UFT provider makes back-to-school worth celebrating for kids

Children in Queens were treated to a day of dancing, free food and school supplies at the seventh annual back to school event hosted by UFT provider Christina Winslow.

More than 500 Queens parents and children turned out for UFT provider Christina Winslow’s seventh annual back-to-school celebration at Baisley Pond Park on Sept. 24.

Winslow, whose charitable work has earned her profiles in the Queens Press and UFT Providers United, organizes the annual event, featuring free backpacks and school supplies, through her non-profit, A Cause, A Concern, A Solution.

“I do this event because it is needed,” she said. “A lot of the kids aren’t able to afford the supplies that they need for their education so we assist — and we’ve been doing it for seven years!”

Winslow estimates that she and her sponsors, including radio station Hot 97 and health insurer Health First, distributed around 300 backpacks — each chock full of pens, pencils, notebooks and rulers donated by local trucker and biker clubs — at this year’s event.

The celebration also featured free food, a children’s dance contest organized by Hot 97 and a performance by the station’s popular disc jockey C-Lo, who posed for photographs with the children, spoke to them about the importance of education and staying in school, and distributed his own unique backpacks with “DJ C-Lo” stitched on them.

Winslow capped it all off by giving certificates of appreciation to the event’s supporters and sponsors, including the Sean E. Bell Community Center, New York Communities for Change, the United Deliverance Church and State Sen. Shirley Huntley’s office.

Despite worries about the weather, Winslow said the event was a great success.

“We put smiles on kids’ faces and that’s what it’s all about,” she said.

A Cause, A Concern, A Solution will hold its next event, a holiday party for children, in December. You can read more about Winslow and her South Jamaica child care program, “Kids Are People, Too,” here.