Local 154 Sponsors Anti-Violence Youth Event in Rockaway, Queens

      Team Deuce Stop the Violence Holiday Tournament

      Local 154 proudly co-sponsored an anti-violence youth tournament in Rockaway, Queens. Local 154 together with local area businesses and the Park Departments sponsored a basketball tournament organized with the purpose of finding alternatives to violence for youth in the Rockaway peninsula. The Holiday Tournament was held at the NYC Parks Department Sorrentino Center in December 2007.

      Local 154 Executive Board member and Rockaway resident Isaac Parsee founded the Team Deuce program to work with youth from the ages of 8 to 21. He says that the program "uses life lessons to bring youth along and integrate them with positive role models." The Team Deuce program uses athletic events such as baseball, football and basketball to further its goals and has held several tournaments throughout the years. Isaacs' passion for the project has led him to continuously expand the program, search for sponsors and sometimes to use his own means to fund the program.

      At the basketball tournament, the theme of the youth action was to provide awareness as an alternative to violence. Four teams registered for the event this year, The Lost Battalion Hall (LBH), Green Sox, Team Deuce and Sorrentino. Also the youth attended a workshop conducted by Queens Borough South Community Affairs Officers, which included a Power Point presentation on police interaction, and stop and frisk procedures and a dialogue between the youth and the Police Officers.

      Local 154 was represented at the tournament by Executive Board Member Isaac Parsee and Vice-President Mark Heron.

      The Wave, a Rockaway community press, covered the event:
      http://www.rockawave.com/news/2008/0125/Sports/040.html