The video shows our New Haven Volleyball Academy 18s team in action at a USA Volleyball New England Region tournament on Sunday, April 7, 2019. New Haven Volleyball Academy, the second oldest program of Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven, started in February of 1996 in the old and dark Fair Haven Middle School gym with 12 girls. The original purpose of the program was to feed girls to New Haven high school teams. Since then, New Haven Volleyball Academy students have represented 12 high schools and 8 colleges in the NCAA DI/DII/DIII and NJCAA levels. Since 2013, the program's home has been Christopher Columbus Family Academy in Fair Haven. In 2015, New Haven Volleyball Academy became a USA Volleyball Club. In 2016, our NHVA 15s team placed third in the USAV New England Region and became the first New Haven team to compete in the AAU Girls Volleyball National Championships in Orlando. Our students also compete in sand and grass doubles tournaments. New Haven Volleyball Academy students and their parents are supported in the college process, receiving guidance, assistance and advocacy via the following: Letters of recommendation; Review of college applications and essays; Meetings and emails on their behalf with college coaches, admissions and financial aid officers; Assistance with registration in the NCAA Eligibility Center; Evaluation of financial aid awards; and much, much more. In addition, New Haven Volleyball Academy students are provided with: Opportunities in the arts and other sports; Leadership roles as coaches, program assistants and other; Supports with school and well-being matters.

BIRTH: Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven, Inc. is a non-profit organization born in November of 1991 at 313 Exchange Street in New Haven's Fair Haven neighborhood, the apartment of Mildred Hernandez, a concerned mother of three boys.

MISSION: Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven is dedicated to the athletic, artistic, educational, social, cultural, leadership and health development of children and families.

VISION: Our VISION is to strengthen society by providing short and long-term development of children - within the context of a nurturing and supportive environment of instruction, family and community - so as to develop whole and well-rounded citizens who will: -- Serve as creative individuals, community resources, role models, leaders, advocates and teachers, -- Pursue a physically active and healthy lifestyle free of obesity, drug/alcohol/tobacco use and early pregnancy, -- Accept the challenge of completing high school productively - academically, athletically, artistically and socially - to the best of their ability, -- Be candidates for admission to and graduation from college/university after completion of high school, -- Possess a wide range of skills useful for the rest of their lives, -- Be supported into adulthood.

CAUSES: Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven works to ameliorate the under-representation of New Haven families in: junior athletic development and competition, high school sports, collegiate enrollment and graduation, intercollegiate athletics, arts instruction and experiences, creative expression, and cultural and social leadership through whole-person programming that is instruction-based, nurturing, family-oriented and community-strengthening.

PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY: Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven eliminates the social and economic impediments to accessing New Haven's rich resources (athletic facilities, parks, outdoor courts, fields, gyms, tracks, pools, trails, schools, libraries, universities, arts events/institutions, streets, sidewalks, rivers, ice rinks, etc.) -- by creatively injecting into them (or collaborating for) unique youth, family and community development programming. We have used over 100 sites in New Haven for programming and collaborated with over 100 program partners, integrating hundreds of families into the vast and rich resources of the great City of New Haven. Thus our Program Implementation Strategy: Pequeñas Ligas + New Haven = A Youth And Family Center Without Walls.

PROGRAMMING HISTORY

A. OVERALL

Since our founding in 1991, Pequeñas Ligas has made unique and trailblazing contributions to the City of New Haven's youth development landscape, serving children from 50 schools (40 of them New Haven public schools) and their parents, and utilizing over 100 venues for programming and instruction. Our overall accomplishments include:

-- Creating programs in 20 Sports (see SPORTS below).

-- Creating programs and initiatives to extend the reach of the Arts (see ARTS below).

-- Creating initiatives to augment the chances of New Haven students to apply to, attend and graduate from college.

-- Creating environments where youths have nurturing opportunities to grow as resourceful community leaders, teachers, coaches and role models.

-- Operating the radio station WONH-LP 103.5 FM (El Orgullo de New Haven) (Detailed in ARTS below.)

B. SPORTS

SPORTS SUCCESSES - Some of our Sports successes since 1991 include:

-- Creating short and long-term programs in these sports: tennis, volleyball, table tennis, basketball, track & field (sprints, middle distances, high jump, long jump, shotput, discus, javelin, minijav, multi-events), road racing, cross country, racewalking, soccer, speedskating, triathlon, duathlon (run/bike/run), squash, badminton, bowling, swimming, rowing, sailing (referral), golf, canoeing, softball, baseball, grass/beach tennis, world's greatest athlete competition (15 sports in 1 day), goodminton and other invented/hybrid sports.

-- Affiliating with these diverse athletic federations to carry out our sports programs: USA Track and Field, USA Table Tennis, US Tennis Association, USA Volleyball, AAU (for Girls Basketball/Volleyball/Beach Volleyball, Cross Country, and Baseball in collaboration with Liga Juvenil de Baseball de New Haven), VolleyAmerica, CT Speedskating, CT Racewalkers.

