The following words of thanks were shared by Oscar Cardozo during the inauguration of the new program centers of the Neighborhood Outreach Connection (NOC) at The Oaks Apartments in Hilton Head Island, SC, October 27, 2012.  [Translated from the original Spanish.]

Good afternoon and welcome to our neighborhood, The Oaks. I want to thank all residents, community representatives, managers, and friends who are with us on this very important day for NOC. It is a day when we are harvesting the fruits of a long task and we are proud and happy to celebrate here today.
 
First of all I want to thank Dr. Sharma for his will and vision to make this happen and to help our children, our families, and our Hispanic community. And I also want to thank his wife, Martha, for her unconditional support of all these projects that are opening new horizons for the education of children, youths, and families in the community.

Dr. Sharma has had a vision through the NOC project to bring development and prosperity to our neighborhood through education, which is needed to overcome the barriers of borders and social differences, poverty, indifference, and discrimination. These barriers only encourage ignorance, backwardness, and separation that prevent human and community development. In order to realize this dream,  NOC started more than five years ago to transform our neighborhood from a place that suffered from neglect, marginalization, and so many problems into a clean, healthy, and dignified place to live, a place where people have recovered confidence in themselves and in others. The NOC project has demonstrated to people that when the community works together in an organized way, it can achieve great things and big changes can occur that benefit each and every one. Those of us at The Oaks today proudly see that the neighborhood has a new face and we see that children, youths, and families who live here are enjoying an organized place where the general community receives education and care that are bridges to get people out of backwardness and darkness. These achievements have brought us dignity and hope for a better future. Thank you, Dr. Sharma, for believing in this project and for believing in us.

Again I can only say that we offer a million thanks to each one of the anonymous angels who have generously made donations of money, materials, and labor to make this project a reality. And to all those volunteers who believed in this work, who on their own initiative, tired and exhausted after long work days, have spent time in the evenings and weekends to come and work for the completion and beautification of these apartments, which today are classrooms where our children and young people receive the support and motivation to move forward with their homework and where they prepare for a productive life and service to others – thank you. We also want to thank each volunteer tutor who devotes talents, energy, and time every afternoon in the week to help with this project. A thousand and a thousand thanks! I have only words of thanks to each of you. May God bless you and God bless this great country.

Saturday, October 27, marked an important milestone for NOC with the formal opening of two newly renovated apartments as Program Centers for NOC’s education, health, and workforce development services.
More than 100 people, including NOC Board members, representatives from the Beaufort County Board of Education, principals and teachers, residents of the Oaks Apartments, and caring friends from the greater Hilton Head Island community, attended the celebration.

A brief history of NOC and its business model was provided by Board Chair Narendra Sharma, followed by an overview of the renovation project by NOC Field Director Glenn Love. Ms. Love recognized the many residents and local businesses that provided labor and materials to complete the total renovation and conversion of two apartments into learning centers for the neighborhood children.

The next speaker was Oscar Cardoza, whose heart-felt statement of gratitude brought tears to the eyes of many people.  Mr. Fred Washington spoke next, commending NOC for the positive changes it has brought into the lives of the Oaks neighborhood and its children. He emphasized the importance of the partnership between NOC and the Beaufort County School District, and noted that this is a model that can be replicated in other communities.
Finally, Hilton Head Mayor Drew Laughlin commented on the importance of community activism in order to bring about positive change.  He noted that it is good for the Oaks community and also for Hilton Head overall. Mayor Laughlin then joined Dr. Sharma and others for a formal ribbon-cutting, marking the official opening of the new Program Centers.

Translation was provided throughout the program by Ms. Bibiana Osario.
Following the ribbon-cutting, everyone enjoyed music and food provided by NOC and residents of the Oaks community.  Coffee was provided by Starbucks and a special treat of snow cones was provided to the children present by members of the Hilton Head Kiwanis Club.

NOC high school volunteer, Hannah Brink, a junior at HH High, has prepared a creative and thoughtful video about NOC’s after school program at Oaks, capturing the dynamics of children and tutors participating actively. The video shows the excitement of children as they participate in the after school tutoring, homework support, and compass learning at NOC’s Program Center at Oaks.

Through the video, viewers can hear the voices of a number of tutors speaking about their experiences and the benefits of the program.

Below are Hannah Brink’s responses to several questions posed to her:
1. How did you come up with this idea? 
“I wanted to capture NOC’s core values and mission and also the feelings and viewpoints of those involved with NOC – how the students and the volunteer tutors feel about NOC, how they interact with each other, and how much they care about what they are doing. I decided that the best way to do this was through the video.”

2.  What was your main challenge?
“The main challenge of this video was when I had finished filming, and was trying to fit all of the pieces together. I had many video clips that needed to be pieced together, and the greatest challenge was trying to put them together so that the video flowed and so that how it was laid out made sense.”

3. What did you enjoy the most in doing this project?
“I enjoyed every step of the way with this project. I had so much fun creating my theme for the video, conducting the interviews, and filming over at NOC. I also enjoyed editing the video; piecing it together little by little. Perhaps my favorite part of this experience is when I showed the video at an NOC fundraiser, and some of the girls I tutored were there. Seeing their faces light up when they saw themselves and their beloved tutors on the screen really made all of the hard work pay off.”

4. What would you like the video to accomplish?
“I hope that this video can be used to market NOC, especially when they are applying for grants, and also that my video will inspire other teens to want to be involved with NOC. It is such a fun and unique program that everyone should have the chance to know about and be a part of.”

Hannah Brink exemplifies the outstanding work that the high school volunteers from HH High, HH Prep, and HH Christian Academy are doing through NOC’s outreach program.

Watch Hannah’s video on YouTube