Today marked our second-to-last day servicing the Terrence Cardinal Center in the East Bronx. It started off as normal, with a quick breakfast at the Jan Hus church in the Upper East Side and a subway ride to the TCC. During our first two hours at the center, we worked with residents to create different art projects. The woman Crissy and I sat with painted a small jewelry box for herself, while other residents assembled and decorated bobblehead puppies. By 12pm, the lounge had been overtaken by Dalmatians, black labs, Clifford lookalikes, and a lone sphinx.
After lunch, the Maryland crew and the building residents relocated to the auditorium, where we took part in the TCC’s weekly karaoke party. Song choices ranged from Elvis to R. Kelly, with plenty of throwbacks from the decades in between. Much to our surprise, a few participants even decided to sing their tunes a cappella! The display of talent culminated in UMD crooning along to “A Thousand Miles” by the one and only Vanessa Carlton – I’ll spare you the video, but the residents still loved it.
The day at TCC ended with a game of bingo and trivia, hosted by local high school students. The gentleman I was working with won the blackout round – even though he had a disability that kept him from speaking, I could sense pure joy radiating from him when I shouted his win.
After heading back from TCC, we went to an UMD alumni dinner at Nick’s Pizza on the Upper East Side. We met up with two alums – Ariel, a lawyer, and Derrick, vice president of the Carlyle Group in NYC -- along with Marsha, director of the Stamp Student Union at UMD. The conversation was interesting (to say the least… I don’t know if our group will look at alpacas the same way again), the food amazing (four stars on Yelp, every bit deserved), and the whole experience extremely memorable. Shoutout to Ariel and Derrick for taking the time to meet with us and treating us to the classiest pizza I’ve had (and probably will ever have) in the city.
Tomorrow will be our last day at TCC – make sure to check back with us soon!
- Aastha
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