This past holiday season, each student sent their wish list to the North Pole and Santa delivered his presents just in time for Christmas! Thank you to Rachel Wever and all the parents and students of Center Stage Dance Studio and Kellenberg Memorial High School for helping BCCA make our students Christmas dreams come true!
On December 2nd, BCCA once again turned the Turf and Field Club at Belmont Park into Santa's Workshop as it held its 14th annual Holiday Shopping event. This year, we were able to provide more children then ever before, with presents for their families thanks to our most generous donors and from a wonderful donation from the U.S. Marine's Toys for Tots Foundation. Over 500 children from the backstretch families of Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack lined up to "shop" for gifts for their relatives. Assorted volunteers acted as "elves" taking each child around to pick out gifts for their loved ones. The Sugarplum Cafe provided treats for the entire family!
BCCA would like to thank: Long Island Iced Tea, National Charity League, Inc. (Garden City Chapter), NYRA, Sapienza Bakery, Toys for Tots Foundation, Westminster Nursery, our Chair Eloise Canzone, all of the amazing volunteers, and of course Santa, Christopher Chatterton!
Last week BCCA was thrilled to host our annual Thanksgiving lunch with all our Anna House families! We are so grateful to all of our generous supporters. It is thanks to them that we are able to share special moments like these with our families!
BCCA honored our two Volunteers of the Year, Nick Aquilino and Susie Raisher, this past weekend at BCCA's Day at the Races for their outstanding contributions to BCCA.
BCCA is so proud of our recent Anna House graduate, Lourdes Alvarez, for being named the first Student of the Month at her new school, Clara H. Carlson Elementary!
BCCA's Sugar Plum Soiree was a smashing success! Thank you to all our guests and supporters who made this such an amazing event. A special thanks to our 2017 honoree, Paul Saylor, for his efforts in advancing the quality of life for the children of Anna House through the Olivia's Herd after school program and to the National Museum of Dance for their spectacular performances throughout the night!
Last week our students at Anna House had a very special visitor! Senator Elaine Phillips visited to tour Anna House and learn more about what we do here. All our students from the infants to the school-age students had the opportunity to spend time with Senator Phillips.
BCCA is committed to providing a well-rounded education to all our students throughout the year. We ensure this by incorporating a S.T.E.A.M. based curriculum at Anna House through different programs. Already, this summer has introduced two new programs to our students!
BCCA is proud to partner with the Jose Limon Foundation to announce the start of our very first Dance Program at Anna House! Every Saturday a professional dancer from the Limon Foundation leads a class for our school-age students. This program allows our students to explore art and dance in a way that they previously could not.
This summer BCCA has also introduced the Children's Engineering program. An instructor from Engineering for Kids visits Anna House to lead a project that teaches our students an aspect of engineering in a fun and exciting way. Each week the teacher introduces a new concept or topic to further expand our students knowledge of engineering and show them how fun it truly can be.
Everyone at BCCA and Anna House had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July yesterday! The children created themed arts and crafts projects throughout the day and spent most of the day in the Anna House Playground enjoying the beautiful weather while playing different water games!
Our School Age class getting into the 4th of July spirit at Anna House!
Even the infant class dressed up for the 4th of July!
Yesterday was an exciting day at Anna House! Everyone gathered to watch our Anna House Class of 2017 graduate. Many of these students have been attending Anna House since they were infants, so it was an emotional day for all to watch them get ready to head off to the "big school". We're so proud of all our graduates and look forward to seeing all they accomplish in the years to come!
Congratulations to the Class of 2017!
BCCA would also like to thank the Floral Park Memorial High School National Honor Society for their amazing donation. Each of our graduates will be heading to their next school fully prepared with a backpack filled with all the necessary supplies!
