Summary~~~5th Annual Kids Fest; The Belle Center

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show...(the opening lines of David Copperfield as written by Charles Dickens;inspired by MTM). Or at least this ACCOUNT will, perhaps, have a reflection on whether I'm going to be the hero in my own life.

~~~Done to the Intonation of...No Milk Today; The Herman's Hermits

...no touch today, My love has gone away
Return I am to weigh, The loneliness of my Fate...

BACKDROP...
As explained by James McNeil who directs The Belle Center After-School Program, we will be conducting our 5th Annual KIDS FEST on August 27th starting at 12 noon and ending at 5:00PM. Any of the apprenticeship-training organizations that I have worked with, and would like to come out and be a part of this great community event, is invited. We will have tables set aside for respective organizations to place any literature that needs to be passed out to the children and adults who will be in attendance. There will be food, music, and lots of fun for both children and parents to enjoy. The Mayor and a few city and state officials will be in attendance as well and there will be media coverage for this event for the second straight year so we look forward to having as many organizations as possible at this years event. All are welcome. What we are trying to do with The Fest this year is integrate it to where the adult may find some relevance, hope, and promise for their work-world future and self-sustainability. And certainly, with what the various apprenticeship-training organizations are doing with their classroom and hands-on formats, lends itself well to this theme. Your willingness to be a part of this trade & vocational segment of the Kids Day Fest 27 August 2010, would be gratefully appreciated.

Summary of the: The 5th Annual Kids Fest!!!

As a Sunday's Child, Fridays prove to be so wonderfully productive. As the Operations Specialist for the Portal Program of the Belle Center, I was an integral component to the 5th Annual Kids Fest that was conducted 27 August, 2010. As in the past, James McNeil orchestrated this event, and it went off---as planned!! Because of the success of the 13 May 2010 Vocational Trade Fair at the Belle Center, James approached me to see about the possibility of providing a relevance for the adult. So this year we added a vocational/trade fair component to the theme. And it was well received.

The trade element was well integrated with other outreach vendors that were in attendance. The result was a wonderful full-house mix of health, safety, education, and vocational-trade representation.

This time around, the NGO's provided the higher visibility with the job-training theme. Danielle Kader did a yeoman's job representing On-The-Job Ministries. They run a thrift-store at 289 Grant Street, and manage a young-adult-manned soap-production operation that presently exists at the former Our Lady of Lourdes Parish on Fourteenth Street.

Marianna Banas was demonstrating C P R, and encouraging enrollment for training as an E M T with Rural-Metro Medical Services at 481 William Gaiter Parkway.

The ever-present, always-accessible Gary Bernardo of the NYS Laborers Union was manning the lead-table and had a steady stream of inquiries all afternoon. His discussions were 'true' Gary Bernardo~~~straight and to the point. He stresses the soft-skills. It is the soft-skills that will 'make' or 'break' any aspiring candidate, before anything else will.

Buffalo ReUse of the Northampton & Main Street area had their Danielle Rovillo present to talk up their thrift store to the inquisitive traffic that engaged her. She shared with me about how they move their thrift-store employees into entry-level hands-on job training, once the customer service soft-skills are absorbed.

Carl Panzarella, and his Energy Efficiency Division of New Buffalo Impact, had his weatherization training program represented by his very capable administrative assistant, Susan. Here again, the inquiries were steady and intermittent placement of signatures on their registration forms means that applications are going to mailed to prospective candidates.

I was thrilled that my newest Lower West Side acquaintance complied with her promise~~~and showed to man a table!!! UCC Asbury Shalom Zone of 520 Seventh St. was very visibly represented by, and I love this first-name, Providencia(Provy!!) Carrion. Included is this Carrion/UCC Asbury-Shalom-Zone package, is now having a DIRECT link to the fabled Luis Acosta!! Luis is legendary because of the respect he has earned with his training regimen. His reputation is such that his building-trade-training applications, and his entry-level crews are always present at the high-visibility Habitat-For-Humanity construction sites.

This was a seven-month obsession of mine; trying to find this legend~~~that nobody wanted to disclose details on the whereabouts of. This guy is so venerated that he has a loyal group of 'linemen' that runs interference for him. Luis doesn't want to be bothered with liaison matters. So I'll present my Portal prospects to Provy, and she'll introduce these young men and women, to Luis.

God, I Love Fridays!!!!

I am going to interject an interesting side-bar that made up a small segment of the day's experiences. I had a very very engaging, animated, and, I felt, connecting conversation with two of NY State Senator Antoine Thompson's foot-soldiers. Fabiola Friot and Madeline Rodriguez seemed to take what I had to say~~~to heart.

The compliment of the vocational/trade representation was completed by my very loyal and very supportive I B T brethren. Mike Gerviss, Vice President of the local that represents U P S, Local 449, was there and so was Michael Wach, President of my local, Local 375 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The huge encouragement is to apply with U P S as a casual for the upcoming seasonal volume. This is the ENTRY-LEVEL envy of the freight/dock/warehousing industry. It is a bump-and-grind experience in the beginning, but the staying-power usually results in the 'casual' attaining the Golden-Egg; permanent employment, premium pay, health insurance coverage, and a paid-pension.

Folks, it doesn't get much better than this!!
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise