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By BRIDGET SMITH
Courier-Post Staff
Five Camden teens saw more than a month of hard work set sail on the Cooper River Saturday morning.
Three newly built wooden rowboats were launched into the river near the Cooper River Yacht Club, capping a six-week project for the boys, all members of Urban Promise Ministries, a faith-based organization in the city.
“Faith,” “Hope” and “Promise” were the three 12-foot-long vessels built by the teens, who all work in the organization’s Urban Trekkers program.
Surrounded by friends and family on a sunny summer morning, four of the teens — Richard Gaines Jr., Hassan Jackson, Isaiah Morgan and Clarence Porter — loaded their boats into the water, climbed in, and successfully pushed off the dock near the Yacht Club. A fifth teen, Shakeem Cook, could not attend the celebration.
After some initial hesitation while they got the feel for rowing, the teens settled in quickly and spent nearly two hours on the water, giving rides to parents, friends, photographers — whoever wanted to jump in.
Gaines, 16, said it was “incredibly rewarding” to see the boats take shape and, ultimately, do what they were designed to do.
He worked on two of the vessels, and said it took a lot of manual labor, including cutting, measuring and sanding.
“Our motto was, measure twice, and cut once,” he said. “It was crazy.”
And while he said it was sometimes difficult to want to spend hours working on the boats — especially on days when the teens were busy helping to run Urban Promise’s summer camps — the end result made it more than worthwhile.
“They look way better than I thought they would,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve accomplished something in my life.”
Elaine Hawkins, 41, laughed as her son, 14-year-old Clarence Porter, took her out for a quick spin in the boat he helped build.
“I think it’s pretty awesome that he got to do this,” she said. “He’d never done anything like this before.”
The boat-building project began about a month and a half ago, said Jim Cummings, director of Urban Trekkers. The teens met 10 times a week.
Cummings said it was an opportunity for the boys to work together, stay busy, and apply some of the things they’ve learned in school through the years.
“One of these guys gave me the best quote,” Cummings said. “He said, “I guess this is why we need to know math.’”
Each vessel started as four pieces of plywood that were measured, cut down and eventually “sewn” together using nylon ties. A coat of a special glue was applied, and the nylon ties were eventually removed. The boys painted each vessel and chose names for them.
The red boat is “Promise,” named for the organization. “Faith” and “Hope” are blue and green, respectively, named for programs within Urban Promise’s youth summer camps.
Cummings has already sold “Promise” for about $2,500. He hopes to auction off the other two and use the funds for a similar project during the next school year.
Cummings said he hoped the boat-building experience would help the teens build character and confidence, as well.
“They could’ve built anything this summer, but there’s just something cool about having these kids build boats,” he said. “There’s symbolism with a boat. It can take you to places you’ve never been before.”
Reach Bridget Smith at (856) 486-2473 or brksmith@camden.gannett.com
By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS
Courier-Post Staff
The nonprofit arm of the Camden school district is looking for participants and sponsors for the fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser, which provides scholarships for college-bound seniors.
The Camden Board of Education Foundation has expanded its financial goal to $62,500, an increase of $12,500 and five students, over last year’s goals. The increase allows the foundation to compensate for an additional five scholarships for students from Camden’s fifth high school, MetEast, which is graduating its first class of seniors on June 26.
The remaining scholarships are divided evenly over the other four high schools.
“We want to give these kids a financial hand up to go to college,” said Jack Tarditi, president of the foundation. “It’s integral in helping these 25 kids pay for their first year of college.”
Registration for the golf tournament fundraiser begins at 11 a.m. June 24 at the Pennsauken Country Club, on Haddonfield Road.
In addition to college scholarships, the money raised will benefit other cultural activities the school district can’t pay for on its own, said School District spokesman Bart Leff. In the past year, the foundation provided significant funding for the Camden High School Marching Band to compete in Inauguration weekend festivities.
