| LINK School Junior Golf Program In the Spring of 2003, PlaySmart partnered with the LINK Community School (Newark, NJ) to deliver a unique and exciting golf camp for LINK students. The Junior Golf Program invovled about 15 boys from LINK’s seventh and eighth grades. The Golf Program involved weekly golf activities and discussions about specific life virtues that also come into play during golf. Participants met once a week for five weeks, and each week Darnell Dinkins, player for the New York Giants, and George McGovern, chaplain for the New York Yankees and the Giants, spoke with the students. The group concentrated on one virtue each week, including attentiveness, diligence, truthfulness, loyalty and gratefulness. The students also learned different aspects of golf that demonstrated the importance of each virtue. Teaching virtues through athletics was quite successful. “You learn different things,” said eighth grader Robert Welch, “and then you apply the things that you learned about golf to life.” The group met at Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex in New York City, where the students had dinner and participated in the program. LINK trustee and PlaySmart supporter Mollie Marcoux, who works at Chelsea Piers, was instrumental in connecting LINK to PlaySmart. PlaySmart thanks Mollie and the folks at Chelsea Piers, as well as our friends at the LINK Community School for making this event possible. The program concluded with an event at Anchor Golf in Whippany, NJ. The event began with students’ presentations of their understanding of the virtues. The students then played a round of golf on the par three course. Their improvement was evident, and the students were excited about this final opportunity to discuss virtues and play golf with each other and with their mentors. |