By Amanda Onion, Staff Reporter
A broken slab of wood lies among nine trophies, a plaque and a Kewpie doll on 13-year-old Gina Pechaco's bedroom shelf.
"I keep meaning to throw it out," she said. "But I just can't."
It was easier for Gina to break the board -- with her bare hand.
She was one of only three girls at a summer sports program to build up the nerve, blow on her hand, scream "Kyai!" and break an inch-thick board.
Pechaco, who carries her 5-foot-2-inch athletic build with a confident, erect posture, does much more than break boards in her Highbridge neighborhood. This is a teen who doesn't let any local program pass her by without her mark.
She volunteers every Sunday at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church and has earned awards for swimming, basketball and karate at the National Youth Sports Program at Bronx Community College.
And last November, Pechaco got her biggest award yet when she won a nationwide contest to design the T-shirt for the National Youth Sports Program. This summer, more than 65,000 children in 169 programs across the country will be wearing her design.
Gina's design features five children holding hands in a jagged line. Although there are no faces on the children, Pechaco made sure to outline some hairdos.
"She's got dreads," Pechaco said, pointing out the figures on the T-shirt. "He's a baldy, she's got a bob, this guy's got a flat-top and she has two pigtails."
The design won Pechaco a weekend at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., last January. Flying south was an adventure for her because she rarely steps more than four blocks from home, where she lives with her mother and 5-year-old brother, Travis.
Four blocks from her apartment is Mosaic Middle School, where Pechaco plays guard on a Police Athletic League basketball team. Two blocks away is the church where she directs volunteer ushers every Sunday. One block away is Sacred Heart School, where she has studied since she was 6. And one alley-width away is the bedroom window of her best friend and godsister, Elsie Cabero.
"We shout at each other through the window," Pechaco said. "It saves the phone bill."
After graduating from Sacred Heart Middle School this May, Pechaco plans to begin commuting to St. Michael's Academy on West 33rd Street in Manhattan.
Pechaco's mother, Tracy Ramos, thinks the school, with its study-intensive atmosphere, is the best choice to help Pechaco start preparing for her dream of becoming a photojournalist, while still keeping other options open.
"Its hard to know because she's always switching ideas about what she'd like to be," Ramos said. "But she seems pretty set on the picture thing."
Pechaco dabbled in film animation and video production last winter after winning a scholarship for two classes at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. She said the classes only reaffirmed her desire to report with a camera.
Meanwhile, it will probably be a long time before Pechaco gets to break any more boards. She turns 14 this May and hopes to find a summer job with a community youth service program at the Mosaic center.
But Pechaco says she would rather start earning some money. And besides, she's already broken three boards (two were for practice) -- just for the record.