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Dr. White Kids Say That's What Friends Are ForB Y SHARON CUCINOTTA%u2018%u2018Family Night\Center, Saturday June 14, was not just alovely children%u2019s talent show where skillslearned over a six-month period weredemonstrated for parents, siblings andfriends. It was a powerful celebration of lifeand achievement, self-worth and devotion tolearning. People helping each other was theidea behind the theme of the evening:%u201cThat%u2019s What Friends Are For.%u201dThe Dr. White Center is located near thewaterfront, near the Manhattan Bridge on200 Gold Street. Once inside this unobtrusive building, the first thing of notice isthe artwork %u2014 a simple scene here, a boatwith a subtle wash of color there, all bychild artists. In the auditorium, there is afeeling of expectation among the seated audience, and a concentrated energy amongthe prospective performers.The children in performance aremembers of the Educational Cultural Program developed and implemented at theCenter. There are several programs, including the after-school tutorial programwhere young children gather to dohomework and be tutored with any difficulties, a sewing class, a cooking class,art groups, and high school and collegeprep classes.\within the area who have low readingscores and can%u2019t afford private tutoring, theopportunity to come and get the help theyneed.%u201d said Deborah Isom, an educationspecialist in the New York City schoolsystem and a devoted volunteer at theCenter. She leads its high school preparation division. Isom was also the skillful MCat %u201cFamily Night.%u201d %u2018%u2018The reading scores ofmany of the students have improvedtremendously and some children alreadyhave potential to go into specialized HighSchools. I teach the gifted and talented program in the New York City public schoolsystem and some of the students who havegraduated from this program come to tutorat Dr. White. This is also a particularlygood opportunity for gifted 14- and 15-yearolds who otherwise might not have jobs toget valuable training.%u201dSEWING TO ACADEMICSAn unusual aspect of the Dr. WhiteEducational Program is that it offerschildren, some as young as six years old, adepartmentalized curriculum. Children cango from sewing, to art to high school prepall in one Saturday morning.Children and art have been an inspiringcombination at the Center. The backdropsfor %u201cFamily Night%u201d were remarkable intheir simple and ingenious beauty. Brooklynartist Susan Leopold leads the art classwhich produced these works on Saturdaymornings with the assistance of anotherBrooklyn artist, Ed Rath.Leopold, a member of the BrooklynWaterfront Artists started work at theCenter two years ago.%u201cI wanted to work with inner-city kids ona mural painting,%u201d Leopold said. %u201cSo, asSecretary of the Waterfront Artists at thetime, I convinced the group to use some ofits BACA funds for materials for the project.%u201dWhen Leopold began her search for aplace to work with children, she went to St.Ann%u2019s Roman Catholic Church amongothers, and was directed to Dr. White. Sheeven canvassed mothers in supermarkets inthe neighborhood. They too suggested Dr.White.%u201cIt was as if I was Dorothy trying to findOz. That way, that way!%u201d exclaimedLeopold.BEGAN AS ONE-WEEK PROJECTOriginally conceived as a one-week project, Sister Catherine convinced Leopold toexpand the idea into a 12 week class. Adozen other Waterfront artists joinedLeopold in leading the project; there wereabout four artists for every 14 to 24 childreneach week.The very large canvas backdrops beganas sketches in individual children%u2019s sketchpads. Pictures of homes both real and fantastic were the themes. Slides were made ofthe selected sketches and the images werethen projected onto the canvasses. Leopoldand her art team of adults outlined thetransposed sketches and the resulting canvasses looked like %u201cbig coloring books.%u201dThen the children painted them in withmagical results.Dr. White is indeed a magical name inthis area of downtown Brooklyn. SisterCatherine and the other resident sistersreach 20,000 people a year through theirvarious programs. Their main form ofpublicity is the 4,000 flyers that aredistributed yearly to neighborhood families.Families volunteer to be %u201ccommunicationfacilitators%u201d and give the flyers outthemselves.Besides the 240 children that participatein the educational programming at Dr.White every six months, others come to thecenter for high school equivalency trainingand for classes in English as a secondlanguage. In addition, the Center will orientthree hundred children before their FreshContinued on Following PagePage 12, T H E P H O EN IX , June 26, 1986