From the Standard-Times Newspaper 5/20/07
First Good Samaritan awards presented
May 20, 2007
St. Martin's Episcopal Church and the Dennison Memorial Community Center have joined to announce the first Good Samaritan Award to two worthy Dennison teens.
Those inaugural award winners are Maria Ortega, 14, and Anthony Santana, 13. Both longtime Dennison members were selected because of their outstanding leadership qualities and acting as such good positive role models for younger children. They were presented with checks for $100.
Criteria for selection are informal. Kindness, generosity and responsible behavior are definite factors for nomination.
Maria, a freshman at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School, is the oldest of four children. She resides on South First Street in New Bedford and is the daughter of Maria Ortega.
Anthony, who lives across the street from Dennison and is an eighth-grader at Roosevelt Middle School in New Bedford, is the oldest of seven children. He is the son of Antonio and Alexandra Santana.
Both recipients are members of the MAK group — Middle-Aged Kids — at Dennison and have contributed greatly in this program. The MAK Group, sponsored by the HOPE Collaborative, has taken on many projects serving the neighborhood and especially its children. Completed and planned projects include food drives, tutoring, neighborhood cleanups, and many artistic and musical projects.
St. Martin's Episcopal Church, on the corner of Rivet and County Streets, developed the idea of the Good Samaritan Award to honor those local children and teens that perform above and beyond especially in the area of kindness towards others.
Plans are to make this a monthly award.
Published January 2, 2006
The Standard-Times
New Bedford, MA
New Bedford’s Man of the Year 2005
Center director always puts the children first
By JONATHAN DARLING, Standard-Times correspondent
NEW BEDFORD -- Sean Hargraves walked through the halls of the Dennison Memorial Community Center, still somewhat in awe of the new facility.
A large recreation room is home to several new pool and ping pong tables, couches, activity tables and a few televisions.
There are two computer rooms with wireless Internet technology, a homework room, snack room and a large arts and crafts and activities room bustling with children doing projects.
The new center opened in 2004 and replaced what Mr. Hargraves, the executive director, called "an old, wooden building" that resembled a three-story apartment building.
Mr. Hargraves championed the center's construction, just one of his many efforts on behalf of city youth.
For his constant effort and determination to provide quality activities for New Bedford's young people, Mr. Hargraves has been named The Standard-Times New Bedford Man of the Year for 2005.
Nominations came from the community and Standard-Times staff. Final selections were made by a newsroom committee.
Continuing a tour of the new center, Mr. Hargraves opened a door to what is now a storage room overlooking basketball courts of the center's gym.
Rakes, brooms and simple clutter fill the storage room. But Mr. Hargraves doesn't see a storage room -- he sees a teen center full of activity, dancing and music.
"That is the next project. They can blast the music. Maybe we can put mirrors on the walls to make it look like a dance studio."
Mr. Hargraves is always thinking of new ideas and projects to improve the center, give at-risk children more to do after school and during the summer and keep them off the streets around South First Street, where the center is located.
And he has seen first-hand what can happen in one of New Bedford's toughest neighborhoods.
One day in October of 2004, he and members of the Dennison staff were moving some furniture into the new center when Anderson Rosa, a 21-year-old who went to the center as a youngster, stopped by on a walk to give them a hand.
Mr. Rosa was shot and died just a few blocks from the center just minutes later.
"I heard 'bang bang' and just started running," Mr. Hargraves recalls. "He was helping me get some things out of the truck and then he was gone. These kids are exposed to extreme acts of violence. Drugs, violence and child neglect is very high around here."
Mr. Hargraves knows what troubles are out there, and he is not about to let the 150 to 200 children who go to Dennison every day become part of it.
Joe Gill has been working with Mr. Hargraves at Dennison for more than 20 years. Currently the physical education director at the center and a teacher at New Bedford High School, Mr. Gill has been with Mr. Hargraves every step of the journey.
"He's the backbone of the whole place," Mr. Gill said. "He's the guy who will go out of his way to help anybody. He's the guy who goes out and gets all the grants for us. He puts the kids above everything else and never looks to get any credit for anything."
"We believe that every kid in America should have the opportunity to get off the bus from a long day at school and run wild," Mr. Hargraves said. "We have one focus here and that's the kids."
In his 23 years at Dennison, Mr. Hargraves has seen lots of those children grow into young men and women.
Seeing the transformation from a 10-year-old into an adult is something he and his staff take great pride in.
"Some become police officers and others buy businesses," he said. "It's great to see them grow up like that."
Funding for the center comes mainly from the United Way, but Mr. Hargraves has written countless grant proposals and is always fighting the battle to pay for the operational expenses such as heat and electricity.
The yearly enrollment fee children pay doesn't come close to covering everything.
"It's $5 per year," Mr. Hargraves said. "And that will never change."
Children head to Dennison after school to do homework, watch movies, do art projects and play games.
In the summer, they embark on frequent field trips, mostly to a community pool in Fall River.
"By the end of the summer I hear, 'Oh, when are we going to the pool again?'" Mr. Hargraves said. "That's my dream. These kids should be able to go to these places. Unless we bring them, a lot of the time I don't think that it would happen."
Gym-Dandy New Center Dedicated at Dennison Memorial
April 5, 2000
The Standard Times, 4/7/00
NEW BEDFORD -- Hundreds of children who frequent the Dennison Memorial Community Center have cause to celebrate.
Thanks to the generosity of community and business groups, the youngsters now have a spacious new gymnasium.
Dedicated at a ceremony Wednesday night, the new Athletic and Resource Center houses a huge gymnasium, as well as a resource and meeting center. Sean Hargraves, Dennison's Executive Director, said the gym will be used by South End residents, as well as the children served by the center.
"The membership at Dennison has exploded with the opening of the new gym," said Mr. Hargraves. "The excitement among the children is tremendous."
A United Way agency, Dennison is one of the largest youth agencies in the area and sponsors educational and recreational programs for children ages 6 to 16.
The grand-opening ceremonies began with a history of the agency presented by Stanley Los, president of the Dennison Board of Directors. It was incorporated in 1868 as the Ladies City Mission, serving the poor and needy of the South End. New Bedford's whaling captains, Charles W. Morgan among them, were among the earliest contributors. The center has been at its South First Street location since 1904.
Guests at the dedication included Mayor Frederick M. Kalisz Jr. and former Mayors John K. Bullard and Rosemary S. Tierney.
Major contributors to the project included the city of New Bedford, Community Block Grants; Board of Trustees of the New Bedford Day Nursery; Crapo Foundation; Acushnet Foundation; Island Foundation; Agnes Lindsay Trust; and the South First Street, South Central and Cove Street Neighborhood Associations.
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