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Heart House Austin
May 2009
Note: If you have problems viewing the graphics included in this
email, a copy of this
e-newsletter can be seen online at
http://www.hearthouse.org/newsletter.htm
In this issue:
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Spring Into Summer with Camp Heart House
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Our
Program:
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Upcoming
Open House
Events
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Earth Day at Heart House
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Volunteer
Corner:
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Volunteer Orientations
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Volunteer Spotlight
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Donor Spotlight
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Student
Spotlights
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This
Month's Photo
Scrapbook
It’s time again this spring to look ahead
to the summer!
We are currently planning our exciting summer program called Camp Heart
House. During our 8 week summer camp we are able to offer youth so many
fun and interesting choices in activities and programs. Camp Heart House
boasts engaging programs like Mad Science, Rad Readers, Heart House
Idol, foreign languages, summer service learning, and fitness. We are
also enthused to announce that this summer we are able to offer some new
programs such as comedy and improv, cooking, counseling groups and
leadership. We are also planning some enriching field trips to explore
Austin’s rich culture and history and of course will be going swimming
on a regular basis!
Each spring we begin planning our summer program, reaching out to
organizations and individuals to collaborate and support our program. So
far, these are the awesome organizations that have teamed up with us to
provide cool programs for this summer:
Summer is
an exceptionally challenging time for the Heart House
families. Most school-year programs close for the summer, and summer child-care
costs average $700/month per child. The working-class families in the
Heart House
neighborhoods simply cannot afford quality care for their school-age children
during the summer. Without Heart House, parents would likely have to choose between safe child care and their
employment.
Camp
Heart House
operates Monday-Friday, 9am-3pm, June 15-August 8.
The camp helps to bridge a wide gap: supporting both the child’s social and
academic growth and the family’s financial security.
We need to raise an additional $25,000 to fully fund Camp Heart House.
It
only takes $75 to send a child to Camp Heart House for a week. For
every $75 you donate in May,
an anonymous donor has agreed to match it, dollar for dollar.
This donor invites you to financially
support Heart House because she believes so strongly in our programs and
purposes. Together, we can make a big difference in the lives of Austin's
deserving children.
There are other ways to plug into Heart
House as well. We are still looking for individuals and
organizations interested in leading and providing enriching activities
at our camp. If you or someone you know may be interested in being a
part of Camp Heart House, please contact us!
Monica Armendariz (Heart House
North):
marmendariz@hearthouse.org
Meredith Meisetschlaeger (Heart House South):
mmeisetschlaeger@hearthouse.org
What We’re Studying
We've just wrapped up April’s theme of
“Games and Sportsmanship” which focused on what different games and
sports can teach us about ourselves and each other. We spent the first
few weeks focused on learning about good sportsmanship, teamwork, and
games that can teach us about cultures around the world. We wrapped up
our theme by experiencing some athletic games and creating our very own
unique Heart House Olympics!
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Special Guest: Nick Boeglin
visited Heart House North recently to help facilitate a Fun
Friday called “In the Newsroom”. Both he and our Program Leader,
Ms. Emily, dressed up to get the kids excited about feeling like
real journalists, working on various news stories.
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Just as Green, Maybe a Little Smaller
Green thumbs abounded at the spring planting on April 15th at Heart
House North. The Heart House Garden Club, with the help of our
partners, Green Corn Project,
planted cherry tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, basil,
cilantro, and oregano. Special thanks to the ever cheerful, ever
patient Mitch Mills, who has nurtured our garden club and is the current
President of Green Corn Project. Produce from the Heart House
garden club will be featured at our upcoming BBQ on June 13th (see
below, Upcoming Events.) Be sure to stop by!
School-Year Scrapbook
We
asked the children to vote on their favorite thematic units from this
school year. Here’s what
they said:
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#1 Forces of Nature
This was one of the coolest themes EVER, according to the kids.
We studied extreme weather, which included making tornadoes in a
bottle, watching home videos of tsunamis in Asia, learning
hurricane safety, making seismographs to measure earthquakes and
creating PSAs to educate others on extreme weather safety.
