NEW YORK \u2014 Around 5 p.m., the corner bodega at Heberton Avenue and Ann Street comes alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peals of laughter spill out onto the sidewalk, mixing with the jingle of a passing soft-serve ice cream truck and shouts of kids playing in neighboring yards. A gaggle of middle school girls gathers outside, creased yellow report cards tucked into their backpacks, while younger kids dart between them, some parents trailing behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Staten Island\u2019s Port Richmond neighborhood, Zack\u2019s Finest Deli might just be the coolest spot in town. At the center of a group of boys and girls who have gathered \u200bis bodega manager Wail Alselwi, better known as \u201cWally\u201d to those on the block and as \u201cIsland Ock\u201d to the hundreds of thousands who follow him on TikTok and Instagram.<\/p>\n
On this particular Tuesday afternoon, he\u2019s calling out nicknames and giving high fives as a group of students from nearby William A. Morris Intermediate School 61 show him their report cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go!\u201d Alselwi says as he dabs \u2060one of the students up, praising the kid\u2019s grade on a recent math test.<\/p>\n
Over the past three years, thousands of students have come through the deli\u2019s doors for Alselwi\u2019s \u201cGrades for Grabs\u201d initiative, which incentivizes kids to earn good grades with free snacks and \u200cprizes. Those who score below 80% can grab $10 worth of items, and kids scoring above 90% earn their \u200bpick of snacks, a $100 bill and a T-shirt.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThese kids are our future,\u201d says Alselwi. \u201cWe\u2019re here to help them, we have to help guide them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Grades for Grabs\u2019 gives kids prizes for good grades<\/p>\n
It all started with a bet.In 2023, Alselwi made 12-year-old Zameir Davis a bet that if he brought in his report card with good grades, he could get whatever he wanted in the store.<\/p>\n
Zameir held up his end of the bargain. And as he kept improving his scores, Alselwi shared videos of their encounters on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you I\u2019d get \u2060honor roll!\u201d Zameir exclaims as he runs through the bodega doors in one video, which has since garnered more than 1.7 million \u200clikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo way! You did it! He did it! You\u2019re the man, Zameir!\u201d \u200cAlselwi replies. Moments later, the video pans to Zameir\u2019s reward: bags of Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos; a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich; and a cookies and cream milkshake topped with Oreos and Hershey pieces.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep going, ya heard! That\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about,\u201d Alselwi says as Zameir walks out.<\/p>\n
Things snowballed from there. \u2060People have traveled from Illinois, Oklahoma and even Canada to show Alselwi their grades. In November, during many of the local schools\u2019 marking periods, lines of 300 to 400 kids stretched outside the deli each day.<\/p>\n
For months, Alselwi funded the program out of pocket. His brother, Nash Alselwi, created a website with merchandise and started a GoFundMe as the \u200cprogram grew. It\u2019s since raised nearly $500,000 and remains active.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many kids were \u200ccoming, but he\u2019s like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to close that door,\u2019\u201d Nash Alselwi says of his brother. \u201cTo see his relationship with the kids and with the people, it\u2019s amazing to see, because you learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pushing kids toward progress<\/p>\n
The deli sees a revolving door of students come and go throughout the afternoon, and yet, Wail Alselwi seems to keep track of everyone, listing off fifth \u2060grader London Luster\u2019s regular order (a turkey sandwich and bacon, egg and cheese for her sister Lauryn), and remembering that another child\u2019s favorite soccer player is \u200bCristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n
And Alselwi is well known on the block, greeted constantly \u2060by passing neighbors \u200band kids on bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep going for the kids, man!\u201d a driver shouts from his car window as he rounds the corner. Another passerby high fives him as he walks by. \u201cYou\u2019re the man, Wally!\u201d he calls out.<\/p>\n
These days, the brothers see kids run straight to the deli after school to tell them about their test scores, even when it\u2019s not for a reward. For kids who play sports, the brothers have created custom Island Ock jerseys.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single test they have to go and show Wally,\u201d \u2060jokes London and Lauryn\u2019s mom, Tina Broadhurst. \u201cYou would think that he\u2019s their father.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the kids run to select their prizes, their faces light up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some make a beeline straight for the chip aisle. Others pick up essentials like eggs and bread for their parents. Alselwi makes sure the store is stocked with all the kids\u2019 favorites, which include Buldak spicy ramen and mega-viral Propitious Mango ice cream.<\/p>\n
For 8-year-old Theodore Lettein \u2060Jr., who is in third grade at nearby Lavelle Preparatory Charter School, that motivation was the extra boost he needed to improve his reading scores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to me, as a mother, to have another adult who believes in your child as strongly as you do, and who wants to see them do better,\u201d says his mom, Charletta Otto Gaye. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like [having] a village.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Alselwi, it\u2019s about giving kids confidence. He immigrated from Yemen, and his three daughters still live there.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen [the neighborhood kids] \u2060come, I see my own kids in them,\u201d Alselwi says.<\/p>\n
He adds that Grades \u200cfor Grabs is not about perfection. Students who improve from failing to passing get the same prize as those with top \u200bgrades.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot \u2018Oh, I\u2019m failing, I\u2019m just gonna \u200cbe a failure,\u2019\u201d Alselwi says. \u201cNo, you\u2019re failing now, what are you going to do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s seen kids go from a 55% to 98% average on tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter \u200bwhere you stand now, it\u2019s [about] what you\u2019re going to do about it,\u201d Alselwi says.<\/p>\n
This article has been updated to correct an earlier version that misspelled the name of Zack\u2019s Finest Deli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Around 5 p.m., the corner bodega at Heberton Avenue and Ann Street comes alive.\u00a0 Peals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-201381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}