By Dana Klosner-Wehner
A round-table discussion will precede the award presentation, which is set for Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at the Elmont Public Library. Panelists will include radio talk show host Hugh Hamilton and PBS producer Dr. Marsha Darling, and the discussion will be moderated by Aubrey Phillips, the founder of Elmont.org, a community-based Web site. The festivities will also include a celebration of song and spoken word.
“The Assemblyman wanted to recognize people who have done extraordinary work in social justice,” said Scott Cushing, Alfano’s chief of staff. “Social justice is what Dr. King stood for.”
“The award is so appropriate this year, when we are about to inaugurate a new president,” Alfano said. “We have a lot to celebrate as Americans.”
The winners were chosen for their community service, Alfano said. Three of them — Francis Mitra, Xavier Roberts and Sage Bowen, all 17-year-old seniors at Elmont Memorial High School — are being honored for their work in founding Ethos, an online magazine for teens. The fourth is David Duchatellier, 52, an electrical engineer, a travel agent and a native of Haiti who has helped feed starving people in that poverty-plagued country.
“These three young people have put together a Web site that educates teenagers and young people,” Cushing said of the magazine, which has a staff of seven. “It’s got entertainment, news and fashion. It empowers young people to get involved. It includes articles that talk to seniors in high school about not getting ‘senioritis.’ That’s the thing Dr. King always wanted. He wanted young people to become an active part of the community.”
Mitra handles the Web design. “The readers register and submit their own articles that we publish online,” he explained. “Most of the [articles] are about fashion and underground music.”
The Web site, Ethosmagazine.net, began as a summer activity that the teens never thought would go this far, said Roberts, who edits the articles. He said that the site has brought him closer to his friends. “We pride ourselves on letting our readers write,” Roberts said. “If someone is starting their own clothing line, or has original music we broadcast it.”
Mitra said that the original name for the site was the Skinny Jeans Committee. “After it picked up momentum,” he added, “we changed the name to a more professional trademark.”
“It was basically a game at first,” said Bowen, who heads the art and entertainment departments for the site. “We liked the idea that we could all do something together.”
“We wanted it to be an online community for teenagers where they could interact, submit their own ideas and voice their opinions,” added Mitra, who started doing Web design in fourth grade and graphic design in fifth grade.
Asked what the award means to them, Bowen said, “It shows how people can make a difference in the world, black or white. This magazine shows you can be anything you want to be. We’re just seven average kids. We’re nobody special.”
“This award shows we’ve gone somewhere,” said Mitra. “We’ve accomplished something. We set up an online community. We can use this as a steppingstone. We’ve gone this far — it gives us the opportunity to keep pushing forward and help build our community and a better network for teens.”
Of King’s legacy, Mitra said, “Martin Luther King made a big impact on a lot of borders that separated people. We all need to interact with each other. [In the magazine] we let people interact. Freshmen write and interact with seniors and college students. Everyone gets along without feeling superior to another person. Martin Luther King set that up.”
Roberts said that Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a time to rejoice in the progress the civil rights leader inspired. “He paved the way for myself and other African-Americans,” he said. “Martin Luther King influenced people to do better for themselves and pursue their goals. We want the magazine to influence the community to pursue their dreams and goals.”
“Martin Luther King had a lot of influence in the black community, showing our people how we can stand up,” said Bowen. “It’s an honor to accept the award and live out his ideals. It’s a great honor.”
All three teens are looking forward to the future. Mitra, a member of the Key Club, Future Business Leaders of America, the National Honor Society and the varsity track team, is considering going on to SUNY-Binghamton or Baruch College. “I’m looking for something in marketing and management,” he said. “I enjoy working with teens. In the marketing field I could contribute ideas for getting projects started.”
Roberts, who is active in Students Against Destructive Decisions and the Key Club, is looking at the University of Connecticut, and said he wants to go into business management. He used to think he wanted to go into corporate law, but now, because of his experience with the magazine, he said, he might want to go into project management, marketing or public relations.
Bowen said he is considering the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and wants to be a graphic designer or an animator. At Elmont, he is a member of SADD, the Key Club and the National Honor Society.
Feeding starving Haitians
Of Duchatellier’s work in his native land, Alfano said, “There was a terrible crisis in Haiti, and this man singlehandedly, with a little bit of help from myself and Sen. Dean Skelos, directed food to starving people.”
In April, Duchatellier started the Haitian Children’s Food and Clothing drive. “He has transcended the halls of the U.N. and brought this home to Elmont,” Cushing said.
Duchatellier has sent 28 750-pound barrels of food and clothing to Haiti, and he said his office in Queens is filled with collections that have not yet been sent. Twelve more barrels of supplies are packed and ready to ship, and he is just waiting for cash donations so he can send them.
“He has made a difference in helping to feed and clothe children in orphanages,” Cushing said. “He is also involved in a wonderful charity called Sauv Enfants. It’s a charity that raises money to educate children in Haiti who live in the countryside, who have never stepped foot in a schoolhouse. They are taught to read, write, do math and go on to college. He is empowering those children to become the doctors and teachers of tomorrow.”
Duchatellier also empowers small businesses locally, Cushing said. He helps with Alfano’s annual health fair at Elmont Memorial High School, which 1,600 people attended last year. “He really gets his hands dirty and helps,” Cushing said.
“Martin Luther King is a very significant figure for me, for my family and for America,” Duchatellier said. “If people were doubting that anything is possible, they are not going to doubt it anymore.”
He said he is honored to receive the award. “I feel privileged and humbled at the same time,” he said. “You don’t expect something like this. This proves to me that the work I have been doing has been recognized ... I will value [this award] for the rest of my life.”
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