OF NORTHERN WESTCHESTER

Photos: Benjamin Allen

Celebrating its 85th Anniversary in 2024, The Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester is by far the biggest provider of children’s programming in Northern Westchester.

Alyzza Ozer, the dynamo at the helm of The Boys & Girls Club, is both a cheerleader and a plain-speaking messenger. “The first thing I want everyone to understand is that The Boys & Girls Club is for all kids! We have almost a thousand children participating in our programming at any given time - and the population is split roughly down the middle between children who come from economically and otherwise challenged circumstances and those who do not. The mental health crisis facing our youth does not discriminate between rich and poor. Right here amongst our mostly affluent communities, 45% of our high school kids report feeling loneliness and depression. The Boys & Girls Club is all about activities, and the bottom line is the overall well-being of our kids! Our mission statement is: ‘To inspire and enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens.”

On a shoestring budget of less than $5 Million a year, and operating over-capacity out of The Boys & Girls Club facilities located at 351 Main Street in Mt. Kisco, just across from the Northern Westchester Hospital, Ozer rather miraculously manages a staff of about 125, providing programming to the nearly 1,000 children participating in Boys & Girls Club programming at any given time! “But what I really want to boast about,” says Ozer, “is our report card. Over the last fifteen years, 100% of our high school seniors have graduated with their class and gone on to college, trade school, or the military! And maybe equally as impressive, our experience is that 87% of kids who attend our programming will do something material to give back to the community they live in as adults!”

“We start our youngest children out in a Head Start preschool program. We currently have about 60 children enrolled and are about to open our fourth classroom. Most of these kids don’t speak English at the start,” Ozer explains. “At the elementary school level, where the Bedford Central School District operates Mt. Kisco Elementary with every kid every day alternating the use of English and Spanish, we serve an important function helping the English kids with their Spanish and visa versa. Similarly, the Club serves as an early melting pot for kids to learn about racial and socio-economic diversity. Kids with learning issues are included with additional support. We have about 150 elementary school kids enrolled. Some of the kids come before school and can get a good healthy breakfast here, and then there’s programming for these kids from 4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon, and we bus them to and from Mt. Kisco Elementary.”

“At the high school level,” Ozer continues, “our programming is focused on teaching civic advocacy and leadership, and includes wellness and fitness, workforce development, and college readiness. All our high schoolers are engaged in learning about self-empowerment and responsibility to the community. We’re a safe place for all high schoolers, enrolled or not, to come and do homework or just hang out with friends. And when we host events like Soccer Tournaments, hundreds of local kids show-up for the festivities. For the 100 or so high schoolers who are formally enrolled in our Keystone leadership and advocacy program, we start off teaching what advocacy means and how legislation is created, advanced and enacted, and end up sending teams to Albany and Washington D.C. to lobby on bills…to have a direct impact on laws and funding that will have a direct impact on them. It’s exceptional!”

“And our swim program, under the leadership of Aquatics Director Eric Mitchell, is second-to-none!” Ozer declares. “We have about 300 kids enrolled in our learn to swim programming, in addition to all our preschoolers learning to swim. And we have about 275 kids enrolled in our outstanding Marlins Swim Team programming. Under the direction of Head Coach Zac Hojnacki - who has a PhD in Child Psychology, and Head Age Group Coach Connor White, the renowned Marlins program draws swimmers from all over Westchester and Fairfield Counties and beyond. The Marlins have been the Boys & Girls Club of America National Champions for the last 23 consecutive years, are consistent winners at Empire State, Eastern, and National competitions, and serve as a springboard to many college swimming opportunities.”

Getting a little deeper into the programming, Ozer continues, “We’re currently in the process of instituting a wellness program which will overlay all our existing programming and involve some one-on-one counseling with kids of all ages. The wellness program involves the entire staff - everyone has received 5 to 8 weeks of dialectic, behavioral, and trauma training, and every kid will be impacted in one way or another. We’ve already hired the first two full-time clinicians for a team we hope to build to a dozen - and, poignantly, they are both ‘Club Kid’ success stories themselves! Brian Srour faced a lot of challenges growing-up in Mt. Kisco, and found his voice at The Boys & Girls Club. When he graduated from our high school Keystone program, he promised, ‘One day I’m going to come back and help kids like me’ - and now he’s doing just that! And there’s Stephanie Trejo, who started at The Boys & Girls Club as a young kid, did all the programming the Club had to offer, spoke before the NY Assembly when she was in our Keystone program, and was our ‘Youth of the Year’ as a senior. She went on to be the Salutatorian of her class at SUNY New Paltz and, aside from working full-time for us, is presently getting a Masters in Early Childhood Education at Lehman College.” Stephanie remarks, “I grew up with a single mother who worked as a housekeeper and who spoke very little English. We struggled. The Boys & Girls Club was my home and my family! I learned English at the Club, and wellness, fitness, and basic life skills, and leadership and advocacy. I would not be who I am were it not for The Boys & Girls Club! And I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to now be working at The Boys & Girls Club - and giving back directly to an organization that did so much for me!”

Another Boys & Girls Club success story - and now a major benefactor - is Stuart Marwell, who grew-up at the Club, then built the giant drive systems engineering and supply company, Curtis Instruments, also located in Mt. Kisco, which he sold a few years back to Kohler. Still working, he shares that, “I learned all my leadership skills at the Club. Generations of my family have benefited from and supported the Club, and we look forward to making sure that other children and their families will have the same opportunity for years to come.”

“Funding is our constant challenge!”, Ozer declares. “We get some governmental support, and I want to acknowledge the help we get from NYS Senator Peter Harckham and NYS Assemblyman Chris Burdick, who were instrumental in getting recent allocations of $500,000 from the State to support preventative wellness programs for Clubs throughout the State, and another $128,000 from Westchester County. Westchester County Legislator Erika Pierce, the Westchester Commissioner of Mental Health Michael Orth, and Dr. DaMia Harris Madden, the Director of the Westchester County Youth Bureau, all recognize the importance of positive youth programming. But, bottom line, we depend on private donations to operate…and we’re about to start a capital campaign to fund much-needed improvements and expansions so we can serve more children.”

Ozer continues, gratefully stating, “The Boys & Girls Club simply wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our dedicated Board of Directors and our generous donors. Seema Boesky stands out as a long-standing ‘Patron Saint’ and is ‘Mom Emeritus’ for every boy and girl at the Club. And some of the Club’s ‘Angels’, as we call them, include Bonnie Tisi, Muffin Dowdle, Anne Citrin, Skip Beitzel, who owns the Hickory & Tweed ski and bike shop in Armonk, David Singer, an owner of Robison, and Andrew and Kim Handler. …But there are so many people to thank for donating time and money…!”