News

Click to return to our News Page

EVENT RECAP

In honor of the C.I.T.Y. x1 Youth Group's two-year anniversary, "We've Got Balls" was held on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at Plummer Park from 5:00pm to 9:00pm in the City of West Hollywood. The free four-hour event was created for LGBTQ youth (ages 14-24) and their allies and was an alcohol & tobacco-free event.

RECREATIONAL GAMES
Things kicked off at 5:00pm in Plummer Park's basketball court with a game titled, "T-E-X-A-S Sized Balls". The objective of the game was to make 5 baskets in a row until the word "TEXAS" was spelled out. Several youth from the West Hollywood Teen Center participated and enjoyed the prizes that were given out (backpacks, calculators, and other back-to-school supplies).

At 6:00pm, all youth in attendance took part in four rounds of a dodgeball game titled, "Blue Balls". This consisted of a traditional game of dodgeball with additional prizes being given out (sports mugs, a CD player, and a set of headphones).

Things were very entertaining for both games, as Momma participated as the MC. Momma cracked a few jokes here and there and there was never a dull moment.

 

ABBE LAND HONORED AT EVENT
As the evening moved along, "We've Got Balls" moved indoors to Plummer Park's Room 6. A room decorated with photos from C.I.T.Y. x1's two years were on display as well as the all-new C.I.T.Y. x1 Banner. As guests arrived, things got underway when Momma welcomed everyone to the event. Momma also took a moment to talk about the importance of youth empowerment in the community and the accomplishments of C.I.T.Y. x1 over the last two years. Momma then introduced C.I.T.Y. x1 members, Louie C. & Brigitte T., who made a special award presentation to West Hollywood City Councilmember Abbe Land. Abbe was the recipient of the "2007 Torch Award", an award presented by C.I.T.Y. x1 to a member of the community who has been active and supportive of youth services in the community over the last 12 months.
Louie spoke about Abbe's involvement and commitment to the youth of the community and Brigitte made the actual presentation. As Abbe made her way to the podium to accept the award, the audience cheerfully reacted with a standing ovation. In her acceptance speech, Abbe Land congratulated C.I.T.Y. x1 on its two-year celebration and talked about having youth involved in the community.

 

A COMMUNITY PRESENT AT SOCIAL MIXER
A Social Mixer followed the Torch Award presentation with all sorts of community members and organizations present. Some of these included the Delta Lambda Phi National Social Fraternity Alpha Omicron Chapter, San Gabriel Valley Pride, MCCLA's TRIBE Youth Group, Friends of Project 10 Inc., Bienestar, The WeHo Teen Center, and Channel 36 West Hollywood Public Access.

All of these organizations provided resources and information for the youth present. Bienestar even brought over their mobile testing unit and provided free rapid HIV & STD testing.

Eventually the pizza arrived and everyone was quick to munch on. For desert, a special birthday cake was donated by Friends of Project 10 Inc. Decorated with a rainbow and holding 2 candles, C.I.T.Y. x1 members Louie and Eric S. did the honors by blowing out the cake's candles.

 

LIVE YOUTH PERFORMANCES
For the final hour of the event, two live youth performances were presented. First up was Tajddin, a 21-year old performer who came all the way down from San Francisco just for this event. Tajddin, whose music is mixture of pop, dance, urban and world music, performed four songs and received a loud applause from his peers. In between performances, Tajddin talked about how he wrote, produced, and composed his own music and invited everyone to visit him online at Tajddin.com or at MySpace.com/tajddin

Next up was Electrik Armie, a very entertaining duo who were introduced by Club Rage's "Fairy". Electrik Armie's performances have an electro dance feel to the music and it showed, as they too performed four songs. The group also encouraged people to visit them online at MySpace.com/electrikarmie

 

MOVING FORWARD
In between performances, Louie and Carlos S. made the official announcement for C.I.T.Y. x1's next event, the "2007 ThanXgiving Youth Social", which will be held on November 17th. Additionally, Carlos took a moment to thank everyone who had supported C.I.T.Y. x1 over the past two years and encouraged everyone to visit CITYx1.com for the latest news on the group.

As the event ended, volunteers helped with the clean up and all were/are looking forward to the next C.I.T.Y. x1 event.