Hundreds attended the ribbon cutting for the brand new clubhouse of the Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County in Jersey City today, which will partner with a new charter school for health care education and with Jersey City Medical Center – St. Barnabas Health. The reality is that this has been decades in the works and approvals began under my predecessor (Jersey City) Mayor (Jerramiah) Healy…in partnership with the development community,” Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said at the opening of the clubhouse, located Downtown at 225 Morris Blvd. “We have a facility here today built with private dollars and it is going to serve more children and it has a school attached to it with a very, very unique curriculum for the 21st Century,” Fulop said, adding that he is excited about all the children the building will serve “for decades ad decades into the future.” The 125 students of the Great Futures Charter High School for the Health Sciences attended the event, as did numerous elected officials at the city, state and county levels; representatives of developers and representatives of the Medical Center. “I was very excited about what the future will bring for our young people in Jersey City and a little bit sentimental,” said Hudson County Boys and Girls Club Executive Director Gary Greenberg of today’s event in the clubhouse gym. Greenberg, who has held his post for 39 years, said it touched him to see so many former club board members and other associates from the past at the event whose work “allowed us to make the progress we made today.” The clubhouse includes a large gymnasium with basketball courts, versatile classrooms, science labs for biology and physics, a recording studio and a teaching culinary kitchen. It offers education and career development programs, character education, a leadership programs, a career development program, academic enrichment programs, sports fitness and recreation, dance drama and music instruction, and summer camps, Greenberg said. It is located in 35,000 square feet of a residential building and it will operate as the charter school during the day and the clubhouse after school, Greenberg said. The clubhouse had been at its former location near the new facility since 1984. The Boys and Girls Club has served Jersey City since 1893. The Jersey City Boys and Girls Club is the only one in America to have created a partnership with such a charter school, said Greenberg, who is also vice president of the school and its lead founder. “Every child at the club and school will be prepared to take the next step in life,” Greenberg said. “That is really what we are, what we do.”
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:27:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015