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Teens’ TV Spot Gangs Up On The Gangs

“Thinking smart is not thinking gang colors.”

That’s the simple message of a new cable TV public service announcement made by a group of Bronx teens.

The effort is part of the Key to Success program, an anti-gang youth group founded by local activist Ronald Savage.

Growing up in Castle Hill, Savage recalled seeing gangs terrorizing neighbors and knew there had to be a better way to live.

“I felt that being in a gang was not going to do anything for you,” said Savage, who also heads the United Coalition Association, which administers the program. “Now, I speak out and tell young kids not to get involved with gangs. I try to steer them toward getting a high school diploma.”

Savage started the Key to Success program to do just that. About 15 teens attend group sessions every Saturday at Intermediate School 131 in Castle Hill.

The teens work on leadership skills and talk about their families, school and life issues. All the while, mentors encourage them to stay in school.

The group also takes field trips to local attractions, and guest speakers such as local entrepreneurs and politicians are brought in to inspire the students.

“I want these kids to see that these people are just like them, that they too can achieve their dreams,” Savage said.

Last April, the Key to Success program started doing public service announcements with grant money from the City Council’s Anti-Gang Violence Youth Initiative.

“I feel we can reach a bigger population by having the PSAs on TV,” Savage said. “And hopefully, when the youths see it enough, the message will start to sink in.”

The announcements, which run on VH1, MTV2, E! and News 12, seem to be reaching their intended targets. Savage said neighborhood teens often stop him on the street to talk about them.

The program’s next project is to blanket school libraries across the Bronx with newly designed posters reading, “The Key to Success is Knowing the Importance of Staying in School.”

That message already hits home for 13-year-old Donnette Walker, who wants to be a lawyer.

“I like that they tell us to stay in school, and to be a leader, not a follower,” she said.

For Catisa Alvarado, 13, just having something to do on Saturdays is a plus.

“We’ve been bowling, to the Natural History Museum, the movies, everywhere,” she said. “It’s fun. Instead of doing nothing, I can go there and learn stuff.”

The program has been a godsend for her mom, Isabel Vargas.

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Chris Moy

Members of Menudo (l. to r.): Emmanuel Velez Pagan, Chris Moy, Jose Monti Montanez, Jose Bordonada Collazo, and Carlos Olivero.

Bronx-born teen tapped as new member of Puerto Rico’s Menudo

Iconic Puerto Rican boy band Menudo has been reborn, and when the new members wave tomorrow from the Daily News Big Apple float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, among them will be hometown teenager Christopher Moy.

Bronx-born Moy, 15, won a spot in the group after weeks of ego-battering competition on the MTV reality show “Making Menudo,” which aired its finale yesterday.

On the show, boys from ages 13 to 19 were put through their paces by seasoned music manager Johnny Wright and unforgiving vocal coach David Coury.

Moy, an early favorite, looked to be in the lead until he temporarily lost his spot in the group due to some shaky performances. It was something that even taskmaster Coury didn’t want to see.

“It killed me to support him being yanked out of the spotlight,” Coury tells us, “but I felt it would make him work harder.”

Apparently it did. In the finale, Moy joined Jos (Monti) Montanez, 18, of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Carlos Olivero, 18, of Chicago, Jose Bordonada Collazo, 15, of Manati, Puerto Rico, and the show’s surprise late entrant Emmanuel Valez Pagan, 16 of Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, as a member of the new Menudo.

“My mom was in Disney World when I called her,” Moy says. “We actually set up a vacation before I even entered the competition, so she was there with my brothers and I was over here working. She told me she was in the food court and she just started screaming like crazy.”

Now, Moy can count on continued hard work with Coury and the group that he calls his “new brothers.” In the months since the show finished taping, Menudo has been training and practicing choreography. The group also recorded an album.

“Recording is probably my favorite,” says Moy. “It has always been my dream since I was little to be on a track.”

Plus there’s always the other perks of fame: Moy is one 15-year-old who will grow up with more female fans than he would have had within the confines of his Dutchess County high school.

SOURCE: NY Daily News

“All of us from the show get fan mail from people who watch,” says Moy. “Somebody asked me to marry them. It was crazy! I don’t know how old she was, but over 18.”

Coury trusts that Moy’s talent will carry him through the hazards of fame.

“There was something I saw in him early, early on,” says Coury. “The talent was there and it needed to be smoked out.”

But that’s not the only thing that had him rooting for Moy. “I’m from Long Island,” says Coury, “and we couldn’t have planned it this way?but it’s really nice to have a New York boy in the group.”

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