NYer Of The Week: Community Leader Lets Washington Heights Help Itself
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Any given day, the latest New Yorker of the Week can be found playing basketball, tutoring, or feeding the homeless in Upper Manhattan. NY1's Kafi Drexel filed the following report.Denise Hykes says she had a life-changing experience when she had a college summer internship at the Manhattan Bible Church in Washington Heights 25 years ago. That's when Hykes decided to pack her bags and move from rural Pennsylvania to Washington Heights, to spend her life serving the people of that upper Manhattan community.
"My life's goal is to effect the lives of young people and their families in this community for an eternity," says Hykes.
Hykes has since developed free after-school programs in Washington Heights, including basketball mentoring, academic tutoring and a food program.
She oversees 225 kids a day and has the older kids tutor and mentor younger ones.
"They can read with a kindergartner, they can teach them math, they can add with them, or play an educational game," says Hykes.
Kafela Craft started volunteering a year ago as a tutor to fulfill a community service requirement for her high school. She says she wouldn't want to spend her afternoons anywhere else.
"Not only I am doing a good thing by helping the kids, but I am also doing a good thing instead of being in the streets and doing something I am not supposed to," says Craft.
The teens do take to the streets on Saturdays, to hand out meals to the homeless. On Wednesdays, Hykes and the kids pack groceries for local families.
"The more we can teach young people to serve, the more they're not being selfish and thinking about themselves, and they are thinking about community," says Hykes.
Maximo Bonilla used to play in the basketball program, and thanks to Hykes was given a chance to coach.
"It's like a role model because they look up to us as coaches - not just in basketball, but in life," says Bonilla.
So, for dedicating her life to the young people of Washington Heights, Denise Hykes is our New Yorker of the Week.
If you'd like to nominate someone to be NY1's New Yorker of the Week, send an email describing their qualifications to: nyer@ny1.com or mail a letter to:
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