Sponsor for Forces of Nature:
SpawMaxwell
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#2 Super Citizens
We studied the characteristics that make good citizens: honesty,
responsibility, respect, compassion and courage. The unit
culminated with elections (on real voting machines!) of student
council members from each Heart House who embody these
characteristics.
Sponsor for Super Citizens:
Hart InterCivic
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#3 Inventors and Inventions
Students got the chance to study famous inventors, like Albert
Einstein and Thomas Edison, and create their own inventions to
help others solve problems.
Sponsor for Inventors and Inventions:
SourcePulse
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#4 Read, Write, Rock On
Heart House kids sharpened their reading and writing skills by
creating word-bingo games, discussing banned books, writing each
other’s biographies, making tongue twisters and even creating a
Heart House newspaper!
Sponsor for Super Citizens:
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation
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#5 Create a Holiday
Each grade group was able to create its very own
holiday---naming the day and why and how it is celebrated. Some
of the holidays included Kids vs. Teachers Day and Snowflake
Day.
Sponsor for Create a Holiday:
Foundation Communities
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Thank you to our sponsors who made these great learning months
possible. For more information on sponsoring a month of learning
at Heart House, contact Diane Cannon, Executive Director, at (512)
929-8187 or
dcannon@hearthouse.org.
Come visit us!
We have some great summer open house
events where you can check out our exemplary program for yourself. See you there!
| Event
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Date,
Time
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Location
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Monthly Open House & Tour
Heart House child docents and Board of Directors members will be on hand
to give you a tour and answer any questions you might have about our
stellar children’s program. We alternate tours between our two centers.
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Monday,
May 4
(First Monday of the month)
Tour starts at 2:30 pm
For
more information, contact Diane Cannon at (512) 929-8187 or email dcannon@hearthouse.org.
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Heart House
South
815 Slaughter Lane
Map
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Monthly Open House & Tour
Heart House child docents and Board of Directors members will be on hand
to give you a tour and answer any questions you might have about our
stellar children’s program. We alternate tours between our two centers.
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Monday,
June 1
(First Monday of the month)
Tour starts at 2:30 pm
For
more information, contact Diane Cannon at (512) 929-8187 or email dcannon@hearthouse.org.
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Heart House North
7224 Northeast Drive
Map
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Camp Heart House Kick-Off and BBQ
Join the Heart House children, staff, and volunteers at the opening of
our summer program for this free, family-friendly event of food, games,
and fellowship. |
Saturday, June 13
11 am - 1 pm
For
more information, contact Diane Cannon at (512) 929-8187 or email dcannon@hearthouse.org
.
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Heart House
South
815 Slaughter Lane
Map
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Heart House and
Hart InterCivic
teamed up to celebrate Earth Day the last week in April.
Volunteers from Hart InterCivic worked with our elementary school
students to make small differences for the community that supports them.
Team A worked creatively and diligently on painting rocks, potting
plants, and creating environmental posters. They were busy bees the
entire time! We were so thankful to have the positive and enthusiastic
support of Eddie and Peter from Hart InterCivic and Eric and Nick R, two
of our spectacular Friday volunteers! Team B created special
activity kits on water filtering and recycling, complete with games
created and lesson plans written by the youth themselves. Team C's “Pennies for Puppies” group
raised money over the week and made special pet toys for many, many
animals at the Town Lake Animal Shelter and Paw Match which will also be
donated this week.
Everyone really enjoyed this experience and (despite the rainy weather
conditions), everyone stayed engaged and excited the whole day!
Stay tuned for more ways Heart House gives back to the community it
serves!
Photo credit: Kaylie Terry, Volunteer Program Intern
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Marco Luna
Heart House South
You can usually find Mr. Marco in the 2nd
and 3rd grade classroom at Heart House
South. If you don’t see him around, look
under the pile of children to the side
and there he’ll be! The kids there have
taken to him in such a way, that we hope
he stays with us well after his college
years.
Not much older than the children are,
Mr. Marco was quite a surprise as
volunteer. He came to Heart House in
December of 2008 through the school
program American Youth Works. As a
student, Marco had the opportunity to
commit his service learning project
hours to a non-profit organization. He
luckily chose us.
about
Marco
and other Heart House
Volunteers.
