by Loyda Goldston
Eldar Ganiev is the Youth Coordinator of Youth Partnership of Bergen County, NJ. He has been involved with Youth Partnership since 2006, first volunteering and now running the Youth Program. In 2012, Eldar was set out to teach kids about using recycled material to create beautiful artwork. The kids and Eldar took on this massive project which involved collecting plastic bottle caps and creating a beautiful masterpiece.
Motivated youth, staff members of FSO, community partners, businesses and many family members all set out to collect bottle caps during the Spring of 2012. After having collected thousands of bottle caps, Eldar and his Youth began laying out the famous Starry Night across the whole wall. This was a summer project where as many as 16 different Youth Partnership members were involved in, collecting bottle caps, drawing the outline and gluing the caps. At the end of it all Eldar Ganiev and his Youth Partnership finished 2 walls... one with "Starry Night", and the other one spelled out "Welcome!, Love and Be Loved". Eldar puts a large emphasis on developing healthy relationships with people that surround us, having the ability to love ourselves give us the option to love others. Many visitors have come to see the cozy youth partnership place in Fair Lawn and enjoy the artwork.
Currently Youth Partnership has taken on yet another project. They have decided to continue to beautify their place by doing mosaic. They received many donations from local tile places and now are doing mosaic on their floor. Eldar's passion to be hands on, and the love for working with kids motivates these creative projects. He wishes one day to take Youth Partnership's efforts and beautify Fair Lawn.
If you have any questions about these projects, or would like to get involved feel free to contact Eldar Ganiev using FSO's website or through his personal website: where he blogs about Healthy Relationships and more.