-- Pequeñas Ligas students have represented 12 high schools in a total of 10 sports. (Students in our Running/Track & Field program lead Wilbur Cross HS to Boys and Girls State Open Outdoor Track Titles from 2001 to 2003, capturing first places in individual and relay events.)

-- Our Running program, our oldest continuous program, celebrates its 27th anniversary the first Monday of May, 2019. Started in May of 1992, the program's initial goal was to train students to compete in the New Haven Road Race's Kids Race on Labor Day, September 7, 1992. Since then, our students have competed in 27 straight New Haven Road Races (KId's Race and 5K). Other accomplishments include: organizing the Blatchley Avenue Children's Races in 1993 and the Grand Avenue Children's Races in 1994, and our students competing in the USA Track and Field Junior Olympic Nationals in Omaha (1999), Buffalo (2001) and Sacramento (2001).

ATHLETIC FIRSTS IN NEW HAVEN - Pequeñas Ligas is responsible or contributed to these, according to our research, Athletic Firsts in New Haven:

-- The First nationally ranked junior players in USA Table Tennis (1998).

-- The First All Latino Girls AAU Basketball Team (2003).

-- The First NCAA Division I Sand Volleyball player (2013).

-- The First Baseball Showcase (2015) - In coordination with Liga Juvenil de Baseball de New Haven, Baseball coaches from UConn, SCSU, Mitchell, WCSU, Albertus Magnus, Bridgeport came to Clinton Avenue Park to evaluate prospective players from New Haven.

-- The First team to play in the AAU Girls Volleyball Nationals in Orlando (2016).

-- The First girl tennis player from the NHPS to qualify in the Boys Class L tournament and win her first-round match (2017) (Wilbur Cross HS does not have a girls tennis team.)

-- The First girls -- members of our New Haven Volleyball Academy -- to attend the Hugh McCutcheon Volleyball Camp at the University of Minnesota (2016 and 2017). (Hugh McCutcheon is the former USA National Women's and Men's Volleyball Coach.)

C. ARTS

ARTS ACCOMPLISHMENTS - As an arts organization since 1993, Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven accomplishments include:

-- Establishing programs in 15 art forms, including our Guitar and Songwriting Academy, the Pequeñas Ligas Publishing House, Dance, and many others.

-- Creating the MUSA (MUsicians/Songwriters/Artists) SERIES of concerts/workshops/open stages, including our Noche De Guitarras (Guitar Night).

-- Connecting families to New Haven Arts organizations and events, including the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, City-Wide Open Studios, Neighborhood Music School, Creative Arts Workshop, Long Wharf Theatre, Bregamos Community Theater, Celebrate Fair Haven Festival, and others.

ARTS RECOGNITION - In 2014, Pequeñas Ligas received the Greater New Haven Arts Council's Arts Award for extending the reach of the arts.

WONH-LP 103.5 FM (EL ORGULLO DE NEW HAVEN)

Since December 12, 2017, Pequeñas Ligas Hispanas de New Haven has operated WONH-LP 103.5 FM (El Orgullo de New Haven), a Low Power FM radio station. These are some of the goals of the station:

-- Expand the reach of creativity and the arts using the radiowaves.

-- Deepen the exposure to music/culture.

-- Provide topics of social well-being, information and education to the community.

-- Promote sports through coverage, coordination and sponsorship of youth and community athletic events.

-- "Break" the walls of the station to integrate the community.

-- Others.

The accomplishments of WONH-LP 103.5 FM (El Orgullo de New Haven) in 2018 and so far in 2019 include:

MUSICA

Our greatest programming accomplishment has been broadcasting an amazing volume of music in fulfillment of WONH's goal to "Deepen the exposure to music/culture." Since our launch, we have played over 25 genres of music by hundreds of artists from over 25 countries in North/Central/South America, the Caribbean, Spain/Europe, Africa. These genres include: jazz, salsa, rock, merengue, bomba, plena, rap, cumbia, reggae, afro-Brazilian, son/guajira/afro-Cuban, musica de navidad, musica tipica/jibara, bolero, danza, clasica, regueton, bachata, afro-Colombian, nueva cancion/trova, flamenco, tango, pop, blues, andina, bossa nova, norteña, ranchera, techno, dreampop dembow, trap, and others. We have played our music via these unique features: Complete Albums, Birthday Celebrations of Artists, Musicos de Nuestro Patio (Musicians from Our Backyard), Albumes Clasicos (Classic Albums), Guitarra Para Todos (Guitar For All), Instrumental Albums, Live Albums, Albums of Artists That Perform in New Haven and Soundtrack Albums.

CALENDARIO CULTURAL (Cultural Calendar)

Pursuant to WONH's "Deepen the exposure to music/culture" goal, and in the spirit of community unity, our Cultural Calendar announces concerts, cultural and community events.

