Gleason's Gym Gives Back
Give A Kid A Dream Gets Back To The Ring in Hi-Tech Style Thanks To VR
Brooklyn, July 1: We help inner city youth in their formative years. We work to instill confidence through boxing training, tutor to help with school work and provide a safe haven for our participants.
To teach our youth how to box and have them engage more in a way they can relate to, the oldest running boxing gym in the USA, Gleasons Boxing Gym, in Brooklyn, NY is using Oculus virtual reality to teach participants of Give a Kid a dream program boxing.
“The level of participant excitement and enthusiasm has never been so high” says, Bruce Silverglade, President of Gleason’s Gym. “We are deeply rooted in boxing tradition and training but we are finding youth today really relate to the Oculus and are spending more time in the gym working out and learning to box. We plan on implementing this method of learning with all our participants and we think it's great." Give a Kid a Dream, continues to be one of the most successful youth boxing programs out of New York City. We strive to keep up with the most innovative ways of teaching children to become world champions of life.
What Is Give A Kid A Dream?
Gleason's Gym's Give A Kid A Dream program, which has been featured on CBS & NBC and in the Wall Street Journal, provides at-risk youth an opportunity to turn their lives around. Through working, training and studying in a safe environment with mentors, this program goes far beyond a simple membership in an athletic club that teaches only boxing. We provide program members with tutors and social workers when needed, and the kids learn life skills like understanding the value of work and discipline and understanding the consequences of their own actions.
The money we raise goes towards tutors and supplies, athletic equipment and educational trips, and possibly most importantly it helps us take everyone in the program to the Gleason's upstate Fantasy Camp for one week in August, where the kids get to share experiences unlike any they have in their every day lives in the city.
The biggest reward of all, though, is watching our program members transition to colleges and jobs, and many go on to achieve life goals they never thought possible. In some cases, they've gotten full scholarships to college like Tommy Martinez at NYU, or they've graduated to a higher calling like Yuri Foreman who's now a practicing Rabbi.
Our Mission
We help inner city youth in their formative years. We work to instill confidence through boxing training, tutor to help with school work and provide a safe haven for our participants. Our goal is to help make participants champions at life!
Donate
Click the big red DONATE button or go one step further and help us fundraise by clicking the JOIN THE TEAM button. You'll get your own fundraising page to share with all your amazing family and friends.
The Lives We Impact
We have found we make the most impact on young adults ages 13-18.
At first most of our participants demonstrate frustration and disappointment at life and seem closed to positive energy of any kind. They appear to have lost faith and confidence in people and they have zero self esteem.
As a result most of our interviews are meet with a very quiet young adult that even as we speak of the wonderful journey they are about in embark on they are emotionless and seem to discard every word we say.
The program is difficult in that the boxing training is vigorous and the tutoring is real work. We believe that most of our participants have never been challenged or put to task.
As the participants progress and make it through the long Saturdays of work we find the walls they created by their life experience starts to fade and a wonderful and more happy young adult emerges.
From there we push like heck to see how far we can make them reach.
Connect With Give A Kid A Dream
Bruce Silverglade & Perry D'Alessio
