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Moving their community involvement initiative to a local church, Barack Obama School administrators and educators joined Sunday’s Black History Month Celebration at New Bethel Church on Asbury Avenue.

The Bangs Avenue school launched the initiative this year as part of a push to create bonding experiences for students and their parents.

In pairing education with the spiritual side of life, Principal Reginald Mirthil said it was yet another way to ensure students and their families connect within the community.

“It’s all about making sure the students and their families are well rounded,” Mirthil said. “Church has always been a form of therapy for people in the past. Most of our community don’t seek the traditional methods of therapy so Sundays is when they do have that therapeutic practice and when they release a lot of their stress. I figured we should work with the community we are in so I have teachers out here, more than I thought. Being an educator is a seven day a week job for us just like it is for Pastor [Audley] Largie and his congregation.”

New Bethel, which kicked off its Year of Growth campaign, spotlighted the tenacity of some of its youngest congregants during the event.

“I’m going to give a sermon today that shows young people can make it, no matter where they are born and no matter the circumstance of their family, they can be all that they can be,” Largie said. “We don’t want to just be a church inside the four corners of this building but we want to bring students and teachers and everyone together so that we can build a stronger community.”

Among those sharing their battles to overcome were 10-year-old Renae Williams [at right] who overcame bullying in part by writing a poem entitled Love Yourself For Who You Are. In the poem, Williams address her bully by saying, “I did not ask for a glass of your opinion.”

Then there was 20-year-old Judene Russell [below right], a Rutgers University Newark pre med student majoring in biology and minoring in psychology and cellular neurobiology who fired some of her friends whose lifestyles were not in line with her goals.

“You control your future by the actions you make so make good ones,” she said during her overview to the younger audience on staying steadfast on the road to accomplishing one’s dreams.

The event was accented by the New Bethel Choir and Dance group performances.

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The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

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