The foundation has also helped refurbish high school football stadium field houses, travel expenses for special groups to see a Guatemalan rain forest, and a trip for a choral competition in Verona, Italy, Leff said.
The golf tournament is expecting former Philadelphia sports icons Bernie Parent, of the Philadelphia Flyers, and Jon Runyan and Irving Fryar, of the Philadelphia Eagles, as honorary chairmen. The Philadelphia Phanatic should also make an appearance, Leff said. There is also a silent auction and award banquet for the students and families.
Sponsorship begins at $250 for an individual, or $2,000 for a team of four. Top level sponsorship extends to $10,000 or $20,000. The overall fundraising goal is $80,000, Leff said.
“We would like to raise as much as possible,” Leff said. “Our game plan is to create an endowment for these activities.”
Tarditi said that he recognizes the hit on families and corporations, but added that he expects that Camden’s loyal community won’t let the children down.
Reach Joseph Gidjunis at (856) 486-2604 or jgidjunis@gannett.com
Additional Facts IF YOU GO
The Camden Board of Education Foundation’s fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser to provide scholarships for college-bound seniors will be at 11 a.m. June 24. The tournament will be at the Pennsauken Country Club on Haddonfield Road. For more information, call Bart Leff at (856) 966-2649 or Jack Tarditi (856) 552-4792.
Less than a year ago, 9-year-old Alex Checo came home from a school field trip clutching a small tomato plant.
“He was so excited,” said his mother Martha Checo. “He said “Mom, let’s go. We have to plant it.’ “
Checo didn’t share her son’s excitement.
“At my house, we don’t have the space to grow a garden,” she said.
She did it anyway, setting the plant down in the small patch of dirt at their Cramer Hill home.
“We had so many tomatoes, if you came in and took a couple, we wouldn’t even notice,” said Alex, a student at the St. Anthony of Padua School.
Although the family’s garden is still small, they now have room to grow as many vegetables as they would like.
The Checos were among the first families to sign up for their own plot at a new community garden in a city-owned lot on the corner of 29th Street and River Road, across from Von Neida Park.
“We’re going to have more throughout the city,” said City Council President Angel Fuentes during Saturday’s groundbreaking ceremony. “This is just the beginning.”
The garden, one of about 20 sprinkled throughout the city, is the result of a partnership between the city, a group of local churches and the Camden Children’s Garden.
About half of the community gardens in Camden are on city-owned properties, said Children’s Garden Director Mike Devlin. The other half belongs to faith-based organizations, he said.
“This is a good partnership with the churches,” Fuentes said. “Imagine if each church could select an empty lot near them and beautify it. I think it would make a huge difference in the city.”
The lot in Cramer Hill is among the 5,000 to 10,000 abandoned properties in Camden.
For the past five years, the lot was a neighborhood blight.
Trailers that served as a police substation from 1994 to 2002 still sat there, abandoned.
“We put up the trailers and within a couple of days, folks came here and firebombed it,” Fuentes said, blaming the damage on drug dealers who sold their wares on the corner of 28th and Heyes streets. When the city restructured its police department the trailers were no longer needed.
Tired of seeing the abandoned structures, four Cramer Hill churches belonging to a group called Camden Churches Organized for People decided to do something about it.
“We got together with the Children’s Garden and asked: “What can we do with this site?’ ” said Mandi Aviles, director of youth ministries at St. Anthony.
With the help of a group from Volunteers of America, the staff at the Children’s Garden prepared the first nine plots to be planted then used part of a $250,000 Robert Wood Johnson grant to supply seeds and plants. Those who participate in the program have to sign an agreement with St. Anthony and the Cramer Hill community garden committee to take care of the land.
“The first step is to get the gardens going,” Devlin said.
On Saturday, volunteers were busy planting the more than 500 plants and seeds bought with grant money.
With a little help getting started, neighbors usually stick with it, Devlin said.
“Gardening is popular in every culture,” Devlin said. “It’s as popular in Haddonfield as it is in Camden.”
