39th Annual Fall Foliage Walk

AMHERST, Mass. (Mass Appeal) - The Amherst Committee For A Better Chance, or Amherst A-B-C, has provided a boarding home in downtown Amherst for men of color for 42 years. To tell us about how the program really makes a difference are John Sieracki, board president of the Amherst A-B-C program and Talib Sadiq, a resident director at Amherst A-B-C.

We bring young men of color who have shown academic excellence and leadehip potential, who generally come from east coast cities and disadvantaged school systems up and down the east coast. They are recruited by the ABC national program. They come and live in downtown Amherst and attend Amherst Regional High School.

The town of Amherst provides the tuition. It's tuition-free. The local businesses and individuals give us donations. We run the house on a very tight budget of about $100,000 a year, which is the equivalent of a middle class family income. We really change lives and open the world to the young men who come to us.

The national program is the recruitment arm. They go to middle schools basically and work with the guidance counselors and work with the parents and identify those could thrive in a situation like we provide up in Amherst. Then they send us applications and we invite certain of them up to look at the house, the school, the community. We figure out who will be a good match for the program that way.

They maintain honor roll in school. That's key. They need to be proactive and show leadership, either through community service, through extracurricular activities, athletes or clubs at the school or other kinds of ways in the community to do that. They have to maintain excellent behavior in the house and show that they are part of the team, the fabric of the life in the house and the community.

This type of work is something my wife and I really want to do in the world. Creating a family environment has been our main goal. We have three children much our own, one in 8th grade one who is 7 and one who is 4 and a half. Trying to help these young men feel at home away from home. They are away from their families, transitioning into high school. That's a huge transition for a lot of people. We try to create an atmosphere where they feel comfortable and can be themselves. They feel they get the support and love and exposure to local things they may not have in their hometown.

This is the beginning of our second year. Last year there were two seniors who are now off in college. It was great to watch them and to launch them into bigger and better things. We keep in touch with them and they are doing really well right now. To see the young men in the program last year and to see how they matured and taking on new leadership roles, now they are the oldest young men in the house. It's been great to see them to grow and to come of age.

Saturday, October 16 at 8:00 in the morning at the Mill River recreation area in North Amherst, there begins what we are calling the Challenge Walk which is a 12-mile walk that goes through the forests, the Robert Frost trail that goes through Amherst. That walk ends back on the Amherst Town Common. Then that's for people that are the hikers, the real people that want to go out there and explore and see the beauty. It takes about three hours to do, three or four hours.

Then at 10:00, on the Town Common, we're going to kick off a shorter walk that's three miles. It's also a 5k fun run. That is more family-friendly, more paved areas and for people who would prefer that shorter route. Then at noon, we're going to have a concert that features the Charles Nevill Quartet, saxophonist with the brothers and there will also be a barbecue that is provided by the Pub Restaurant in Amherst and by the Rotary Club of Amherst. A great way to spend a whole Saturday admiring the diverse color in the trees while we think about diversity in our community.

All the money goes directly to the Amherst ABC program, rght to our annual budget to pay for utilities, groceries, everything that will keep that program going.

Event

A Better Chance
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Amerst Town Common
8am - 12K Challenge Walk
10am - 5K Fun Run & Family Style Walk

For more information visit AmherstABetterChance.org