On September 20th, BCNY hosted one of the biggest events in recent BCNY history: the grand opening of Tiger Clubhouse, located at 565 Morris Avenue in Mott Haven, the Bronx.
The historic opening celebrates the culmination of years’ worth of preparation to unveil the Clubhouse to the community. Community members, families, BCNY alumni, and partner organizations were all there to celebrate at the Launch Festival and learn about the Clubhouse.
Executive Director Stephen Tosh and Assistant Executive Director for Programs and Strategic Initiatives Yaritza Cortes were there to inform families about all the Clubhouse had to offer, and Founding Clubhouse Director Jonathan Duperon gave tours to visiting families and community members. The interior features a gym (under construction), woodshop, MAKERS space (for programs such as robotics, 3D printing, graphic design, and more), art room, full kitchen and cafeteria, game rooms, and other spaces for core and special programming.
Parents, families, and youth were greeted by BCNY staff at our registration table, where youth could sign up as founding members of the new location. During the event, kids who registered as new members of BCNY received giveaway boxes filled with custom BCNY baseball-style T-shirts, lanyards, water bottles, and wrist bands.
At the Launch Festival, parents, future members, and their families could all find something to enjoy from our interactive games and activities, all facilitated by friendly BCNY staff. Children and teens enjoyed snacks and lots of games while parents had an opportunity to connect with Tiger Clubhouse staff and visit the tables of our community partners. Kids were especially excited to get their faces painted and check out new books via a portable library from one of our partners for the event, House of Speakeasy. The SpeakEasy Bookmobile offered for each kid to select a book of their choice to take home and enjoy.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to our partners who tabled at the event: Chef Eileen, Broreavement, NYC Teenspace, United Charter High School, Broome Street Academy, and Cathedral High School. We truly could not have pulled off such a successful launch without their support.
If you have questions about the newly opened Tiger Clubhouse or want to register yourself or a family member, contact Clubhouse Director Jonathan Duperon at jonathan.duperon@bcny.org