"The days are very long for our kids in the summer," said Karen Ferguson, a Hoboken public housing resident. "When their parents are working, children in my community often go where they shouldn’t be going, and go to parks without any adult supervision. But what else can they do? There isn’t anywhere for them to be in this neighborhood."
To help city kids enjoy a safe place to have fun, All Saints Community Service and Development Corporation’s Homework Club kids, who live in Hoboken’s public housing, will be selling coffee, juice, and water to raise funds to send members to Cross Roads Camp, which offers city kids supervised swimming, boating, canoeing, sports, hiking, arts and crafts, singing, group games, nature, cookouts, and campfires.
It costs $320 to send a child to camp for one week. On Monday to Friday mornings, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. during July, the kids will be stationed in front of the bus stop at the corner of Seventh and Washington streets and other Hoboken commuter locations. This will be the sixth year the kids have raised funds that sent 40 Homework Club members to camp last summer.
When the summer’s over, these children will still need a safe place to gather in their own neighborhood. All Saints broke ground on a $1.9 million Jubilee Family Life Center, located at Sixth and Jackson streets in Hoboken, on June 25, 2001. The three-story, 9,000 square-foot building, located across the street from the city’s Public Housing complex, will provide a safe haven for some of Hudson County’s poorest kids. The 2000 Census stated that 42.7 percent of Hoboken children under 5, with a single female head of household, live in poverty.
The Homework Club and the All Saints are also selling commemorative bricks to help build the Jubilee Center scheduled to open November 2002. The bricks, which may be engraved with a name (personal or business) or a brief message, will be used to pave the walkway. The tax-deductible bricks are an ideal way to remember a special event or recognize an individual, as well as deliver a positive message to the community.
Eight-inch bricks cost $500; eight by four-inch bricks cost $250. Purchase forms are available at the Homework Club Coffee sales and from Laurie Wurm, executive director of All Saints Community Service, by telephoning (201) 792-0340, ext. 13, or via email: lwurm@allsaintshoboken.com.