LIVE BROADCASTS

-- Volleyball Games - Our first live broadcast on WONH-LP 103.5 FM occurred away from the confines of the radio station (one of our goals is to break the walls of the station). This is extremely rare in the world of radio -- being on the road for the first live show. On May 1, 2017 (during The Great Give), we transmitted a game between our 17s and 13s teams at the Columbus School gym and then interviewed players on a number of VB-related and non VB-related matters. The most moving were the grateful testimonies from our two HS players that came to New Haven due to Hurricane Maria. Additionally, the younger students gave honest and detailed statements about their areas of improvement during the course of their participation in New Haven Volleyball Academy. The game was narrated and the interviews were conducted by Peter Noble. We transmitted our second live Volleyball game -- between our 14s and 18s teams -- on Thursday, April 4, 2019, also from the Columbus School gym.

-- Interview and performance by Silverio Perez from PLHNH's office at 257 Grand Avenue (Saturday, April 6, 2019) - Peter Noble interviewed live, for over one hour, Puerto Rican Cultural Icon Silverio Perez, founder of the legendary Puerto Rican musical group Haciendo Punto En Otro Son, member of the satirical group Los Rayos Gamma, writer, motivator, TV and Radio host.

-- Interview and performance by Puerto Rican Flamenco Guitarist Valeriano Ramos following the Silverio Perez interview. Both Silverio and Val performed together the classic Pajaro Campana. (Saturday, April 6, 2019).

-- Transmission of Silverio Perez's Concert from Manjares (Saturday, April 6, 2019)

POETRY

Transmitting poetry is integral to the station's goal to "expand the reach of creativity and the arts using the radiowaves." We have accomplished the following since our launch:

-- On July 12, 2018, we celebrated the birthday of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda by playing an album of his poems read by well known musicians.

-- On September 20, 2018, Peter read poems by New Haven Decima (a 10-line poetry form brought to the Americas from Spain) writer Pedro Ramos during the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. (One of our listeners told us that she cried when she listened to the poems.)

-- New Haven poet Eliseo Ramos, a native of Fajardo, Puerto Rico, recorded four of his poems, which were transmitted as part of our commemoration of Puerto Rican National Poet Julia de Burgos' birthday on February 17, 2019. Also as part of the Julia de Burgos celebration, Peter Noble recorded and transmitted Desde Adentro, one of her poems, and we played the musicalized version of her poem Casi Alba by Puerto Rican composer and singer Zoraida Santiago, a member of the legendary Aires Bucaneros group.

-- On March 20, 2019, we commemorated the birthday of Puerto Rican poet Luis Pales Matos by presenting some of his poems that were musicalized by Puerto Rican composer/singer Roy Brown.

STATION IDs by PLHNH STUDENTS

Six students, ages 11 to 18, recorded station IDs. Four of those are in regular rotation since the the Summer of 2018. Station IDs by young people are very impactful to the listener.

D. DE CAMINO A LA UNIVERSIDAD

Pequeñas Ligas provides short and long-term college planning for students and their parents, including evaluation and selection of colleges, assistance with college applications, letters of recommendation, review of college essays, SAT preparation and other tutoring, evaluation of financial aid including New Haven Promise and other scholarships, in person and email contacts with college coaches, information on the associations (NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, LAI PR) and levels of collegiate play, collaborations with school guidance counselors/principals/teachers/coaches/supervisors, assistance with registration with the NCAA Eligibility Center, and more. Pequeñas Ligas students have attended 30 universities in 8 states and Puerto Rico. Our student-athletes have competed for universities and colleges in the NCAA (DI/II/III), NJCAA, NAIA, LAI/ODI (in PR), and have played on college club sports teams. Sports competed include: Cross Country, Volleyball, Swimming, Track and Field, Tennis, Sand Volleyball, Table Tennis, Softball, Baseball.

E. LEADERSHIP

Pequeñas Ligas students are given the opportunity to be coaches and teachers to younger students and to serve as program assistants. Our students are valued as indispensable members of and contributors to an extended family and community, and for their long-term growth, resiliency, consistency, talents and interests. Pequeñas Ligas students achieve a greater understanding of the world around them, and become more insightful and resourceful citizens while gaining consciousness of resources, assets, privileges, responsibilities, barriers, social entrepreneurship and philanthropy. These successes fill us with great pride: Three former students became USA Volleyball club coaches, and two of them became collegiate Volleyball coaches. Another former student, who started in our Running program at age 10 in 1994 (and is now a Pequeñas Ligas parent and Running program coach) became a Cross Country/Track & Field coach at her high school, 15 years after leading the school to the CT State Open Track and Field title.

For more information, please contact:

Peter A. Noble

Instructor/Coordinator/Director

(203) 787-3848

(203) 891-6636 (WONH-LP Studio)

pequenasligas.newhaven@yahoo.com