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QC07282016

48 The QUEE NS courier • buzz • JUly 28, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com Dennis Walcott Victoria’s Secrets Victoria SCHNEPS-YUNIS vschneps@gmail.com tweet me @vschneps Dynamic $1500 off Lumineers $500 off Invisalign DENTAL WORK CALL FOR FREE CONSULTATION THE INVISIBLE WAY TO SOME EXCLUSIONS APPLY STRAIGHTEN TEETH Third Generation Dentist 175-15 Jamaica avenue, Jamaica 718-297-4100 • 718-297-4106 As Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton made their way into our homes, another person made his way into our lives in a different but, maybe for our community, more powerful way than any political figure this last week. Life has fascinating cycles and Queens is blessed to have its native son back to run one of the most important institutions in our city, the Queens Borough Public Library. Dennis Walcott, who has lived his life in Cambria Heights, has come back into the spotlight. His journey from his hometown has been mercurial in the public service sector and education. His last service to our city was as the schools chancellor in the Bloomberg administration where he turned the system upside down and managed to leave it far better by his presence. Prior to his serving in that critical position, he served as deputy mayor for education and community development. Growing up in the Queens school system, Walcott’s alma mater is Francis Lewis High School. He got his bachelor’s and master’s in education and went on to receive his master’s in social work from Fordham University. On my visit to the Central Library, I found him sitting at a “bullpen” of a desk in the middle of the main floor of the Merrick Boulevard branch in his new position as the president and CEO of the Queens Library system. Sadly, it had been surrounded by controversy these past three years over its former director Tom Galante, forced out of office, and losing many powerful members of its board. The community libraries have an enormous impact in every community and to get someone of Walcott’s stature and respect is a coup for all of us. The system is too important to us to allow it to falter. But that is over! I had the pleasure of sitting in on a cabinet meeting in the stunning woodlined walls of the conference room held twice a month with the leaders of the 63 branches and the leaders of the special programs run under the umbrella of the library. Nicolas Buron, who is the chief librarian, smiled with pride that the library got $13 million from Borough President Melinda Katz and a dramatic 25 percent increase in funding from the City Council that allows for all branches to be open six days a week. It was a jaw-dropping moment when I heard that the library is gathering histories of immigrants in Queens. Ironically, I had sent my editors such a request earlier that morning! Then I heard about the prenatal program going on in the branches and how the staff will be giving the new moms-to-be a baby shower. Well, just a few days before, Steve Sirgiovanni, the new statewide governor of the Kiwanis, had shared his priorities for his year in office and one of them was working with a similar group. Hopefully they can now help each other and spread the need for pre-natal care. What impressed me most during our time together was Walcott’s team approach and the pride he took in the professionals around him. Most importantly, it is clear that the library once again has strong visionary leadership. I’m so happy Dennis has returned to his roots in Queens. Welcome home! For the past few summers, my grandson Blake, who has been going to sleepaway camp, has had his visiting day mid-summer, and it’s been my ritual to visit him. It lets me relive my days as a camper and then as a parent visiting my children. Now, I am visiting my grandchildren. I remember visiting day for my kids and leaving home at daybreak to be at the camp moments before the day officially began. It’s a sight to behold to see the parents lined up along the rope that holds them back until the 10 a.m. start of visiting. I can still remember the tears in my eyes as I ran to them to make sure to be the first parent to get to my sorely missed Elizabeth, then Samantha, then Josh. And now that is what my daughter Samantha does! As a grandparent, I can’t come until noon to allow them to have private time with Blake. I totally get it! Now it’s 7-year-old Jonah getting ready to go to sleepaway camp next year. But selecting a camp is like choosing a college. You must visit several beforehand and get references from other parents before the final decision. And so, with my daughter Elizabeth and Jonah and Addy in hand, we began the search together. I had gone to sleepaway camp until I got married and it’s been decades since my kids went, but I felt nostalgia overwhelm me as I toured four camps with them. So much is the same – camps owned by families for decades and the basic swimming, rest periods, the bugle blowing Reveille to wake everyone up, enormous dining rooms, arts and crafts, color war (a competition between teams of campers divided by the camp colors) and endless sports activities. Now the camp has a “climbing tower,” water sports with enormous slides into the lake like a water park, sailing, waterskiing, skateboard tracks, gymnastics and mini SoulCycle classes. A school of rock for the young musicians, and trips “off campus” to compete with travel camps, were some things not there in “my time.” Gone is the gun range, but there was the archery range and horseback riding just like I remembered! But from my experience, it all comes down to leadership. My happiest days at camp were at a small (200 campers compared to the 500-600 campers we visited) Camp Sycamore where owners were called Mom and Pop. They ran the intimate camp set on a lake, with their handsome “movie star” sons Lloyd and Alan. It’s where I became editor of the camp newspaper and starred as Anna in “The King and I!” He’s Back! Visiting Day Weekend Flying high! Blake climbing the rock wall Morgan, Jonah, Blake and Addy


QC07282016
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