GYO hosts equestrian education, MLK celebration

For 35 years, Gateway Youth Outreach has offered after-school programs for first- to sixth-grade students in the Elmont Union Free School District. With nearly 800 students taking part in the program, GYO provides them not only a place to do their homework but unique learning opportunities, while offering their parents with peace of mind.

“Parents are really looking for a safe place they can have first- through sixth-graders after school,” said Pat Boyle, the program’s executive director.

According to Boyle, GYO’s main focus is helping students complete their homework. The three-hour program uses classrooms at the Gotham Avenue, Clara H. Carlson, Covert Avenue, Dutch Broadway, Alden Terrace and Stewart Manor schools, and it includes a healthy snack and cultural education, he said.

“Depending on the holiday that’s approaching, we try to explore what other people’s cultures are doing at that certain time,” Boyle explained, adding that GYO serves a large, multicultural group of students with a range of backgrounds. “There is a lot of diversity here.”

On Jan. 19, GYO took six students from the Dutch Broadway School to Belmont Park for “Kiaran’s Kids,” an event that takes place twice a month at the track and which GYO sometimes cohosts. Students took a tour of a barn with trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, Boyle said, and saw the horses’ daily routine, including horseshoe and ultrasound demonstrations and teeth filing by an equine dentist. The students conducted ultrasounds of an injured horse and were given horses’ baby teeth to take home, he added.

“Kids love that kind of stuff,” Boyle said. “These kids live right by the racetrack and have no idea how involved everything is in this program … they really got a full afternoon. They got an experience that is second to none with horseracing.”

On Jan. 21, GYO hosted its 16th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at Gotham Avenue School, where first- to sixth-grade students danced, sang and recited poetry as a tribute to King. Nearly 150 students participated, after nearly six weeks of rehearsal with counselors, Boyle said. The event was held in the Gotham Avenue auditorium, and attracted hundreds of residents, including elected officials.