Community Board 8 announces winners

Community Board 8 is honoring outstanding volunteer efforts in the Riverdale/Kingsbridge area.

The board announced last week that Susan Di Raimo of the Northwest Bronx Support Committee for the Homeless, Riverdale Community Center’s Teen Action Education Group and the teens of Riverdale Neighborhood House’s Tutoring Program are all recipients of this year’s annual Community Service Awards.

The award winners were expected to receive their awards at Board 8’s Tuesday meeting, held after press time at Wave Hill.

Ms. Di Raimo has been the volunteer director of the support committee’s overnight shelter for homeless people at Kingsbridge Heights Community Center since it opened in 1997. The organization operates another shelter at the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture.

Board 8 recognized Ms. Di Raimo for recruiting volunteers to keep the shelter running and for setting up an internship program at the shelter, so that the homeless men who sleep there can train to be leaders at the shelter and live successfully on their own.

Also being honored is RCC’s Teen Action Education Group, made up of 24 eighth-grade students who volunteer to provide academic enrichment activities for students at PS 24. The tutors are: Sharmeen Azad, Eric Berger, Jade Brown, Jade Concepcion, Chelsea Garcia, Tanasi Gomez-Greene, Salveira Gonzalez, Bria Heyward, Giovanni Jackson, Benjamin Jurcic, Shanti Kumar, Brittany Malorano, Ashley Nunez, Carol Palacios, Samuel Piland, Julian Rachko, Sonia Ivette Roman, Megan Schachter, Karina Schulz, Anna- Taya Spencer, Marita Williams, David Zhang, Lucy Zicherman, and Robert Lynch.

RNH’s Tutoring Program also stood out to the selection committee. The group comprises seven high school students, each paired with one or two children in the Neighborhood House’s after school program. The tutors learn strategies to work with young children and have regular contact with an educational consultant.

The tutors are: Jaimee Dominquez, Wendy Puello, Nosso Nurova, Becky Wasserman, Edward Shaer, Jake Lesser, and Phoebe Gonzalez.

This is part of the May 14, 2009 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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