Picente Praises Hard Work Of Oneida County Youth Volunteers

Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente, Jr. today announced that in 2012, 926 Oneida County youth gave back 560 volunteer hours to the community through the Oneida County Children Care Initiative, an Oneida County Youth Bureau initiative that began in 2009.

“In these hard times when the community’s needs have never been greater, the spirit of our youth to respond to those needs has never been stronger,” Picente said. “As Oneida County supports our youth through programs and activities at some of our grassroots agencies, we want the young people of our community to know that it is just as important to give back to the community as it is to do anything else,” Picente said. “The Oneida County Children Care Initiative helps youth understand the benefits of community and volunteer service so that as they mature, they strengthen their community roots and their commitment to service.”

Oneida County Youth Bureau Director Bob Roth said youth volunteers from The Boys and Girls Club of the Mohawk Valley, Compeer of the Mohawk Valley, Cornell Cooperative Extension, The Center for Family Life and Recovery, The Neighborhood Center, Thea Bowman House, Upstate Cerebral Palsy, Utica Municipal Housing Authority and Utica Safe Schools/Underground Café performed community service that included assisting in a bicycle giveaway for Utica children, collecting and donating canned foods to a local soup kitchen, soliciting donations, collecting money and walking in Utica’s version of America’s Greatest Heart Run and Walk, Rescue Mission’s Walk a Mile in My Shoes, Aids Hike for Life and Out of the Darkness Walk to Prevent Suicide, cleaning senior citizen’s yards, preparing food and serving meals at local food pantries, folding and stuffing envelopes at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and other community activities.

“The Oneida County Children Care Initiative began in 2009 with the goal of teaching our children the benefits of being involved, community conscious citizens,” Roth said. “This initiative is testimony to the hard work of the agencies and to the youth of Oneida County, who really do care!”