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White Plains residents Zyken Jackson and Malachi Washington, both 13, will be spending a lot of time at pools and basketball courts this summer practicing for the school team. The two Highlands Middle School students and point guards also play for the Tri-County team in White Plains, and said they made it to the semi-finals this past year.
Their last day of school is Thursday with early dismissal Wednesday.
Both will also be attending camp in Greenburgh this summer, according to Jackson’s grandmother Brenda, who has lived in White Plains for 25 years.
In addition to pools and family functions, the “mall walker” will spend the summer getting exercise walking through the Galleria Mall with fellow senior citizens.
While Jackson and Washington know how to keep themselves busy, Liz Avelar’s son, Aiden, is eight years old and requires a bit more supervision. Regardless, the Peekskill resident, formerly of Port Chester, said she is happy it’s summer.
“For me this is the freedom, because I was on the PTA,” she said with a smirk. “So, I was like, ‘Yes.’ I’m happier I think than he is.”
Avelar said she grew up in Port Chester and went to Saxon Woods Pool all the time. Now a mother of two – her daughter, Brea, is 2 years old – she is thinking of getting a season pass this summer. The pool opens June 26.
Naiyma Pleasant, food manager at Westchester Jewish Community Services, home schools her five-year-old daughter, who is attending day camp this summer.
“All the pre-schools were two-and-a-half hours. I felt like it was a waste of time,” said Pleasant, who works in North White Plains and lives in Mount Vernon. “She knows way more than any child in pre-k.”
WJCS is based in North White Plains on 50 N. Broadway.
Maria Clinton, of Peekskill, will travel with her family to Philadelphia, Lake George and Virginia Beach this summer and her camera will be rolling the whole time.
“I’m doing a documentary about my grandmother,” she said. “I’m going to use a lot of the footage from it.”
The film, titled, “I Am Not a Prodigy,” is for a graduate program in Vermont and uses the premise that her 71-year-old grandmother, who is a gym instructor, is more active than her.
What are your summer plans? Do you find it hard to keep the kids busy? Tell us in the comment section below, on Facebook or Twitter @WhitePlainsDV
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