At the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester’s (BGCNW) recent annual Youth of the Year Awards celebration Beberlyn Confesor, a senior at Fox Lane High School is this year’s Youth of the Year.
The other six candidates were Kimberly Contreras, senior at Fox Lane; Patrick Polese, senior at Fox Lane; Fatima Lopez Martinez; senior at Byram Hills; Isabel Valenzuela, junior at Fox Lane; Adam Kamal, junior at Fox Lane; and Katie O’Donnell, junior at John Jay.
O’Donnell received the Chris Cutri Memorial Scholarship Award and Valenzuela won the Wilfred E. Jennings Leadership Award.
For the past 10 years, teens involved in advocacy and leadership programming, including Youth of the Year candidates, have traveled to Albany with club leadership to advocate on behalf of critical programming impacting New York state youth and families.
An example of this impact is a 100% increase in the state’s funding for mental wellness for youth.
Westchester County legislator Erika Pierce who attended the event said, “Any day at the Boys and Girls Club of Northern Westchester is a great day, but the Youth of the Year recognition day is the very best of days. These community youth display leadership, maturity, academic achievement and a real commitment to advocacy, not only on behalf of themselves, but on behalf of their entire community….”
Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, established in 1939, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving local youth, ages 6 months to 18 years, from more than 40 northern Westchester communities.
