Florence Crittenton - Whitney Young News — January 2012

Juan Pazmino: Life Is a Dance

“The kids are full of questions the moment they arrive,” says an enthusiastic Juan Pazmino in the bright airy dance studio at the Bayview site . “I love their curiosity!”

The simple joy of training young minds has sustained Juan ever since he started teaching dance to Bayview children some 23 years ago. As FCS-WYCDC’s Outreach and Enrichment Services Coordinator, Juan works with children ranging in age from 4- to 11-years old. He oversees the Young at Heart Program, where children perform at senior centers and hospitals in an interactive format that encourages seniors to reconnect with their inner child. Juan also facilitates access to other forms of art education and artists in the wider Bay Area community. Working with organizations such as the San Francisco Ballet, Juan brings in musicians and dancers to perform for the children; and these performers also interact with the kids to teach them about their art. The approach yields dividends for Bayview's children. Juan’s connection to the SF Ballet, for example, has resulted in 3 ballet scholarships for Bayview students.

Juan, 57, was born in Quito, Ecuador, in 1954. His family then moved to Venezuela for a few years before eventually moving to Andover Mass in 1968. Juan became interested in the arts, and especially dance, at a very early age.

“My father was a musician,” he explains. “He was a singer who played guitar and drums. So I grew up in an artistic environment. Although I was a shy child, my father insisted that I sing, so from a very early age I had a passion for performing. My father would take me on stage with him, and I became accustomed to the limelight. My shyness would disappear when I performed. When we moved to Venezuela I started taking ballet classes. There was a rich artistic culture there. We had great schools and access to some of the best teachers. That’s when I fell in love with ballet and realized it’s what I wanted to do with my life.”

After moving to the United States, Juan continued his education at the Boston Academy of Dance. After graduating high school, he started dancing professionally for independent dance companies.

“I traveled a lot,” he says. “I lived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and in Texas and Virginia. Always attached to a local dance company.”

His varied travels also brought him to San Francisco in 1982 during a west coast tour. “When I first came to San Francisco I instantly fell under its spell,” he says. “And I decided this is where I wanted to settle. I also realized I had to make some changes. I couldn’t dance professionally forever. I needed a backup plan. So I decided to go back to school. I enrolled in City College and studied psychology. I had no idea that I would eventually work with kids, but there I was studying developmental psychology.”

When he was first asked to teach dance to children at the Bayview site, Juan was hesitant. He wasn’t sure he would enjoy teaching children. But after giving it try for a while, Juan was hooked. “Once I started working with the children I fell in love with their innocent curiosity. They are inspired by so many different things. I felt embraced by them. I was also winding down my dancing career and I felt like I wanted to continue working with the children. It felt like I was doing something really positive in this community.”

“I am always amazed at the abundance of pure love these children show,” Juan sums up. “Children remind you every day to let go of the walls you put up around yourself. And it’s a great job for me because I get to teach what I love.”

What's in a Name? Re-Branding FCS-WYCDC

One of the challenges as well as opportunities for FCS-WYCDC as it completes its integration is to create a new name and visual image that will be easy to remember and easily recognizable by our partners and the communities we serve. The task of creating a new name clearly evocative of our mission of serving children and empowering families is not a job for amateur wordsmiths. Which is why we are very fortunate to have retained the pro-bono services of Gauger & Associates, a San Francisco advertising agency located on Union Square.

Changing an organization’s name and visual look is a process called branding, or re-branding. For FCS-WYCDC, the process has several distinct stages, as follows:

• Information gathering
• Focus group to identify key themes
• Naming process
• Logo design

In October Gauger & Associates collected information on the history and accomplishments of both Florence Crittenton and Whitney Young. In November a focus group attended by key staff and stakeholders identified the major themes of serving the needs of young children and empowering families to become self-sufficient. We are now entering the all-important naming process, and we will keep you updated as the process moves forward and our new name is chosen.

Holiday Generosity Warms the Heart

Each holiday season Bay Area companies and organizations generously donate toys, clothing and books to the children we serve – children whose parents often can’t afford to buy holiday gifts at all. So we wish to acknowledge the kindness and generosity of our wonderful 2011 holiday partners. Thanks for providing gifts for the children we serve! We also wish to thank the bands of enthusiastic volunteers who spent many hours wrapping and adorning the donated gifts at our Broderick Street offices – we could not have put those loving finishing touches onto the gifts without your help!