Do you know what Keystone is? Keystone is a volunteer group that is part of the Boys and Girls Club of Hawthorne, that gives teens in high school the opportunity to help out in their community. Some events that Keystone does yearly are the coat and blanket drives, shred day at the municipal building in Hawthorne, and breakfast with Santa at the club. This is just a small part of what Keystone is all about. Keystone teaches teens responsibility, the meaning of a family, and helping those in need. Currently, Keystone has been working on their national project called Power to the Teens, in which their goal is to educate teens in the community about their rights.

After months of preparation, Keystone has been working hard to make this project come to life. The goal of this project is to give teens the chance to be informed of their rights as citizens and allow them to ask their own questions to the people who are responsible for keeping our neighborhoods safe. Lately, there has been much controversy on how police handle certain situations, with teens in particular. Some feel that the police are too aggressive while others feel that it is necessary for police to be forceful to effectively enforce the laws. From the very beginning of the project, Keystone members’ main objective is to give teens the opportunity to talk face to face with their local police officers.

To achieve this goal, Keystone was able to arrange the Hawthorne Police Department and Passaic County Sheriff’s Department to come down to the Boys and Girls Club. It is official that on May 4, these two police departments will be at the club in Hawthorne between 7:00-8:30 pm to answer and discuss any questions that the teens may have. There is no cost for this event and all are welcome to join. For further questions, you can easily contact Ms. Maggie at 973-427-7777 or email her at [email protected]. Throughout Power to the Teens, Keystone would like to thank Ms. Maggie for making this event possible and the tremendous help she has contributed.

So don’t be shy and stop by the club on Thursday, May 4. This will not only be educational for everyone, but will allow teens to have their questions finally answered.