February 3, 2012
by Marci Garson
Editor’s note: The non-profit Jewish Child Care Association’s “A Tree Grows in Pleasantville” benefit raises much-needed funds, as well as hope, for neglected children who live and study at The Cottage School in Pleasantville. Gathered for a fundraiser in Temple Beth El’s in social hall on January 7, supporters of the school heard children themselves tell their heartbreaking stories. Marci Garson’s report of the evening follows.
Before *Sabrina could get up the nerve to tell her life’s story at Saturday night’s fundraiser for the Pleasantville Cottage Schools, she hid in the ladies room. Finally, a few JCCA members tracked her down and managed to calm her fears. No wonder Sabrina was anxious; she was about to tell a horror story of abuse and sexual molestation that began when she was just 6 years old.
The room was silent as Sabrina explained how she ended up at The Cottage Schools, a safe haven for abused and neglected children. Many wiped away tears as she stood before the well-heeled crowd gathered in Temple Beth-El’s brand new social hall and bravely recounted how her stepfather took advantage of her, her mother refused to believe her, how she turned to drugs, and worse, to “make the pain go away… I had what I would call an emotional breakdown. I started to cut myself which caused hospitalization four times in three months.”
The image these words conjured up was in sharp contrast to the Temple’s stunning room decorated with an enormous sparkling white tree as its centerpiece. But just as the tree represents new growth, Sabrina attributes her new life to The Cottage Schools. Now a senior in high school, she has already been accepted to college and hopes one day to write a book about her life “so that other kids like me won’t feel so alone.”
It takes a village
Sabrina was far from alone Saturday night. Hundreds of people attended the annual “Tree” event this year helping to raise $353,000. All of the money will go directly into the services that protect the residential programs at The Cottage Schools.
In celebration of the Campus’ 100th anniversary the non- profit JCCA also launched “Paving the Way: The Cottage Schools Brick Campaign” at the “Tree” event. It is a yearlong campaign during which bricks can be purchased for $100 and $200, and a tree can be bought for $5,000. The money will be used to create a special family visiting area where a tree-lined brick pathway will lead to a serene park-like setting separate from the rest of the Campus. Saturday night the JCCA sold 100 bricks and one tree, a great beginning for this new project.
*Tahitia, another teen who mustered up the courage to speak Saturday night, expressed sadness over not knowing whether she and her mother will ever be “family” again because “I was tired of being screamed at, cursed at and hit.” Still, she admitted that by age 10 she had started smoking and drinking in order to fit in with the other kids in her rough Bronx neighborhood. After being late to school 106 days and being suspended 6 times in one year, Tahitia was sent to the Diagnostic Program in Pleasantville where she claims her social worker “really helped me to loosen up” and credits her therapist with teaching her to “get out my anger and work through some uncomfortable feelings. Most of those uncomfortable feelings,” she continued, “are being judged for my sexuality…I accept, understand and am proud that I am a lesbian.”
Tahitia feels that owning who she is has helped her to take advantage of the many programs the Campus offer. She joined the basketball team, and got involved with the therapeutic arts program. Tahitia also takes poetry, guitar and African drumming (one of her favorites, she explains, because, “ I got to beat up on something that wasn’t a person”). Tahitia also enjoys a therapeutic horsemanship program where she works closely with a horse named Melos whom she gently lulls to sleep as she grooms him.
None of these programs would be possible without events like the “Tree” fundraiser and volunteers like Lisa Golomb, who taught a photography class that Tahitia enrolled in and is now the teen’s mentor. “She emotionally supports me,” Tahitia stresses, “and makes me have confidence in myself…I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I’m thankful that JCCA helped me get where I am today.”
*Sabrina and Tahitia are not the girls’ real names, but their stories are true and representative of the more than 320 inner city kids who live and go to school at The Cottage Schools until social workers can either reunite them with their families or find them foster homes.
For more information, contact the JCCA at www.jccany.org.
Marci Garson is an Emmy-award winning television reporter. For 15 years she covered national news on Capitol Hill and local news in Miami, Florida, Connecticut and New York. Garson moved to Chappaqua in 1995 to raise her two boys.
Copyright 2012 NewCastleNOW.org