To hear Louise Mathies tell it, she and her four friends are the most feared sight darkening a principal's door.
Others would say revered.
Like a single-wing formation, the five Hunts Point mothers swoop down daily into schools and community centers. Concerned about the cutbacks looming in education and after- school programs, they lobby, pester and cajole parents, teachers and program directors to do a better job educating and enriching children. Or else.
"Every morning, we get together and say, `Who are we going to aggravate today?'" Mathies said, as the group broke into a belly laugh.
These longtime residents -- Marie Davis, 43, Dolores Wilson, 56, Brenda Peartree, 33 and Lillie Jackson, 33 -- first banded together last year to fight the annexing of a portion of District 8 into District 7. The plan was voted down.
Now they are tackling other issues. Last January, the mothers started a homework helpers program in Public School 48. Twice a week, they give math and reading help to 49 third- and fourth-graders after school.
"This is the first time we have had parents who volunteered and have consistently done it in my 28 years at this school," said Lora Lucks, principal of P.S. 48.
In April, they started a similar program at Intermediate School 74 and 20 children signed up.
"Every little bit helps," Davis said. P.S. 48 ranks 457th in reading of 633 elementary schools in the city. I.S. 74 ranks 182nd of the city's 186 middle schools.
Most days, the "wrecking crew," as the mothers call themselves, stands in front of the majestic Gothic entrance to P.S. 48 and passes out fliers, buttonholing parents to volunteer. They think parents should be more active in the schools and hold educators more accountable.
So far, there have been no takers. "They won't understand until next year when the cuts come," Mathies said.
But budget cuts have already whittled away after-school programs in the community. The city slashed a youth program by $37,000 at Casita Maria, a settlement house on Simpson Street, for example.
At St. Margaret's Episcopal Church on East 156th Street, days and hours were reduced for evening and weekend recreation after the city Department of Youth Services cut its funding.
"All of our programs are at peak capacity," said Kevin Daniels, youth coordinator for Community Board 2. "We're going to see more kids on the streets with less to do-- and that's dangerous."
With the hot weather right around the corner, many summer programs are also facing an uncertain future. Federal support for the Summer Youth Jobs Program, in which 1,200 Hunts Point children participated last year, is pending a decision from Congress.
The decision is expected no sooner than mid-May, estimates Sheila Green, a spokeswoman for the City Department of Youth Employment. Casita Maria is still waiting to hear whether the city will fund its summer day camp for 145 children.
All this makes the work of the "wrecking crew" all the more crucial. Next on their agenda: the Seneca Center in Hunts Point, a neighborhood youth recreation center. They plan to wheedle and pester stores on Southern Boulevard to donate games, and to bug and beg the center until an instructor is hired to supervise the younger children.
Meanwhile, they are having T-shirts made up. Their logo will be -- what else? -- a bulldozer.