Two rigorous South Korean prep schools have achieved a spectacular record of admission to U.S. colleges.

First Pitch for Little Leagues
Play ball!Baseball season is underway. Not only for the stars of today, the Mets and Yankees, but for the stars of tomorrow, little leaguers across the city.To celebrate the beginning of the season, a ribbon cutting was held for a new state-of-the-art field at Highbridge Park in Manhattan. On April 5, Commissioner Benepe was joined by City Council Members Miguel Martinez and Robert Jackson, NYPD Manhattan North Chief Raymond Diaz, police officers of the 33rd and 34th Precincts, and young athletes to celebrate the opening day of the Police Officer Michael J. Buczek Little League’s 2008 season. To mark the 20th anniversary of the league, officials, coaches, and athletes cut the ribbon on a brand-new synthetic turf field at Highbridge Park. The league is named in honor of Michael Buczek, an officer who lost his life in the line of duty.The $900,000 field was constructed entirely with Mayoral funds. In addition to a synthetic turf field, the project added two misting stations, bleachers, new dugouts and gates, a players warm-up area improved site lighting and fencing, and accessible drinking fountains. Benefits of synthetic turf fields include improved safety, increased versatility and high durability to support more field use. The fields do not require weekly mowing, watering, fertilizing, seeding, or other time-intensive maintenance tasks. Additionally, they are useable year-round, and wear out much more slowly.Prior to the ribbon cutting, “opening day” festivities began with a parade of little league players and their families from P.S. 48 to the site at Highbridge Park. The Michael Buczek Little League hosts 30 teams with over 350 boys and girls, and is operated and coached by police officers from the 34th Precinct.The Parks Department also worked around the clock to prepare the City’s more than 800 athletic fields for their openings.Due to late winter rain and snowstorms, our operations staff began adding new clay and grading ballfields in March. The rakes, rotovators, tractors, and front-end loaders were put to work to open all fields by April 12.We remind new yorkers that it is as easy as ever to apply online for a ballfield permit at www.nyc.gov/parks. Fields cost $8 per hour and $16 per hour for lighted games. As always, children under the age of 18 play free and new yorkers are invited to play pick-up games when the fields are not being used by permitted groups.To learn more about fields in their neighborhood, new yorkers can contact their borough’s permit office: Bronx: (718) 430-1840/4; Brooklyn: (718) 965-8941; Manhattan: (212) 408-0226; Queens: (718) 393-7272/80; Staten Island: (718) 667-3545.QUOTATION FOR THE DAY”The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Your Money: Paying for College Without the Home Equity Option
The turmoil in real estate has meant that home equity often a fallback for college funds is difficult to tap, forcing many parents to reconsider high-priced colleges.

Homecoming For Three Parkies
On March 24, Parks Department alums gathered at the Arsenal Gallery for the annual Homecoming Celebration. This year, we celebrated our past by honoring three longstanding Parkies. John Purvis and Jeannette Louise Sass Boyd were Homecoming Honorees and Muriel Harris received the first Parks Women in History Award.John PurvisBorn and raised in new york City, John attended George Washington High School, where he played varsity basketball. He then attended Florida A&M University on a basketball scholarship, graduating in 1955.After college John joined the United States Army. After being honorably discharged from the army in 1959, he began his career at Parks as a Recreation Director. By the time he retired from Parks in 1987 he had become the Borough Director of Recreation for Manhattan. One of his accomplishments in that role was the superb job he did of running the Permit Office in Manhattan, where the competition for field permits is as intense as the competition on the field.Throughout his career and after, John remained active in basketball, serving as a referee for all levels of play from high school to Division I college tournaments, where only the best referees are used.He has served as an officer of three different professional associations of basketball officials. Perhaps most significant is his role as a founder and past president of the Sports United Basketball Officials Association, formed in 1965 to train minority youth in the art of officiating. Also particularly noteworthy is his service as Tournament Director for many years for the famous Holcombe Rucker Summer Basketball League.In addition, John was a Vice President of the Black Championship Rodeo, and helped them create a ranch-like setting on Randall’s Island, where they have been teaching schoolchildren about the role of blacks in the American West.John also taught folk and square dancing for many years.He now resides in Charleston, South Carolina, where he chairs the local Black Arts Festival. Jeannette Louise Sass Boyd Jeannette was born to the Rev. Dr. John J. Sass and Carrie Sass in Harlem, USA. A lifelong new yorker, she was educated by the public school system here and Keuka College in the Finger Lakes.Upon graduation she began her employment with the City, eventually acquiring the title of recreation director. Her tenure stretches from Commissioner Moses’ term to Henry Stern’s.Her accomplishments at Parks include heading St. James, the first golden age center — which at one point served over 4,000 members, - spearheading “Bronx Santa,” running the Summer travel Program, and initiating Family Day. She was honored as a Manager of the Year by the agency, and by the Ebony Society, which she helped found. Although she retired formally in 1985, she continues to be active in her community and ours: volunteering with the Friends of Adam Clayton Powell Malls, quilting with the Pelham Fritz Craft Circle, mentoring Girl Scouts, and working with the Harlem Children’s Zone, St. Matthew’s Church, and her father’s memorial association.Muriel Harris Muriel was born in 1917 in Harlem and resides there to this day. As a “perennial student” she studied a variety of subjects like education and fashion, but admits that she never hit upon exactly what she was supposed to do. She tried vocations like registering newborns at the Department of Health to working with the WPA. Then, at age 40, she found a niche at the Parks Department, first as a clerical worker in the golf and tennis permits office. But soon she transferred to recreation, where she pioneered techniques still in use today: involving parents in programming, incorporating the arts, and offering activities for the physically challenged. Eventually, she attained the rank of Recreation Director.Other notable achievements: agency chaperone for Hayes Jones, Olympic champion track star (and later Recreation Commissioner); ‘artist-in-residence’ at the Arsenal during the 1970s; and finally, in 1982 Manhattan Borough Commissioner Pat Pomposello and Chief of Operations Vinnie Fennel appointed her the first female APRM. She once remarked, of the “enormous fortune of being lucky enough to do what you like and get paid for it.” We are the fortunate ones to have benefited from half a lifetime of her dedicated service, and we are honored that she sees fit to grace us with her presence again. She rightly deserves to be the first recipient of The Parks Women’s History Month Honors. QUOTATION FOR THE DAY”Homecoming unites the past and the present.”Author Unknown

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