[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 35 (Thursday, March 14, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E366]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO STEVEN HOLTER

                                 ______


                        HON. BARBARA B. KENNELLY

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 14, 1996

  Mrs. KENNELLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor an outstanding 
young man, Steven Holter of Hartford, CT. Steven has recently been 
honored with the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise 1996 
Achievement Against the Odds Award, and I am sure my colleagues will 
agree that his story is inspiring.
  Steven grew up in a public housing complex in Hartford. Moved by the 
need for companionship and belonging, several of the neighborhood 
children formed a recreation club. What began as innocent after-school 
fun, however, soon became gang activity. With Steven at the helm, The 
Magnificent Twenties became one of Hartford's largest gangs--and the 
violence escalated.
  Four years of brutality and bloodshed took their toll, and Steven 
finally tired of the ugliness. He stood before his followers one 
morning, and declared, ``We have to move in a different direction. 
Today, we will curb our behavior.''
  ``We turned from night to day, like a light switch,'' says Steven. 
The Magnificent Twenties undertook a host of community service 
activities, including visits to the elderly, providing food for needy 
families, and establishing drug- and alcohol-free discos for teens.
  After 2 years of organized community service, the gang dispersed--but 
Steven went on, his spirit of philanthropy undimmed. Today, he 
continues to act as a mentor for teenagers throughout the city of 
Hartford. Meeting with kids in prison, making presentations in inner-
city schools, or chatting with his successors on the street, Steven's 
message remains the same. ``You can make a difference in this chaotic 
world,'' he tells them. ``It won't be easy. You need to want to help 
yourself. No one can do this for you. Life is all about choices.'' He 
urges young men and women to make the choice for a more meaningful 
life, a life of service rather than of destruction.
  In addition to his youth mentorship activities, Steven is also the 
copresident of a construction firm, Relph & Holter Home Builders, Inc. 
He offers young people the opportunity to train with his company to 
develop valuable job skills for their future.
  Steven reminds neighborhood youth of their unique capacity to 
contribute to the community. And he gets through--after all, as Steven 
often says, ``Can't nobody tell it the way I can tell it.''
  I join all my neighbors in Hartford in agreeing that nobody can. 
Steven is a unique and irreplaceable part of our community, and we all 
join in congratulating him on this well-deserved award.

                          ____________________