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Heart House is a proud grantee of the
KDK-Harman Foundation. The
Foundation was founded by Janet E. Harman in December 2004 and provides
financial and capacity-building resources to education-focused
nonprofits in Central Texas that assist disadvantaged Central Texas
families, with a focus on women, to help them achieve educational
success. The ultimate goal of such funding is to transform their lives
from poverty to financial independence to enable a better life for
themselves and future generations.
KDK-Harman Foundation believes in a
high-engagement approach and exemplified it in 2007 when Heart House
first approached the Foundation requesting funds to hire a development
professional for the first time in Heart House’s history. The Foundation
not only granted Heart House the funds, but also worked with Heart House
to develop the job description and advised on the hiring process.
KDK-Harman also supports capacity-building initiatives. In 2008, the
Foundation sponsored Heart House’s participation in the “I Live Here, I
Give Here” Nonprofit Excellence Institute focusing on how to attract and
retain individual donors to support nonprofit missions.
Most recently, KDK-Harman Foundation has increased its investment in
Heart House and granted us $40,000 to further develop organizational
capacity related to fundraising initiatives. Funds will be directed
toward the salary of our Development Coordinator and used to evaluate
and improve our fundraising systems and processes as well as
strategically and meaningfully engage donors. The Foundation also made
another small grant to Heart House to assist with planning for future
growth across Texas.
Heart House Founder Anna Land says of the
Foundation, “KDK-Harman is such a dynamic and engaged funder. Heart
House has made incredible strides over the past year and a half thanks
to our strategic partnership with the Foundation. Our children’s daily
experience in our afterschool program will be enriched by this grant via
the additional funds we are now able to bring in thanks to the new focus
on development that KDK-Harman has made possible.”
“KDK-Harman is proud to partner with Heart House to provide exceptional
educational experiences for children in Austin. We share the same
mission of breaking the cycle of poverty through education, and we
consider Heart House to be a best-in-class example of how effective
afterschool programming can substantially improve academic outcomes for
low-income children and help to close the achievement gap,” says
Jennifer Esterline, KDK-Harman Program Officer.
Thank
you so much, recent and ongoing donors!
America’s Charities
Andy Land
CeCe Ridder
Emeka Obianwu
Foundation Communities
IBM Employee Service Center
Jessica & Sam Sacheck
Katherine Lilly
Mary Ann Frishman
Melvin & Rosalee Harmon
Safeway Inc.
Teri Sanchez
These
are just some of the wonderful children you help support with your gifts
of time and funding. THANK YOU for making a difference for these
future citizens!
Lanny has made great progress toward
improving his attitude and behavior this month. He is quiet and working
hard during homework hour everyday and is setting a great example for
others who want to make better choices.
Anthony has been attending Heart House for
almost 3 years! Anthony is well known for his intellectual vocabulary,
funny anecdotes on life, and his eagerness to take on leadership roles.
In fact, he was just currently elected in charge of the Heart House
reading center. He has impressed us all by taking the lead and working
hard to make the reading center creative, quiet, and special. He has
informed us that he has “hired” some other students on to help him make
sure the reading center is working effectively whenever he is absent.
Also, he created some outstanding journalism work during our newspaper
project and even though we have already completed the project, he
continues to take an interest in reading the newspaper and creating his
own newsletters.
Read
more Student
Spotlight posts on the Heart House blog.
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Bulletin board decorators
Homework support with volunteer Mr. Denné
James in the Reading Center
Below: “Titanic Challenge", a teambuilding game this month—2
pictures
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Symone updates the Word Wall
Rosa and Michelle
Heart House South students plan a special “Kits for Kids”
project in anticipation of Earth Day 2009
Desire, Terran and Thomas plan for Earth Day
Armando practices spelling using the Word Wall
Angel, Zach and Marissa use the Word Wall to plan their Earth
Day project
Older girls hanging out!
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See more
photos in our online scrapbook at www.hearthouse.org/photo.htm.
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