Youth of the Month for October

“Psst … I’m going to be a brown dinosaur for Halloween!” announced Jairo Damian, and sure enough he was.

Jairo’s love for learning about dinosaurs was quite apparent when he showed up this Halloween in a full, brown dinosaur suit at the Downtown River Clubhouse, a branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties.

Jairo is the Downtown River Clubhouse’s October Youth of the Month in education and career development. He was chosen to represent this core area because of his dedication to schoolwork and his constant desire to learn more.

“Learning is important so your brain can get bigger, so there’s room to know about more stuff when you get older,” says Jairo, 7, a second-grader at McKinley Elementary School.

From Monday through Thursday, Jairo comes into the clubhouse and immediately sits down to do his homework. Because of this dedication, he has been able to choose a prize five times at school for completing all of his assignments throughout the week, says Brittany Burns, interim program director at the branch.

His favorite subjects in school are math and reading.

“It is important to read so that you can learn about animals, how things are made and why we celebrate holidays,” says Jairo.

But, his favorite thing to talk and learn about is dinosaurs. He and program coordinator Vanessa Bautista share this love, and can often be found talking about dinosaurs’ “teeth, claws and cool things on their backs.”

In addition to being such a dedicated student, Jairo is also a great helper around the club. Even at 7 years old, he is a positive influence on the other club members and is developing into a good leader, Burns says.

“It is always a pleasure to have Jairo at the club. He always has a smile on his face when he walks in, and carries that great attitude throughout the day,” Burns says.