And the demand is growing.
There are more community gardens popping up this year than any other previous year, Devlin said.
So many, in fact, that Camden County ran out of the wood chips it has provided free of change for many years. The wood chips are used to divide the plots.
“We used them all up,” Devlin said.
Membership in the Children’s Garden club has climbed to include more than 70 families and 30 nonprofits. For their $25 to $60 annual dues, members have access to free plants, seeds, fertilizers, fencing and other planting materials.
The National Gardening Association estimates that 9 million more households will be gardening this year, a 19 percent increase from last year.
For the residents planting the gardens, the benefits outweigh the amount of produce they can harvest.
“I think it’s going to restore a lot of the hope that was lost here,” Aviles said. “We see so much negative that we forget that there are things that we can do that are positive if we just get together and do them.” Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or ldecastro@courierpostonline.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it will provide $400,000 to assess brownfields sites.
The funds will support work at 14 sites along the Interstate 676 and Federal Street corridors, the federal agency said.
The effort will target properties that are polluted with hazardous substances and petroleum waste, the federal agency said.
The federal funds are going to the Camden Redevelopment Agency.
Courier-Post staff
Construction project will save and create 275 jobsFurthering his commitment to build infrastructure and improve educational facilities across the state, Governor Jon S. Corzine today joined New Jersey Schools Development Authority (SDA) and Camden School District officials to break ground for the new Morgan Village Middle School. The 520-student school, which will serve children in grades 6-8, is the fifth new project to get under way in Camden under New Jersey’s school construction program.
“We have an obligation to transform every school into a positive learning environment for our children,” Governor Corzine said. “Camden’s students deserve to be educated in safe, modern schools and I am proud that the new Morgan Village Middle School project will deliver those surroundings to them while promoting the city’s revitalization and creating jobs during tough economic times.”
The 92,390-square-foot, two-story middle school will be built on a parcel adjacent to the existing building and marks another step in the redevelopment of Camden and stimulating its economy. The school is scheduled to open in September 2010.
“The Morgan Village Middle School project represents New Jersey’s commitment to provide a quality education for all students, no matter where they live,” said Senator Dana Redd, (D-Camden and Gloucester). “The students of South Camden deserve to learn in a modern, state-of-the-art educational setting which inspires them to achieve their maximum potential. I’d like to thank Governor Corzine and Schools Development Authority Chief Kolluri for their dedication to improving education in Camden and giving students a chance to succeed.”
The SDA has completed two projects in Camden: the Early Childhood Development Center and the Octavious V. Catto Community School. Two other projects, H.B. Wilson and Thomas H. Dudley elementary schools, are scheduled to open this fall.
Camden has three additional projects included in the SDA’s Capital Plan – Camden High School, Lanning Square Elementary School and Pyne Poynt Family School. All told, the SDA has spent or allocated $460 million to date for projects in Camden.
“This school is an anchor in one of the city’s most stable areas and will continue to ensure the vitality of the Morgan Village neighborhood,” said Camden Mayor Gwendolyn Faison.
An effect of the economic downturn has been the savings to taxpayers resulting from greater competition for construction jobs. The contract award of $20,997,000 was $6.1 million, or nearly one-fourth, below the SDA’s construction cost estimate. Another school awarded earlier this year, Egg Harbor City Middle School, came in $2.8 million below estimate.
“This school construction program is important to improving the quality of our children’s lives and will have a profound impact on the economy,” SDA CEO Kris Kolluri said. “In fact, this project will save and create approximately 275 jobs.”
The school construction program received new funding in July 2008 when Governor Corzine signed legislation authorizing $3.9 billion in new funding – $2.9 billion for SDA Districts and $1 billion for Regular Operating Districts.
The SDA will commit $1.3 billion toward school construction this year, which is estimated to save and create 11,000 jobs. The SDA plans to advance 27 projects into preliminary or full construction in 2009. The agency will soon begin to post monthly job creation reports for these projects on their website.
