Quadrae
Mims (Grade 12) has won Steve Levy's / Rabbi Moss 2006
Anti-Bias Task Force Award
QUADRAE
MIMS
President of RHS Council For Unity
Plans: Attend Suffolk County Community College
Major: Undecided
RHS
senior Quadrae Mims has won the 2006 Suffolk County
Anti-Bias Award for leadership in promoting racial and
ethnic harmony, presented by the Suffolk County Inter-Faith
Anti-Bias Task Force. At a time when bias and violence
seem more prevalent than ever on Long Island, it seems
appropriate to celebrate the “peacekeepers.”
Quadrae Mims is one of those peacekeepers, and Suffolk
County Supervisor Steve Levy is recognizing him for
his leadership and participation in Riverhead High School’s
Council for Unity.
History of the Council for Unity
The first Council for Unity was started 30 years ago
at John Dewey High School in NYC by Bob deSena, who
was an English teacher at John Dewey High School, as
a response to gang-related violence. Its principals
are based on the acronym F.U.S.E. (family, unity, self-esteem
and empowerment). RHS was the first suburban high school
to start a Council. Quadrae has been a member of the
Council for Unity Club at Riverhead High School for
three years and its president for two years.
At its inception the Council for Unity at RHS was an
effort to create a “positive gang” among
students. Being a member of that family meant taking
a stand against violence and for respect.
Members of the Council for Unity work together through
a positive presence and through student mediation to
keep the high school a peaceful learning environment
for all of the school’s students, to erase lines
of division among its student body, to promote tolerance
and to strive for unity.
In its third year, the Council for Unity,
which began by meeting as an after school club at RHS,
also offers a
History/English elective, which follows the national
curriculum written for the Council. It currently has
approximately 30 members that study lessons on five
themes: 1) family and self-esteem: 2) empowerment; 3)
unity; 4) legacy and articulation, and 5) evaluation.
Quadre's
Leadership
Mims has a ready smile that reveals a loving, caring
young man whose whole personality resonates his willingness
to reach out in friendship to anyone who might need
it--regardless of their ethnicity, race, religious orientation
or age. During a holiday trip by the Council for Unity
to a nursing home, Quadrae greeted every resident in
the audience with a handshake and an embrace pausing
by each one to wish them a good holiday. That’s
Mims.
His leadership has helped promote the Council’s
formation in both the Pulaski Street School and the
Middle School as well as in the police department, the
Riverhead jail, and a branch for concerned community
members and parents.
“This thing is like a runaway freight car,”
said deSena, who has met often with the Council at Riverhead
High School. “Right now in our entire network,
there is no community that is using this model to greater
effect than Riverhead. It’s become a learning
laboratory for all new programs going forward, as to
how you can bring about the kind of desired social changes
you want to see.”
Under the student leadership of the Council and its
President, Quadrae Mims, the Council’s adult leaders,
advisors, and the District’s K-12 Violence Prevention
Director, Theresa Drozd, RHS’ Council has become
the recipient of several grants and a model for other
Suffolk County Communities such as Brentwood, William
Floyd and Central Islip.
