A passion for children has led Gwen McCann to her post as executive director of the Children”™s Home of Kingston, as well as to her unofficial post as mother of the MacCana, the Gaelic word for McCann and the name of the Irish band featuring four of her sons.
McCann is now a resident of Red Hook, but with her husband David they first worked as house managers in a Kingston residence for the Children”™s Home of Kingston, a post they maintained for five years, and then she moved on for a dozen years to the Kingston YWCA before returning to her roots with the Children”™s Home and eventually heading it.
“My involvement with the Children”™s Home began four months after I was married in 1967,” said McCann. “We became group home parents and we committed to staying with the children who entered as seventh grader”™s that year through high school, so we stayed five and half years,” said McCann. “By the time we left, three of my own children were born.”
“It was a house parent model, so we lived right there,” said McCann. “It”™s a very good way to go, because it serves as modeling and it”™s a good life.”
The couple purchased their own home and McCann raised three more children for a total of six children ranging in age now from 42 to 30. Meanwhile she was working with the YWCA in Kingston for 12 years, before returning to work as an administrator at the Children”™s Home in 1987. She became executive director three years ago.
The Children”™s Home of Kingston is a nonprofit institution founded as an orphanage in 1876. In the 1960s, it took on its current role as a residential school for emotionally disturbed boys, providing housing, education and counseling: “To get them on their feet and help them realize their dreams,” as the web site describes the mission.
“We”™ve evolved over the years,” said McCann, so that the “multiservice agency” now has the residential treatment campus center near the Rondout for boys 8 years old and up, a group home in midtown Kingston for boys aged 12-21 and supervised independent living apartments in Hurley for boys aged 17-21, “We really try to give the boys in our care coping mechanisms and skills so when they go back to their family or on to independent living they can really thrive,” said McCann.
Anger management, impulse control, socialization skills and using reason instead of emotion in decision making are skills that boys learn at the Children”™s Home. “We teach how to be social to have coping skills,” said McCann.
“We do that through our teachers, teacher”™s assistants, child care staff, clinical staff, everyone here,” she said. “Because we”™re a small campus, everyone can come into daily contact with the boys so even the maintenance department and kitchen staff work to show the benefits of teamwork.”
And teamwork is the hallmark of a successful musical band, as well. MacCana has been playing as an ensemble of three brothers and a family friend, as well as another brother and a sister sitting in when time allows.
Mother McCann loves the band. “There isn”™t any mother in the world that isn”™t supportive of what their children do,” she said.
While five of her six children have day jobs as teachers, the interest in Irish music came about naturally. “Their father used to play the guitar and play all the old Irish songs for them,” she said, noting that though he was born on Long Island all his older brothers were born in Ireland.
And as the family grew, music appreciation grew with them. “We used to sing in the car when we were going places,” McCann said.
They formed the band about three years ago and “It just took off from there,” said McCann. The band performs a mix of contemporary Irish rock, from the Pogues to the Waterboys, as well as traditional Irish music. They sell a CD of traditional Irish tunes at their gigs. “I think of them as Irish with a kick,” she said. “They”™re doing pretty well.”
She herself does not perform with the band regularly. “Occasionally, when they are performing I”™ll dance the hornpipe with my son and my granddaughter,” she said.
“I”™m pleased they are all together and it wasn”™t a surprise when they formed a band,” she said her sons. “The thing that is really nice is they are buddies, they are friends as well as brothers. They do a lot of things together so it”™s just a natural progression they would form this band. They all love the music.”
Meanwhile, regarding a different type of band, the annual March of Champions Drum and Bugle Corps competition is being held this year on August 8 at 7 pm. at Dietz Stadium in Kingston. It is the largest annual fund raiser for the Children”™s Home. Call 331-1448 extension 1124 for more information on the event.
