By Michael Grife
It is this type of ideology that brought over 150 people to Molloy College on June 28 and 29 for a program entitled Working With Youth: Virtues and Character Building.
The aim of the two-day seminar was to provide information to educators and youth athletic coaches on how to turn their students or athletes into moral, virtuous members of society.
Day one of the seminar was geared toward coaches. Day two focused on workshops for school teachers, camp counselors and members of the faith community.
A host of speakers ran the workshops, including Nancy Van Gulick, president of Character Counts, a national youth organization, and Joe Higgins, a member of the Freeport Athletic League who spoke on achieving Victory with Honor.
Gulick opened her presentation by demonstrating the challenge youth coaches face in instilling character in their children. She told attendees of an article she read that described CEOs of major companies cheating in golf. The win-at-all-costs company heads would kick their opponent's ball or give themselves higher scores, said Gulick.
If these high-ranking officials have not learned sportsmanship, how can we teach it to kids? Gulick asked.
Six pillars of character, Gulick said, were a must for children to learn. They include: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. At the end of her program, Gulick divided the crowd into small groups, so people could share techniques and experiences.
After listening to Gulick's presentation, Tony Pollizi, an executive board member of the Baldwin Police Athletic League, said, Sports build your muscles, but should also build character. These workshops gave me hints for instilling sportsmanship and character in the kids. Pollizi said he planned to share his insights with other members of PAL.
The Rising Star Program, a non-profit organization that operates out of the office of Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon, sponsored the seminar. Rising Star runs on the edict, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of punishment. The group does outreach in high-crime areas to get children off the streets before they are influenced by gangs or drug dealers. Soccer clinics, boxing leagues and summer camps are all techniques used by Rising Star to keep children out of the reach of criminals.
If educators take with them one practical technique they can use to help develop character in young persons, then we'll have succeeded, said Rising Star Chief Rene Fiechter, who lives in Baldwin.
Fiechter explained that while getting kids off the streets is half the battle, the real prize is to embed life lessons in the brains of at-risk youth. Justice, Fortitude, prudence, and temperance are the four cardinal virtues Fiechter wishes to instill in Rising Star members. The ultimate goal, according to Fiechter, is to turn children into the kind of people you would want to hire or trust with a mortgage.
Several young people attended the seminar, including Jonathan Melara, 15, of Hempstead. A member of the Economic Opportunity Counsel (EOC), Melara has been hired by Rising Star to coach a soccer team in their summer clinic, thus keeping him off the streets and helping to mold him into a role model.
The virtues I learn here, I'll take with me back to my neighborhood, back to my school, said Melara, who hopes he will not be merely a soccer coach, but a life coach.
If the lessons learned in the character-building seminar stick, then children who participate in sports will not just want to beat their opponent, they will want to shake their hands after the game.
