HOPE Week honors Tuesday’s Children

Mariano Rivera, Curtis Granderson, Phil Hughes, Cory Wade and Steve Garrison along with former Yankees manager Joe Torre honored Tuesday’s Children by surprising them Tuesday at the Beekman Beach Club at the South Street Seaport for lunch, games and a ride on the Delta Baseball Water Taxi.

The boat ride took them past the Statue of Liberty and on to Yankee Stadium where the recipients were the team’s special guests for the game against the Mariners. The event was a continuation of HOPE Week.

Tuesday’s Children was founded in the year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 to promote healing and recovery. The organization established a unique mentoring program. Serving greater New York’s tri-state region, its mentorship program supports relationships between affected children and adult role models who themselves have lost family through tragic circumstances. More than 175 children have participated in the program, including 50 who are currently part of active mentoring relationships.

The relationships support the emotional and social growth as mentors share coping skills and act as a shoulder to lean on. The pairs meet at least twice a month. The get-togethers are informal, involving anything from going to the movies, playing at a park or just hanging out in the house.

During Tuesday’s beach party, Keith Pryde of Middletown, N.Y., was honored as Tuesday’s Children’s “Mentor of the Year.” He was matched with Robert 10, in February 2008. One year earlier, Keith lost his sister in the April 2007 Virginia Tech campus shootings. His mentee, Robert, was born a month before his father, a foreign exchange broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, was killed Sept. 11. Keith and his fiancée, Rebecca, are engaged to be married in September 2012, with Robert set to serve as their ring bearer.