Thanksgiving came early this year for the Boys & Girls Club of Hudson County, which treated its children to dinner and entertainment in Hoboken this past Monday and Jersey City this past Tuesday. The annual Hoboken event has been held for at least 10 years, and has been supported by Party With Purpose, a local volunteer charity organization, for the last several years.
The Boys & Girls Club provides afterschool care and activities for children throughout the community, in particular economically disadvantaged children living in Hoboken’s public housing projects. It is located in the Jerry Molloy Youth Center at 123 Jefferson St. and shares its space—and a number of its children—with the Hoboken Dual Language Charter School.
Food is an integral part of the Boys & Girls Club’s whole child mission—Hoboken director Margarita Garcia said every child who comes to aftercare is served dinner. But few meals are as special as Monday’s, where around 90 children feasted on turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and macaroni and cheese, along with ice cream donated by Ben & Jerry’s.
The fixings were purchased by Party With Purpose with money raised at a recent happy hour event at Hotel Victor Bar & Grill, and served by Party With Purpose volunteers.
Alisha Cipollone, the event’s main organizer, said Thanksgiving dinner is the favorite event of the year for many Party With Purpose members. A lot of the group’s charity events are geared towards adults, she said, so it’s nice to be around kids who let you know immediately how grateful they are.
While they ate, the children were treated to a demonstration by Capoeira Culture Center, a New York area-based school of capoeira, a Brazilian martial art. The Center recently expanded into Hoboken, and some of its local students joined in the performance, swaying and kicking to the beat of a single-stringed Brazilian berimbau.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.