Today’s ceremony marks the SDA’s first groundbreaking of 2009. Sara T. Davis, president of the Camden Board of Education, remarked, “The Morgan Village Middle School will become a beacon for 21st century learning in the South Camden community. It brings innovative instruction and new technology to a local community that has done without for far too long. Morgan Village Middle School will bring new promise and fulfilled dreams for the Board and our children of that area.”
Morgan Village’s construction will be accomplished in two phases. Phase one involves construction of the replacement school. Phase two, which will require procurement of a separate contract, will entail the demolition of the old school to provide for play areas and a parking lot. The second phase will begin after students occupy the new building. Chanree Construction Co. is the general contractor, Fletcher-Thompson Architecture Engineering is the design firm and URS Corporation is the construction management firm.
The school will include general-use classrooms, special-education classrooms, science labs, school-to-career classrooms with labs, small-group instruction
rooms, a media center, a cafeteria with a kitchen, an auditorium and a gymnasium.
Overall the SDA has completed 592 projects: 46 new schools; 41 extensive additions, renovations and/or rehabilitations; three demonstration projects and nearly 400 other projects.
Camden, New Jersey, March 2009 –
Instead of fleeing the dorms, cafeteria food, and schoolwork, eighteen college groups are headed to Camden, NJ to do a different kind of work with UrbanPromise Ministries. From Malibu, CA, to Williamsburg, VA, universities including: Pepperdine University, The College of William and Mary, Bowdoin University, and the University of New England, among others. Over two hundred and twenty students of various backgrounds occupied with all fields of study are coming together over the next six weeks with at least one thing in common; an urge to get involved with service at the grassroots of America—the children being raised amongst some of our countries most dire issues.
UrbanPromise has a clear mission, to build a city of promise, one child at a time. By equipping Camden’s children and young adults with the skills necessary for academic achievement and moreover, life management, UrbanPromise has grown from a tiny summer camp program to a multifaceted institution with a reputation of solidarity and success. Among their many programs are private schools for all ages, after school programs, summer camps, and various other recreational and educational programs, each targeting different parts of the lives of Camden’s youth. College students will have the opportunity to help with and learn about programs in each category.
Students in “Workgroups” will be engaged in a variety of work projects during their week stay in Camden including: maintenance projects on the UrbanPromise campus, tearing out the old floor of a building under renovation, and re-painting busses, to name a few. Oddjobs have piled up over the winter and the staff and youth of UrbanPromise are happy to have a wave of excited and energetic college students to give a hand.
A student reflecting on her time working on a run-down UrbanPromise house “felt like she was actually doing something for Urban[Promise].” Anna, nineteen, from Pepperdine University went on to say, “While I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer at many other non-profit organizations, I’ve never been involved with the real, nitty-gritty grunt work before…it’s been really rewarding so far.”
After children enrolled in UrbanPromise’s many school programs are dismissed to afterschool programs, the workgroups get to jump in and interact with UrbanPromise’s most treasured resource—the children of Camden. Many children stay all the way until six in the evening, giving the students many chances to help out with homework, tutoring, or simply just playing around with the kids. According to Brent Liebman, UrbanPromise Intern Director, between three and six PM are the most dangerous hours for a young person to be left alone in Camden. “WorkGroups are great not only to lend a much needed hand to the staff, but the kids love them.” Andy Joshua, director of AfterSchool Programs went on to say, “Our youth have the opportunity to get to know university students from all across the country…it’s a great way to get kids excited about college!”
At first, Prarna, twenty, from The College of William and Mary, assigned to Ms. Thomas’ “Aftercare” program was skeptical about how much of a difference her presence would actually make to kids whose situations were so unlike her own. “Coming from an affluent area I doubted my skills would be adequate to deal with some of the hardest issues these kids face. I was struck, though, by how quick the kids responded to me and how friendly and open they were after hanging out for only an hour.”
