, 5‑year-old Chyna (pictured) said, The bouncy house.”

While her cousin, 13-year-old Kamari, liked going out in the field, playing basketball and the park.”

So comfortable were the kids with their teen mentors that when it was time to strut their dance skills Saturday they didn’t hesitate to join in the fun an neither did the adults.

The parents showed off their best two-step …

But their children showed them how to Nae Nae,” Jerk” and do the Chicken Noodle Soup.”

And 9‑year-old Jeremy (pictured in black) did all of those dances so well that he went home $20 richer.

How’d he learn to be such a good dancer?

From my counselor Kenneth,” he said.

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