LI Cares Gives Anna House Students New Coats!

We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with Long Island Cares. Long Island Cares was founded as the first food bank on Long Island in 1980 by the late singer, Grammy Award-winning songwriter and social activist Harry Chapin. The organization now provides nutritional food and support services for a network of more than 580 community-based member agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency shelters, child care programs, disability organizations, veterans’ services programs and more.

In the first, of what we hope will be many successful future collaborations, LI Cares donated brand-new, size-specific-coats to each of the 73 students of Anna House. The coats were distributed during the bitter cold spell of early January and could not have come at a better time.

BCCA thanks Councilwoman Erin King Sweeney for helping us connect with this amazing organization!

Cookies with Santa!

This past holiday season, each student sent their wish list to the North Pole and Santa delivered his presents just in time for Christmas! Thank you to Rachel Wever and all the parents and students of Center Stage Dance Studio and Kellenberg Memorial High School for helping BCCA make our students Christmas dreams come true!

BCCA's Annual Holiday Shopping Event

On December 2nd, BCCA once again turned the Turf and Field Club at Belmont Park into Santa's Workshop as it held its 14th annual Holiday Shopping event. This year, we were able to provide more children then ever before, with presents for their families thanks to our most generous donors and from a wonderful donation from the U.S. Marine's Toys for Tots Foundation. Over 500 children from the backstretch families of Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack lined up to "shop" for gifts for their relatives. Assorted volunteers acted as "elves" taking each child around to pick out gifts for their loved ones. The Sugarplum Cafe provided treats for the entire family!

BCCA would like to thank: Long Island Iced Tea, National Charity League, Inc. (Garden City Chapter), NYRA, Sapienza Bakery, Toys for Tots Foundation, Westminster Nursery, our Chair Eloise Canzone, all of the amazing volunteers, and of course Santa, Christopher Chatterton!

BCCA's Annual Thanksgiving Lunch

Last week BCCA was thrilled to host our annual Thanksgiving lunch with all our Anna House families! We are so grateful to all of our generous supporters. It is thanks to them that we are able to share special moments like these with our families!

BCCA's Annual Halloween Costume Party

BCCA thanks the Walter Kaner Children's Foundation for sponsoring our Annual Halloween Costume Parade and Party! Thanks to them, each child was able to pick out their own costume and parade around Belmont Park trick or treating!

BCCA's Day at the Races

BCCA honored our two Volunteers of the Year, Nick Aquilino and Susie Raisher, this past weekend at BCCA's Day at the Races for their outstanding contributions to BCCA.

BCCA's Fall Festival

All the Anna House families had such a great time at BCCA's Annual Fall Festival. The children were treated with an interactive performance from Captain Hook's brother, a master puppeteer. Some even had to walk the plank!

Congratulations to our recent Anna House graduate!

BCCA is so proud of our recent Anna House graduate, Lourdes Alvarez, for being named the first Student of the Month at her new school, Clara H. Carlson Elementary!

BCCA's Sugar Plum Soiree

BCCA's Sugar Plum Soiree was a smashing success! Thank you to all our guests and supporters who made this such an amazing event. A special thanks to our 2017 honoree, Paul Saylor, for his efforts in advancing the quality of life for the children of Anna House through the Olivia's Herd after school program and to the National Museum of Dance for their spectacular performances throughout the night!

Senator Elaine Phillips visits Anna House!

Last week our students at Anna House had a very special visitor! Senator Elaine Phillips visited to tour Anna House and learn more about what we do here. All our students from the infants to the school-age students had the opportunity to spend time with Senator Phillips.

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Full S.T.E.A.M. ahead at Anna House!

BCCA is committed to providing a well-rounded education to all our students throughout the year. We ensure this by incorporating a S.T.E.A.M. based curriculum at Anna House through different programs. Already, this summer has introduced two new programs to our students!

BCCA is proud to partner with the Jose Limon Foundation to announce the start of our very first Dance Program at Anna House! Every Saturday a professional dancer from the Limon Foundation leads a class for our school-age students. This program allows our students to explore art and dance in a way that they previously could not.

This summer BCCA has also introduced the Children's Engineering program. An instructor from Engineering for Kids visits Anna House to lead a project that teaches our students an aspect of engineering in a fun and exciting way. Each week the teacher introduces a new concept or topic to further expand our students knowledge of engineering and show them how fun it truly can be.

Happy 4th of July!

Everyone at BCCA and Anna House had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July yesterday! The children created themed arts and crafts projects throughout the day and spent most of the day in the Anna House Playground enjoying the beautiful weather while playing different water games!

Our School Age class getting into the 4th of July spirit at Anna House!

Even the infant class dressed up for the 4th of July!