Ms. Thomas noticed it too, and commented that “they want a lot of attention, some of them need it, and don’t have many other places to get it.”
As university students learn about Camden and its people, they will be better able to help. For now, though, their kindness and attention, as explained by Jim Cummings, Director of Work Groups, “is the work of super-heroes.”
CONTACT: Shannon Oberg, Marketing Coordinator UrbanPromise Ministries
(609) 876-9958 www.urbanpromiseusa.org
soberg@urbanpromiseusa.org
The Department of Children and Families “has made significant progress” in every area required, the report said.
But it found that in order to meet performance benchmarks for the next period, the state “will need to simultaneously maintain the infrastructure improvements and accelerate the pace of improvements in direct practice with children, families, and the wider community.”
A 1999 lawsuit filed by Children’s Rights, a child-advocacy group based in New York, on behalf of the state’s foster children led a federal judge to appoint an independent monitor to review New Jersey’s progress in reforming its troubled child-welfare agency.
New Jersey’s child-welfare services came under intense scrutiny after a string of high-profile cases, including the discovery of four severely malnourished foster children in Collingswood and the death of a 7-year-old boy in Newark in 2003.
Since then, the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars and made numerous changes to try to reform child-welfare services. In 2006, Gov. Corzine made the Department of Children and Families a cabinet-level department to improve accountability and focus attention on the agency.
In its fifth report on New Jersey, the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington found “beginning evidence of improved outcomes for children and families.”
Among the accomplishments noted by the monitor:
From January 2006 to February 2009, the number of children legally free for adoption dropped from 2,260 to 1,352.
The number of children placed in out-of-state facilities dropped from 322 in July 2006 to 98 in January 2009.
The DCF’s Institutional Abuse Investigations Unit, which had suffered from backlogs, met its goals for timeliness of investigations.
The settlement agreement with Children’s Rights lays out two phases for the reform process. The current monitoring report is the last on the first phase, which was intended to build the structure within DCF to support its mission. The second phase will examine whether the department is better serving and protecting children and families.
Gov. Corzine said the latest report “highlights the overwhelming progress being made by the staff at DCF.”
DCF Commissioner Kimberly Ricketts said the state had sustained its progress.
“I have the fullest confidence that we can and will meet the challenges that face us,” Ricketts said. “The children and families of New Jersey deserve nothing less than success from this department.”
Children’s Rights Associate Director Susan Lambiase also praised the state’s efforts.
“New Jersey’s child-welfare system is being transformed by this court-ordered reform effort in ways that are producing increasingly clear and significant improvements in the lives of the state’s abused and neglected children and their families. Now DCF must not only maintain the reforms it has made, but also translate them into still better results for the kids and families who depend on it, and Children’s Rights will continue to monitor its progress closely.”
Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of the Association for Children of New Jersey, was less enthusiastic. She said that while there have been some improvements, she had not yet seen evidence of the most important outcomes.
“To me, the fundamental question is, ‘Are kids safer?’” Zalkind said.
She said she was concerned, for example, about the death last month of 9-year-old Jamarr Cruz of Camden, who was beaten to death, allegedly by Vincent Williams, Cruz’s mother’s boyfriend. The state’s Division of Youth and Family Services met with Cruz’s mother and Williams for close to a year after Williams hit Jamarr with a belt in December 2007, authorities said. DYFS closed the family’s case last November.
“The reform was designed to prevent deaths like that – not that every death can be prevented, but presumably you have better-trained workers, smaller caseloads, more resources – how could you be supervising a family and somehow miss that this kid was being beaten regularly?” Zalkind said. “I’m disappointed. I thought this monitoring report would get to more fundamental outcomes.”
DCF’s internal review of the case is ongoing, said department spokeswoman Kate Bernyck. She said the state’s child fatality review board had asked to conduct an expedited review of the case.
Judith Meltzer, deputy director of the Center for the Study of Social Policy, said her agency’s next report would also review the case with an eye toward systemic issues.
