Free Teens Usa - Event

Free Teens club members Mariah Ralph and Nate Person appeared on the Comcast CN8 "It's Your Call" TV show hosted by Lynn Doyle on July 17, 2008. This show was on the topic of Teen Sex and covered reasons why some teens "hook up". Mariah and Nate explained why they made a choice to abstain from teen sex. Free Teens Jersey City area club coordinator Julie Edwards and Britnee Marsh, who is serving as Miss Free Teens 2008 "Princess" also joined Nate and Mariah in singing a Free Teens chant, which describes all the things that they as abstinent teens are free from (broken hearts, STDs, teen pregnancy) and goals they are looking forward to enjoy (sex on their wedding night). The Comcast Cable network has 10 million subscribers from Washington, DC to Maine.

Free Teens Banquet 2008

Watch video highlights from the event!

Mayor Bret Schundler

Free Teens USA held its 10th Annual Banquet at the Polish Center in Yonkers, NY on May 31, 2008, celebrating the 10th year of club activities for youth in the New York/New Jersey area. Former Jersey City

Mayor Bret Schundler, who spoke at the first banquet in 1999, returned to share inspiration with the 300 youth and parents who attended. John Boykin II, representing Mt. Vernon Mayor Clinton Young, Jr. also attended.

Other highlights included the Free Teens Choice Awards, presented by members of the Free Teens Board of Directors to club members who demonstrated high personal standards and outstanding service in their communities as well as performances from club members from Jersey City, Newark, and Mt. Vernon. Youth from Eastside High School involved with the Free Teens CultureShock music program also performed.

Dr. Richard Panzer, Free Teens founder and director, advised the female Free Teens youth to be proud of their inner beauty and to not let that be taken away by someone only interested in their physical appearance. He advised the male Free Teens youth to be proud of their inner strength and to use their strength to be protectors of their female friends and family members.

Finalists in this year’s Free Teens Pageant included: King Contestant: Nate Person; Queen Contestants: Takyla Spann from Yonkers and Mariah Jones from Harlem; Prince Contestants: Daniel Silvestre from Mt. Vernon and Donte Robinson from Paterson; Princess Contestants: Kendria Smith, Erisha Harrison, Lorraine Harris and Nia Fears from Mt. Vernon and Brittnee Marsh from Jersey City.

Dr. and Mrs. Panzer crowned Nate Person as Mr. Free Teens 2008. Nate showed a multimedia presentation about the Clair Memorial Free Teens club he’d created. Nate’s interest in video and multimedia production was sparked by a Free Teens Media Summit he attended two years ago.

Ms. Free Teens 2007 (Queen) Dominique Hart, who is currently attending the University of Virginia, crowned Takyla Spann, Ms. Free Teens 2008 Queen. Takyla gave a moving testimony about her personal journey towards recommitting her life to abstinence until marriage.

Ms. Free Teens 2007 (Princess) Fanny Sesay crowned Brittnee Marsh as Ms. Free Teens 2008. Brittnee spoke about seeing other girls in her neighborhood becoming single mothers and making a decision to avoid all that “baby momma drama.” Donte Robinson was crowned as Free Teens 2008 Prince and gave a powerful musical performance of “You are the wind beneath my wings!”

The evening concluded with CultureMachine director Diego Costa leading the room in singing the “Youth of the World” theme song and a Free Teens “Dance On.”

Pictures from the Free Teens Banquet 2008

Dancing	Mariah and Tiara	Jennifer Miller with Harlem Free Teens
Yonkers FT Choice Awards	Nathaniel	Jeff Schundler with JM and Ashinique
Newark FT Choice Awards	FT Choice Awards	Choice Awards (BM Alan Roghanian)
Paterson FT Choice Awards	Higher Call FT Choice Awards	Mount Vernon FT Choice Awards
Paterson FT Choice Awards	Miller Branch FT Choice Awards	FT Choice Awards
FT Choice Awards	Dot Gromley & John Boykin	Dr. Panzer and Daniel
Erisha with Dr. Panzer	Contestants Dance	Contestants Dance
Dancing	Group	Singing "I Believe I Can Fly"
Kendria	2008 Winners	Joshua and Ashley
Mrs. Panzer and Nia	Fanny Sesay & Dominique Hart	Performance
Performance	Performance	Performance
Performance	Performance	Performance
Performance	Dancing

