introduction was borrowed from this young man when he created a video in a competition to become a participant in a tournament with a professional and he went on and he represented our chapter of first tea with honor. in that speech in the video he talked about what was important to him. and what impressed me the most was the fact that he used integrity to say those are the things that he holds dear to his heart. i'm sorry the gentleman that spoke first left. we have two kids over there who came in with me. we are in it together. we understand what's at stake here in terms of growing the program the way it should be grown. the first tea is really expanding. we have many kids

involved with the program this summer. we really need the space. our mission has to do with providing a safe environment for kids, having them make healthy choices, important choices, character development is at the forefront of that. when you talk about community outreach at its best, it's first tea san francisco. we started out in southeast corner of our city the bay vie point, the online registration encompasses es and these kids knee a place to play. we don't want golden gate park to upset the balance that's been created there. we feel like there's enough room for everybody.

when we talk about offering an opportunity for individuals to play golf, the public deserve a good venue for that. we wouldn't hender. picture the little ones that are well trained with the older ones who appear to operate out of that community working together to create the game of golf and to make it better. thank you. >> thank you. >> karen -- kevin and then rahon, then tony and lauren. >> hi. >> he's going to speak with this video. >> terrick is going to speak with the video. >> when rahon comes up, we can play a video.

>> come on up. >> i'm 16 years old and i grew up with the first tea and we actually placed this program -- we started the program with four people. it was me, jona, davon and malick and we grew up from the projects and there was gunshots. it started as a tea program and they asked us to play golf. we were, like, golf. we didn't play golf. they took us to harden park. we didn't know what it was. it was this facility and it had lines and you can see where people stationed a hit and we said we like this. and one day we started hitting golf and they said do you want to do this every saturday. and we said "can we." they said we're going to pick you up and do that. and we said who else wanted to join. we started

calling up our buddies and they sad, brother, we don't play golf. and now we're sitting at the table and going, remember when you didn't play golf. and now all of us play golf and they gave us food from this place. they gave us great turkey burgers and pick us saturday and we have a bunch of kids and it's hard to see us crammed in this space because we want to hit. we have to pick out of a hat who is going to play. it would be nice to have another place because when you look at jay mar he's our smallest guy. there's so many kid and you go, there's jay mar because there's a hole when you see everybody. it would be great to have a budget space. when we come together, i love it because with he have a family and we all do our

homework and they teach us life skills. even if you don't think you learned a life skill, you do. mines was honesty. when i was growing i didn't think about it until i thought about it, be truthful and kevin chriskey over there, he would get mad when he didn't do something right and we said, you got to get through it and make sure everything is all right. and we got you you because we're a family now. those are the new faces and everything. is that my time. >> you have 30 more seconds. >> i'm sorry. and that's just -- it's fun because we've built a family and life skills. he can speak for everyone when i say we all love the first tea especially in san francisco since we all made it our own home space when we don't have anywhere to go. >> thank you.

>> kevin. >> good morning, my name is kevin and i'm also 16 and i started at the age -- it taught me life skills like my friend self. perseverance was my main goal because golf is nowhere near my favorite sport. years and years of practice. and great coaches, great kids, great environment to be around. i just love every minute of it. every part it. and since i've been in the first tea, i've got been to pebble beach and i have an internship at harden park and i work with great coworkers. everything at the golf course is amazing. i love learning the insides and outsides of golf and the

program is great. i feel like if i didn't have the first tea i don't know where i would be honestly. the first tea -- they took me when i was young, i was 8 in the 4th grade. i didn't know anything else except from where i was from. mr. wesley would take all of us -- he would take us in his escalade and it showed his dedication. and we loved the game and i want us to have more spaces for kids so they can our experience that we had when we were younger. i feel like if the kids could have what we have, they can be better or just as good as us as people. they teach us life skills in a way that makes it fun and we learn a lesson every time we learn it. i feel like if we learn, if we have more space to learn, it makes everything better. it's like a psych many. it started with me and

then now it's going with them and it's going to keep happening if we have more space at golden gate park. that's all i really have to say. thank you. >> thank you. >> power point, please. >> do you know he's one of the best in the world. hopefully i can be like that some day. let me tell you about myself. >> i've been in the first tea for seven years and i've learned a lot of things. let me tell you something

[inaudible]. ki helped me maintain the responsibility every single day. [inaudible]. >> golf has taught me a lot of things. most important of all, i think i learned what it means to live with integrity. and golf, i'm my own why. i'll bill fisher just like in life it's up to me to make good decisions and i want to make those good decisions even when no one is watching. that's

integrity. that's character. >> hi, there. the first kid to help me >> thank you for your time. >> good morning. my name is ron griffin and i'm 14 years old and i've been a member of the san francisco for seven years now. i started out in

the in school program offered at my school during pe and learns to play golf both at glen eagles and at harden park. i spent all summer with the first tea program. i gave my life a sense of direction and balance. i'm confident because of golf. golf has shown me if you work hard and set your mind to something you can achieve your goals. the most important lesson i've learned through the first tea is to live my life with integrity. i knew that -- i know that doing the right thing and making the right choices lead to a healthy conscious. i'm confident in the good choices i make and one of those choices will join the first tea program. golf has changed my life. i recently

won a contest and how golf applies to my life. i traveled to north carolina and played in a professional golf tournament with a professional player called micky. i received a [inaudible] from college. it was the best experience of my life and now you can see from my tea shot in the video he loved every minute of it. the first tea program in golf has been a huge part of my life. it's my passion and has given me many opportunities to succeed. having programming at golden gate golf course can give students like me to discover their dreams and create more opportunities for young people like me. thank you for all your time and consideration. >> thank you. >> we have tony anderson and

lauren shoe and judith and melissa wong. >> good morning commissioners. my name is tony anderson and like jim, i'm a former administrator from the san francisco unified school district. i was the principal at balboa high school and a superintendent for several years in the central office. i've saw hundreds of programs come across my office in terms of programs that were design to serve youth. and i can attest cold hardly that the first tea is the best programs that we have in san francisco. and i think it's important to understand that this issue in terms of the golden gate park lease should not be a we verses

them for youth verses older golfers. we can look at this in terms of how we can grow this program in san francisco and form a stronger community of golfers. i want to share with you a letter that would attest one of the segments of our programs that we don't have here this morning are the teachers in the program. i'm going to share with you a letter that i received from one of our teachers. the purpose of this letter is to share with you my personal experience in having my sunts participate in the first tea program. i've had my first grade class participate. when i first started with the first tea i thought the students would learn to play golf. i thought that was a great idea. most inter city students don't usually have the opportunity to learn about a sport such as this and so close to campus. they learned how to stand

correctly, grip their club, even to be sure that their uniform was golf course appropriate. as the semester continued, i saw change in the students. some students who weren't your traditional athletes excelled in this new sport. levels of self confidence increased