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Mr. and Mrs. Met visit Flushing YMCA
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
Fifty summer campers of
the Flushing YMCA spent an
hour of fun and games with Mr.
and Mrs. Met, the official mascots
of the New York Mets, on
Tuesday, July 27.
The YMCA of Greater New
York invited the bubbly couple
as a ‘”thank you” after the
Amazin’ Mets Foundation, the
philanthropic arm of the New
York Mets, donated a generous
amount to the Flushing YMCA,
which helped send children between
the ages of 4 to 14 to summer
camp this year.
“The Amazin’ Mets Foundation
is proud to support
the Flushing Y Summer Day
Camp,” the foundation said
in a statement. “We want as
many children as possible to
enjoy the great camp activities
that are offered by the talented
YMCA staff.”
Happy faces were all
around when Mr. and Mrs. Met
entered the parking lot, cheerfully
waving at and greeting
the young people. During the
visit, the youngsters received
assistance from Mr. Met practicing
their batting skills at
the inflatable home run baseball
game and got rid of some
of their abundant energy by
jumping in the inflatable Mets
bounce house.
Tiffany Dunbar, executive
director of the Flushing
YMCA, said it was great having
the Y full of children, laughter
and activities again.
Mrs. and Mr. Met pose for a photo with the Flushing YMCA summer campers. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
“It’s been very, very nice to
have after this past year and a
half,” Dunbar said. “We are focusing
on fun this summer.”
So far, some of the summer
fun activities have included
soccer matches, a petting zoo
and a pony ride on the large
parking lot behind the building,
which has been cleared to
entertain the kids.
“One of the ponies had rainbow
colored hair, and the kids
called it a unicorn. The unicorn
just hadn’t sprouted its horn
yet,” Dunbar said about the
past pony ride adventure. “You
could even see their smiles
through their face masks, so
it’s been great.”
Eight-year-old Nina van
Snellenberg said, “it’s great to
see Mr. and Mrs. Met visiting
the YMCA.”
Van Snellenberg, who is
looking forward to third grade,
explained it was her first time
attending the YMCA summer
camp and shared that she loved
the science aspect of the camp.
“But what I like most of
that is that the halls are wide
enough for me to scream ‘sunshine
lollipops,’ and it echoes in
the hallways,” she said, before
heading off to a photo-op with
the Mets mascots.
The benevolent mascots
also handed out hats, gloves
and a teddy bear to the
young people.
Frankie Carlucci, senior
director of Youth and Family
of the Flushing YMCA,
explained that because of the
donation, kids could attend
the camp for free or on a 90
percent scholarship.
“Especially at a time like
this year when a lot of parents
couldn’t afford summer camp
or are on unemployment, with
the donation we’re able to send
all these kids to camp,” Carlucci
said.
Carlucci said the program
is filled with science, arts
and swimming lessons and
prepares the kids for the new
school year in the fall.
“A lot of them haven’t been
in school for 12 to 15 months,”
Carlucci said. “So it’s really
bridging that gap, you know,
getting them ready to go back
to school.”
Damian Viloasanti, 13, admitted
that he didn’t think that
the Y camp was “going to be
that great” when he started but
that he now enjoyed all the activities
the camp offered.
When asked what his favorite
part of the YMCA camp was,
the soon-to-be eighth-grader excitedly
said, “Water day activities
in the summer camp.”
Reach QNS Editorial by
e-mail at editorial@qns.com
Vol. 30 No. 32 28 total pages
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