Meltzer said the next report, which will cover January through June, likely will be published in mid-November.
Contact staff writer Adrienne Lu at 609-989-8990 or alu@phillynews.com
Marching at the front of a boisterous parade of city children, Cirilo Cuevas raised his voice to join in loud chants: “No more violence! No more drugs!”
But the words weren’t just slogans for the 10-year-old student from Molina Elementary School. They were a plea to end the harsh conditions that confront many youngsters here.
“I see fighting . . . and I hear gunshots,” said Cirilo, who lives in the Ablett Village public-housing complex in East Camden. “I see people that sell drugs, and I’m only walking to the store.”
Cirilo was among some 300 children who marched Friday afternoon from the North Camden school to the downtown Walt Whitman Center for the Arts.
“We’re walking for peace,” said Julio Alfonzo, 11, another Molina School student.
Children in the march — from the Molina and Cooper Poynt elementary schools — were participants in NJ After 3, a statewide after-school program for students from kindergarten through fifth grade. The program helps extend children’s education and keeps them busy in the after-school hours that are a prime period for juvenile crime, said Shannon Boehmer, an NJ After 3 spokesperson.
The march was dedicated to Jamarr Cruz, a Molina School student who died March 31 from injuries suffered in an assault in his home. Jamarr, 9, attended Molina School and at one time took part in NJ After 3, said Shani Johnson, the program’s site coordinator.
Julio Alfonzo, a former classmate of the slain youth, carried a large sign that read “Jamarr Lives.” The dead youth’s aunt, Dominique Monroe of Camden, displayed his photograph at the front of the procession.
“I appreciate it a whole lot,” she said of the march.
The students’ walk, part of a worldwide youth-service observance, came after weeks of lessons that focused on issues like self esteem and conflict resolution, said Johnson.
“We even had a fashion show, and some of them modeled in trashy clothes to say, “I’m still good even with all that,’ ” she said.
The march moved first through an urban landscape of modest homes, abandoned buildings and trash-strewn lots in North Camden. Some residents looked out from behind wrought-iron bars that covered windows and porches.
After a few blocks, the youngsters walked under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and emerged into the orderly, institutional setting of the Rutgers-Camden campus.
“You just made a powerful move in the city of Camden: You walked for peace,” Johnson told the youths during a ceremony at the arts center. Don’t just let it be for today.”
By Jim Walsh, Courier-Post Online
By EILEEN STILWELL
Courier-Post Staff
Tapping his fingers on a marble altar at Sacred Heart Church to the beat of a song he wrote, Richard Wolfe smiled at the sound, but urged the young singers “not to be too churchy.”
“This is gonna be better than I thought,” said Wolfe during a rehearsal of a song about Matthew Henson, an explorer he had never heard of until he recently connected with South Camden advocates.
Six rehearsals down, two to go before the big event Monday when a 15-foot-tall statue of American explorer Matthew A. Henson will be unveiled at Broadway and Viola Street.
The noon event marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the North Pole by Henson, an African-American from Maryland, and Rear Admiral Robert Peary, who organized the expedition and took all the credit.
How Wolfe, a self-described Jewish Republican, landed in the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Church after decades as a songwriter and arranger in Manhattan is a twisted tale that illustrates how much some retirees are willing to contribute.
“Funny where life takes you. I felt like yesterday’s newspaper. I needed something to do. They asked me to write a song and here I am,” said Wolfe, 81 and a recent widower who moved from Naples, Fla., two years ago to be near his son, Rick, and his family in Haddonfield.
During rehearsal this week Wolfe was clearly pleased by the performance of the 25 choral students from Sacred Heart grammar school who sang his song with attitude. Students from Camden’s Creative High School accompanied them.
It didn’t hurt that opera star Barbara Dever, a native of East Camden who volunteers as Sacred Heart’s music director, is their music coach.
