Coronado Mayor Tom Smisek Declares January 15-19 "Neighbors Across the Bridge Week."

Coronado City Council recognizes BLCI, Outdoor Outreach, and Coronado Rotary for their service to youth.

By: Brad Willis, Member of Rotary Club of Coronado

 The Coronado City Council today declared January 15th through the 22nd as Neighbors Across the Bridge week in Coronado.  This is to recognize a project conceived and founded by Brad Willis, the Peace Chair for Coronado Rotary.  “The Coronado Bridge is like a rainbow,” Willis says, “and the pot of gold is clearly on our side.  Our kids have everything... really too much of everything.  Just the other side of the bridge, in Barrio Logan, it’s a very different reality.  Many barrio kids live at the poverty line with little hope of advancement or success. Some are at risk of becoming homeless, getting hooked on drugs and alcohol, joining gangs or simply dropping out.  By reaching out to them, we have an opportunity to help them become self-empowered, build self-esteem, develop an alternative vision for their future and take charge of their lives.”  
    Neighbors Across the Bridge is a partnership between Coronado Rotary, Outdoor Outreach and Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI).  Outdoor Outreach is a non-profit organization with a proven track record for changing the paradigm for “at-risk” kids by providing them with a chance to redefine themselves and lead more productive and satisfying lives.  This is achieved through structured outdoor activities including hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, surfing, snowboarding and camping.  
         Through these activities, the kids learn that there are broader horizons they have not been aware of due to lack of financial resources and positive role models. Chris Rutgers, the founder and head of Outdoor Outreach explains, “I founded Outdoor Outreach in 1999 and based it on one basic principle:  Self-esteem cannot be taught.  Instead Outdoor Outreach provides tangible personal experiences from which youth build their own self-esteem.  Experiences such as climbing a cliff, surfing a wave, or snowboarding down a mountain help youth attain a sense of accomplishment and pride that no teacher, classroom, or experiential learning exercise can give them.”  
                  Statistics show that most inner-city youth never leave a five-block radius of their home, which is traditionally surrounded by drugs, violence and gangs. Outdoor Outreach seeks to remove them from this environment and expose them to new and challenging outdoor activities.  This replaces their negative environment with a positive one, and in turn, help these kids realize for themselves that positive choices do exist, and are within their reach both today, and for the rest of their lives.  This experience directly impacts the academic performance of these kids as well.  Rutgers has taken his program into high schools with a 50-percent drop out rate and had 100% of the kids in his program not only graduate but go on to college as well.
         All of the teens in the Neighbors Across the Bridge Adventure Club attend Barrio Logan College Institute.  BLCI is a nonprofit organization that promotes the pursuit of higher education for students who are traditionally under-represented in college through after-school programs that begin in the third grade.  Barrio Logan gather daily at BLCI after school to do homework, study with tutors, sharpen their computer skills and participate in weekly workshops that focus upon getting into college.  BLCI also counsels parents of how to support their children’s education. Its track record is also impressive.  Many BLCI students have graduated high school and entered college, some going to prestigious universities such as Yale and Berkeley as well as numerous UC and CSU schools. All members of Neighbors Across the Bridge sustain 3.0 grade point averages or above and are on a college track.
         BCLI Executive Director Diana Getrich Villegas notes,  “this partnership with Outdoor Outreach and Coronado Rotary is essential in providing our students with non-academic activities that help to build their self-confidence and expose them to positive experiences that we would not be able to provide were it not for this collaboration.”