Teen Media Summit 2008

Read about the event!
Poetry

Theater performance	Theater performance	Vince Miller & Dame Grease
NJ WAIT Team	NJ WAIT Team	Workshop
Workshop	Gloria Cardona/ Puerto Rico group	Puerto Rico dancers
Artist work group	Artist presentation	Artist work group
Webcast dancing	Dance group	Dance group
Dame Grease & Eun Hwa Mouada	Diego Costa	Jamal Johnson
John Ashworth & Richard Panzer	Roderick Giles	Trife
Yvonne Harvey	Daryl Clarke / webcast dancing	Rapper
Theater performance	Team building	Jennifer Miller & Jahnee
Puerto Rico group

Service Project & Listening Party in Paterson, NJ - 10/20/07

Cleaning Up	Removing Grafitti	Service Project
Service Project	Service Project	The "Golden Broom" reward
School Friends	DJ Jamal	DJ Poun'
Dancing at the Listening Party	Dancing at the Listening Party	Dancing at the Listening Party
Barbeque & Listening Party

2007 Pageant contestants

Winners of the 2007 Free Teens Club Choice Awards

3rd Annual Mr. & Miss Free Teens USA
Pageant Competition 2007

Free Teens USA held its 3rd Annual Mr. & Miss Free Teens USA Royal Pageant Competition on May 5 at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, NJ. Nine contestants competed for top prizes in the King, Queen and Princess categories.

Competing for King was Alan Akins 15 years old from the Clair Memorial Club in Jersey City. The 5 contestants for Queen included Shaquirah Griffin, 15, from the Higher Call Church Club in Jersey City; Dominique Hart, 17, from the Doles Center Club in Mt. Vernon; T’naiya Kearney, 16, from St. Peter’s Club in Newark; Nicole Paterson, 15, from Seminary Baptist Club in Paterson; and Tonia Ford, 14, Clair Memorial Club in Jersey City. The 3 contestants for Princess included Tatianna Corselli, 13, from the Nepperhan Community Center Club in Yonkers; Fanny Sesay 12, Clair Memorial Club in Jersey City; and Shanell Marsh, 11, from the One Nation Under God Club in Yonkers.  

The pageant judges for this year’s competition were Alonzo Moody, Director of the Paterson Department of Youth Services Bureau; Mrs. Barbara Gardner, a Community Realtor from Bergen County, NJ and Cynthia Jackson, Municipal Court Judge from Jersey City, NJ.  The contestants were judged on Content, Creativity and Delivery for their essays and Purity/Modesty, Creativity and Delivery for their performances.

Many in the audience expressed how difficult it was to determine which of the contestants gave the best speeches or performances.  In the words of the co-MC’s Jamal Johnson and Ashley Robinson, “I wouldn’t want to be a Judge”. The 2007 Mr. & Miss Free Teens USA winners will be announced at the 9th Annual Free Teens USA Banquet on Sunday, June 10th at the Hilton Hotel in Fort Lee, NJ.

Following are several of the speeches given by this year’s contestants.

On July 18, 2007 Denzel Washington visited his Hometown of Mount Vernon, NY to celebrate the positive accomplishments of the city's youth. Among several accomplished youth were a Nationally ranked track star who will be in the Junior Olympics next week in California, the Valedictorian of Mt. Vernon HS who received a full scholarship to Harvard in the fall, the CO-captains of the MVHS State Championship Basketball Team with a 3.7 GPA each. Also honored was Dominique Hart, Miss Free Teens USA 2007. The MC explained that Dominique is in the Free Teens program because it supported her in making good choices for her future like abstaining from sex until marriage. She explained some points about the Free Teens program and that she was going to Virginia State in the fall.
Denzel presented Dominique and the other outstanding Mt. Vernon youth with copies of his book.

Nearly 100 youth from NY, NY, Washington, DC, California and Florida attended the 2007 Free Teens Media Summit in March at the Fairview Lake YMCA camp to work with media professionals including filmmakers, photographers, musicians and visual artists to express the message of healthy relationships and media with a purpose! Photos and original music written and performed by students have been posted on the CultureMachine.com website. You can also visit 2007 Brazil Service Project.

2007 LoveSmart Film Festival

Ryan Verbel and Lilia Gaigg,
winners of the 2007 LoveSmart
Film Festival

2006 LoveSmart Film Festival - Winners

Teens at 2006 LSFF with Richard Panzer

Finalists

Abstinence Speaks
by Long Branch High School - Long Branch, NJ

Kate's Decision
by Matthew Avery - Crofton, MD

Waiting Room
by Matthew Avery - Crofton, MD

Nightmare
by Wise Women Gathering Place - Green Bay, WI

Free Teens Kickoff 06-07 School Year

The Free Teens Club Kickoff for the 06-07 school year took place at Snyder HS in Jersey City.
Joshua Murrell and Ashley Hamilton, Mr. and Miss Free Teens 2006

2005 Free Teens Annual Banquet - Video

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