Having worked with the likes of Arthur Godfrey, the Andrews Sisters, Kingston Trio, Roger Williams, Nat King Cole and other legends between the 1950s and 1980s, Wolfe lived the good life, flew his own plane, sat in Yankee Stadium box seats and was on the same party circuit as Sammy Kaye, Bobby Darin, Eddy Arnold and Mike Douglas.
His name appears on the “Itsy, Bitsy, Teenie, Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” recording, an international best-seller sung by Brian Hyland; Bert Parks singing “Miss America”; and Mary Martin doing “Do-Re-Mi” and “A Spoonful of Sugar.”
“With “Itsy, Bitsy,’ we worried at the time about it coming off dirty. It was so innocent compared to today’s music of sex, drugs and violence. When rock became a religion, instead of just music, the industry changed dramatically,” said Wolfe.
Wolfe is proud of his new collaborators.
“I’m the only one without a Ph.D.,” he joked referring to Dever, an internationally known mezzo-soprano who has appeared with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Zubin Mehta. Wolfe will accompany her Monday when she sings the spiritual “Oh Glory” at the public event.
Other contributors to the program include Michael Lang, a retired Urban Studies professor at Rutgers-Camden; George Roland, a retired systems engineering professor at University of Pennsylvania and John Giannotti, a retired art professor at Rutgers-Camden and an internationally known sculptor.
Monday’s event will kick off the transformation of an abandoned Episcopalian Church on the East side of Broadway into a maritime museum by the Heart of Camden, a nonprofit neighborhood association. The museum, when enough grant money is obtained to begin construction, will celebrate Camden’s long history as a port city on the Delaware River and home to the former New York Shipyard.
The shipyard connection creates a window to showcase Henson, an African American explorer who for decades was denied recognition for his role in reaching the top of the world with Perry.
As a young man, Wolfe wanted to be a pitcher for a professional team. Injuries got in his way, so he turned to music. He bought a piano for $35, locked himself up in an old barn in his hometown of Williamsport, Pa., and taught himself to play.
“I borrowed a couple of kerosene heaters from the farmer across the way, cut out a pair of finger gloves at the ends, taped a flashlight to the piano and practiced hour by hour,” wrote Wolfe in his autobiography called “Succeeding and Surviving in the Music Business.
The book describes his rise in the business, his collection of 350 original songs and his respect for talented musicians.
“They spoiled me for the rest of the world,” he said. “They knew they were the best in the business and they wanted to stay on top. They were 100 percent motivated.”
The business side was full of charlatans, he said, always trying to cheat artists out of royalties. Regrettably, he said he was forced to spend too much time and money in court fighting for his due.
Wolfe’s career took a detour when he was assigned to create children’s music for RCA and Kapp Records.
“At first I was insulted until I realized how much fun I was having with the kids,” said Wolfe about the opportunity to record timeless pieces like “Puff the Magic Dragon,” “Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah” and “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window.”
The Camden chorus has such potential that he hopes to build on the one Matthew Henson song and make a professional recording as he did years ago with young singers from Harlem. His collaborator on that project was Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother.
Years of smoking unfiltered Camels and drinking Jack Daniels destroyed his health, he said, forcing him into semi-retirement about 25 years ago.
“They told me I’d be dead in a year,” said Wolfe, a slight man with a tidy beard and wry sense of humor.
When his wife of 54 years, Patricia Anne, died of lung cancer in August, he slipped into depression. A casual acquaintance pulled him out by showing him Camden.
“Sure, I’ll write you a song,” he said.
Reach Eileen Stilwell at (856) 486-2464 or estilwell@courierpostonline.com
The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, which supports non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting health and the arts in New Jersey, has announced its third-quarter grants for 2008. Recipients include Literacy Today in Moorestown, which recieved a $10,000 grant for the health literacy program at Woodrow Wilson High School and Cramer Elementary School in Camden. The after-school, teen-mentoring program is aimed at expanding Camden children’s reading comprehension and health literacy skills.
