Testimonial by Rasheeda Robinson
from a speech given at Trinity Church Princeton

I would like to begin by saying good morning to my Trinity Church Family.  TASP, which stands for the Trenton After School Program, has been much more than a program that I attended after school.  It is a Terrific Agency that Supports Progress.  I have had the privilege of being a part of the program since its inception in 1986.

I was one of the first twenty students that attended the program that was set up for the purpose of providing a safe haven for latch key students.  Only I wasn’t a latch key student.  In some ways I’d like to think that I was predestined to be a part of the program.  I’d like to think that God ordained its opening at a time where I initially began school for the sole purpose of my success.  Over the years I have come to see that each year 75 students are blessed by this program and are headed for success, which is nothing short of God’s glory.

I was the first “student worker” at the program.  I took this position at age 11 and held it throughout my completion of college.  I thank God that age 11 someone saw so much potential in me to hold on to me through the most trying times of any child’s life, the teenage years.  I remember walking home from middle school and friends asking me what I was doing after school and telling them, “I have to get to work”.  I remember the awe in their eyes and their longing for a place to retreat from the harsh reality of the streets.  While they were off to sit on their steps and watch cars passing, I was part of God’s plan to touch the lives of other students in the way that the program touched my life.  From then on I realized my life had purpose and took pride in that.

Throughout the High School Years, I needed the after school program more than ever, while facing peer pressure, gangs, and watching my friends drop out from high school and essentially ruin their lives.  I had a place where I could seek more than just shelter from the hard times.  I could seek refuge and guidance from those who truly loved me and had my best interests in mind.  Some don’t know how invaluable these assets are when you’re constantly bombarded with friends who seek to bring you down and need so much for you to fail because they can’t get ahead in life.  This is something that money can’t buy and which literally saved my life.

I’m speaking of times where family did not believe in me and I felt like all I had was myself, but God sent an angel to save me via Trenton After School Program and showed me that I can do anything I put my mind to, and that this program would support me in any way possible. And if their were resources that the program could not provide, they would avidly make sure that there were no stones left unturned until it was obtained.  That support was enough to allow me to pick myself up and work to get things for myself.

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The Rev. Dr. David Davis
Nassau Presbyterian Church

The Rev. Anne Marie Richards
Trinity Episcopal Church

Jane Holmquist
Co-Chair

Anne Russell
Co-Chair

Jock McFarlane
Treasurer

Dana Klinges
Recording Secretary