May 14, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Be a kid for a night

by Avital Binshtock

T he spacious playroom inside the McNeil Family Clubhouse in Menlo Park fills with shrieks as kids play foosball, billiards and a slew of other games. On the wall, posters of inspirational figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Michael Jordan, hang alongside bright paintings and striking photographs created by young club members.

Rachel McIntire, the bubbly and astonishingly patient art director of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, works closely with the children to ensure they are artistically fulfilled. With dwindling art and music resources in the public schools, she is concerned kids are missing out on an important opportunity.

"The arts have just been devastated in all the schools and it's been hard to fund here too," McIntire said.

To raise money for the Boys and Girls Club, the fifth annual "Be a Kid for a Night" benefit will take place Saturday at the Moldaw-Zaffaroni Clubhouse in East Palo Alto with 80 children participating.

The dinner event also features a silent auction, the "Youth of the Year" award ceremony, and special guests -- namely KTVU Fox 2 sports director Mark Ibanez and Stanford art theorist Elliott Eisner, who will lecture on "The value of arts in youth development."

The event's displays, McIntire said, will be "very interactive." Guests can have their photographs taken by young shutterbugs, scratch their own CD, and make art pieces to take home.

Work by visual artists will also be on display, and 30 performing artists, including musicians, dancers and spoken-word poets, will take the stage.

One of last year's big hits was 15-year-old spoken-word artist Kanisha Tillman. Keenly aware of her role-model status at the club, Tillman is apt to put her arm around a near-stranger and cheerfully tour them around the clubhouse. Though she speaks easily and casually to peers, she transforms when she performs.

At last year's event she got a standing ovation after performing her piece, "My Dreams and My Community." It was well-earned; she had rewritten it three times and practiced for weeks with art educator Kelly Bathgate to get her diction and voice intonations just right.

When she forcefully delivered her words ("Some people have no dreams and aspirations/But I do and as I stand here today one of my dreams has come true"), the crowd roared its approval.

Tillman, a sophomore at Menlo-Atherton High School -- which holds its prom the night of the club's event -- will perform this year in a prom dress lent to her by clubhouse staffer Tamara Lacy, and then jet off to the dance as soon as she gets off stage. Although Tillman has not written her new poem yet, she knows it will be about a black orchid.

"More teens should know about this (club). It expanded my horizons," Tillman said.

Sharai Sapp, a pig-tailed Bellhaven fifth-grader, found out about the club because her grandfather used to work there. Although she will not perform at "Be a Kid for a Night," she will be there and her paintings will be on display.

"In art, you get to experience different things and you get to express yourself," Sapp said. "It makes me happy that I get to express myself and feel comfortable."

The Boys and Girls Club of America, which aims to provide a safe and inspiring place for disadvantaged youth who might otherwise spend after-school hours on the streets, has four clubhouses on the peninsula: one in East Palo Alto, one in Redwood City and two in Menlo Park. Each club serves 200 to 300 children of all ages each school day.

Parents pay $25 for their child's one-year membership card, allowing them to participate in a variety of after-school programs. Clubhouses are equipped with classrooms, art studios and sports facilities.

McIntire, who heads to Harvard University this fall for a master's degree in art education, feels fortunate that about 50 prominent community members sit on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. She acknowledged that the kids are lucky to be surrounded by such a philanthropically aware community, but admitted that her arts program needs more contributions than it gets.

"Social entrepreneurship is large here," McIntire conceded, "but the funding cuts have affected us."

Donations are not the only way the club supports its art programs. Committed volunteers visit regularly to teach children a range of art-related skills, from jewelry-making to poetry-writing; graphic design to choral singing.

Ongoing projects include a mural-painting project, which pays involved club members $9 per hour to research, design and paint murals for the Ravenswood School District. The children have painted murals at all of the district's 14 schools and are working on more. The latest mural, located at the East Palo Alto Charter High School, was dedicated on May 13.

Club members also form bands and produce CDs in studios that donate time.

Sapp's close friend, Daisy Navarro, also a fifth-grader at Bellhaven, said she is here every day. She, too, loves the club's art program.

"I love art because it makes me feel open. If I feel sad, I draw something sad. If I feel happy, I draw something happy," Navarro explained.

McIntire recognizes how much these kids have to contribute, and one of her goals is to show Peninsula residents what children can offer.

"We want to change the perception of kids in our community and help people see them as viable resources," McIntire said.
Editorial intern Avital Binshtock can be reached at abinshtock@paweekly.com.

What: "Be a Kid for a Night," a celebration of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula's arts program.

Where: Moldaw-Zaffaroni Clubhouse, 2031 Pulgas Ave. in East Palo Alto

When: Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

Cost: Tickets range from $100 for a patron ticket to $3,000 for a benefactor table seating eight. Proceeds will benefit the club's art programs. To order tickets, please call (650) 321-0389.

Info: To learn more about the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, visit www.bgcp.org.
Subhead: The Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula has prepared its artistic young members in an effort to get community support.

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