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100 Black Men of Syracuse Inc., in partnership with Onondaga Community College and Junior Frontiers of Mohawk Valley, recently sponsored a trip for 48 middle, high school and college students to the daylong Imagine RIT Innovation and Creativity Festival. The fourth annual event, held May 7 at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is a creativity fair showcasing 350 interactive exhibits, research projects and hands-on demonstrations presented by RIT students, faculty and staff, as well as a select group of Rochester-area high school students.

The group arriving from Syracuse that morning traveled on a chartered bus provided by 100 Black Men, OCC and Junior Frontiers, who also provided chaperones. The students, clad mostly in jeans and a variety of casual shirts, shoes and light jackets, were among nearly 32,000 visitors who flocked to RIT for the festival. They watched robots perform a variety of tasks, participated in engineering and design experiments, sat for 3-D portrait shots, worked to blend a smoothie using a bicycle and toured the academic facilities of the nation’s 15th largest private university.

“We support and organize this trip with the same purpose as the tours of historical black colleges we help sponsor for local high school seniors and juniors,” said 100 Black Men of Syracuse at-large director Drake Harrison. “We want our young people receptive to the exciting opportunities only higher education can offer and experience another side of student life.”

Fifteen young men, embracing the afterglow of Earth Day 2011, grabbed gloves, trash bags, shovels, grabbers and an assortment of other tools they used on April 30 to clean up 11 city blocks of sidewalks and curbs along South Salina Street in Syracuse. For nearly three hours, they corralled, cornered, jabbed and stabbed, as well as lowered a hand or two to retrieve empty soda cans and other leftovers from a particularly harsh winter. Dozen of bags of trash were collected in the community most of them call home.

The young volunteers, who ranged in age from 12 to 19, are participants in the “Manhood Training Academy,” a two-year-old mentoring program sponsored by 100 Black Men of Syracuse, Inc. The idea for the cleanup project came from the young men themselves during a recent session held at the South Side Innovation Center. The group meets at SSIC every other Saturday morning with volunteer mentors, members of 100 Black Men of Syracuse.

As passersby witnessed the enthusiasm displayed by the young men during the clean-up, some were moved to give the young men words of encouragement, such as “God will reward you for what you’re doing” and “This is what should be on the front page of the newspaper.”

“These young men are certainly to be commended for initiating this community project on their own and then following through with it,” said Vincent Love, 100 Black Men of Syracuse president. “While we often think of adults as role models, these young men are role models, too, especially for their peers.”

100 Black Men of Syracuse covered the associated costs of the clean-up project, provided supervision and served a cookout lunch for the young volunteers. For more information about the 100 Black Men of Syracuse mentoring programs, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (315) 443-8749.

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