STUDENTS CLIMB TO SUCCESS - Rock scaling's a big hit
by RALPH R. ORTEGA, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A scrappy bunch of El Barrio kids are on the rocks - and loving it.
For the past five months, 15 "at-risk" youths have been scaling a 30-foot climbing wall in Central Park's North
Meadow Recreation Center on 97th St. in an offbeat new after-school program designed to help keep their lives on track.
In three more weeks, the ambitious rock kids will be ready to take on the park's famed boulders.
"I never climbed anything before in my life, only to go hop a fence or something," said Emmanuel Cruz, 13, who
struggled for a month before finally reaching the top of the practice wall.
At the same time, Cruz, an eighth-grader at Bilingual Bicultural Middle School 117 on E. 109th St., said he has
been boosting his grades in some of his toughest classes.
His climbing buddies, all from the same school, tell similar stories, attributing their success to their
involvement in the Ascent program, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Rock climbing, a popular outdoor sport, is combined with homework time, fitness education and workouts and
group powwows that teach life skills to kids who, on their own, might fall through the cracks.
"You're climbing, right? You get scared, and suddenly it feels like there's nothing you can do," said
Gabrielle Fisher, who heads the program, operated by the Central Park Conservancy.
"But if you can somehow handle the fear, keep the panic down - if you just look around and think beyond
this box you're in - you'll realize, 'Oh, I can put my hand here, I can put my foot there.'"
Fisher and her staff aim to show the kids they have options that can steer them away from problems - crime,
drugs, violence, pregnancy and dropping out of school - faced by inner-city children.
"Just to become an adolescent, at this stage in junior high school, is at-risk," said Louis Hernandez, a school
guidance counselor working with the rock kids.
Hernandez - Mr. H to his students - noted that the city's end to social promotion last year proved so devastating
for some that he was forced to start a support group.
And last month, the city's Board of Education identified 300,000 at-risk students who are in danger of being held
back this year.
While rock climbing was a bit off the wall for an after-school program, Hernandez said anything that gets kids
outdoors, working together and motivated works for him.
"This is providing more choices for them, besides basketball and football on the block," he said. "Or hanging out,
chilling on the corner."
"I never get enough thrills. If this didn't grab me, I would have left it a long time ago," said Frankie
Berrios, 14, praising the program while holding down a rope for a fellow climber last week.
Working together has turned the kids into a self-proclaimed family, spotting for each other on the rocks
and also in life.
One boy, recalled 13-year-old Jazzlyn Martinez sadly, dropped out, even after he was approached by several
of the climbers.
"We tried all kinds of ways to get him back. We videotaped him, played little jokes," Martinez said with a
sigh. "The group now feels like it's missing something. It's hard not having [even] one person."
During a break, several climbers affectionately jabbed Ismael Flores, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, originally
from Mexico, who was held back in September.
"My parents said that if I don't pass this grade, I'm going to Mexico to start working," the boy confessed.
"I don't want to go to Mexico."
Three others chimed in that they too were held back, and encouraged Flores to lighten up with some harmless
teasing and jokes.
"I'm doing well in my classes now. I think that I'm going to make it," he said a few minutes later.
"I used to play a lot, that's why I didn't pass. This time I'm a lot more serious with my teachers. I think
it's this program," he added.
"When we rock climb . . . I get out of my home and hang out with other kids I never knew. It feels really
cool."
