***For Immediate Release***

May, 7, 2008

Re: Dorchester Honors Its Model Citizens

(Dorchester, MA) On Friday May 2nd, 2008, SCI Dorchester celebrated its 3rd Annual Model Citizens Awards Ceremony at The Historic Great Hall in Codman Square. This year we honored seven individuals for their exemplary service and commitment to their community. This event was held in conjunction with National Volunteer Week (April 27th- May 3rd) as a way to show appreciation for all the good work our volunteers do everyday.

Model Citizens is an annual award that celebrates volunteers who have contributed their time and talents to their community. An individual or organization nominates each Model Citizen and a review committee consisting of community volunteers then chooses the award recipients. The 2008 Model Citizens Awards recipients included: Dynell Andrews-Blake, Byron Beaman, Marion Bowden, Jamarhl Crawford, Vivian Girard, Arlene Lopes, and Jeff Smith. Ron Bell, Director of the Office of Civic Engagement, was the special guest speaker for the event and he was presented with a special award for his activism and accomplishments in increasing voter registration in our communities.

The event was a fantastic celebration of volunteerism in the Dorchester community. Every volunteer who came to the event received an official certificate of appreciation. In addition to recognizing the Model Citizens, SCI Dorchester and DotWell gave awards to its seven AmeriCorps members: Grace Ejiwale, Jennifer Gerber, Kathy McKenzie-Johnson, Joao Ramos, Carlotta Richardson, Carla Smith, and Kelley Winters.

For more information about the Model Citizens Awards Ceremony please contact Kelley Winters at 617-822-8297 or kwinters@scidorchester.org.

see my new online calendar for preservation/historic Dorchester activities & events.

On Saturday, April 26, 2008, the Dorchester Youth Council participated in Boston Shines in Fields Corner. They first all met in townsfield at 8:45am in the morning.

The gloves and t-shirts went like crazy. The council wants the whole community to know that hard work and a whole lot of cleaning makes a difference.

For more information about the council, go to the council's front page.

Who says all youth were asleep during their school vacation? That may have been so for some, but the youth of Boston were on a roll and I’m not talking about stuffing their face’s with one either. On April 25, from 1pm-4pm at the Franklin Park, Global Youth Service Day was put into full effect. Global Youth Service day, April 25-27, is a recognized day when youth all over the world volunteer in their community.

Over 20 youth, who came out, were more than ready to get down and dirty to save the trees of their community. Youth were split into 3 teams which were named by the peer leaders, The Dorchester Youth Council and The Franklin Park Youth Council: Red Fox, Lone Owl and Global Cooling. Each team either raked the massive piles of leaves; chopped down invasive trees and separated the root from the invasive trees, putting them all into a location where it would be easily accessible for the park clean up to retrieve.

After all the hard work, youth were invited to recap their experiences. They were rewarded with homemade pizza and cool drinks to satisfy and replenish their exhausted bodies and hungry stomachs. Who would say no to that? As they ate, they watched THE BEE movie that educated them about bees and their importance to the earth and parks like Franklin Park. Youth were more than excited about the history they have learned, took part in, made and vowed to come out again next year.

The Dorchester Youth Council is a youth engagement leadership program that serves youth between the ages of 12 and 17, who work together to better the Dorchester community through community service learning practices. The Dorchester Youth Council is coordinated through a partnership between Social Capital Inc. (SCI) and DotWell. The Boston Globe Foundation, Lenny Zakim Fund, Massachusetts Service Alliance, Boston Scientific and Sovereign Bank provide major funding.

For more information about the Dorchester Youth Council, please contact Grace Ejiwale, Youth Program Coordinator at Gejiwale@scidorchester.org or (617) 822 8297. Make sure you check out www.mydorchester.org to find out the Dorchester Youth Council’s upcoming events. For more information on partners or the event, go to Boston Cares website (www.bostoncares.org) or the Franklin Park Coalition website (www.fpc.org).