Thanks to POMA for a Wonderful Evening 

Thanks again to the Professional Orchestra Musicians of Grand Rapids for their generous donation of time and talent to make the second Sounds of Hope Concert a great success.  Special thanks to Chris Kantner for chairing the event for POMA. You can learn more about POMA on their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/POMAGR.

The music was wonderful and the silent auction items alone brought in over $1,600.  Fountain Street Church provided a wonderful venue.  We will have a full recap later.

We do encourage our tutors to take every opportunity to see the POMA musicians in their "natural habitat," that is playing in DeVos Hall with the Grand Rapids Symphony.     

 

Schools of Hope was honored to partner with The League Michigan, Crowe Horwath and our own AmeriCorps members for the Read n' Give Book Drive. Our Schools of Hope classrooms, along with dozens of local organizations, businesses and schools collected donations throughout the month of March, and in result netted over 11,000 books.

During Spring Break, AmeriCorps members and several community volunteers sorted and organized the donations into appropriate grade levels. Over 4,000 books were then bagged to present to each student in the in-school and after-school Schools of Hope programs. The bags of books will be given to students at the end of the school year so that they will have summer reading material. 

Excess books, and books outside of the 1st-3rd grade reading levels, did not go wasted and were given to our Family Literacy Schools of Hope Programs, First Steps of Kent County, The Boys and Girls Club and the Salvation Army for their summer reading programs.

We would like to thank everyone who donated to the Read N' Give book drive and a big thanks to Corinne Spencer, a VISTA member from the League, who organized the bulk of the donations. Read N' Give was a huge community effort which will reach many of our youth and families.

If you have not received or have not completed the new online tutor survey, please take a moment to do so.  Your information is important to us. 

For tutors who do not have email or who wish to complete a paper survey, those will be available in the buildings where you tutor. 

Please CLICK HEREto be redirected to the 2010 - 2011 Tutor Survey.  

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Fritz Crabb 

Mercantile Bank Supports Read n' Give

As part of the Read n' Give Book Drive, the employees at Mercantile Bank collected over 700 books!  Thanks.  

Concerned about Summer Learning Loss?

Schools of Hope on the Morning Show

Schools of Hope is gratified to receive the excellent support from GVSU.  This month, Chris Kantner, principle flute with the GR Symphony and chair of Sounds of Hope for POMA (See article above.) was Shelley's guest. 

Hear more about the concert from Chris by clicking here.

Congratulations to a SOH Partner Organization

GRAND RAPIDS -- The winners of the Organizational Health Hero Award were speechless when their names were announced tonight.

Tucker, a golden retriever, and Sully, a standard poodle, let their tails do the talking as they represented West Michigan Therapy Dogs at the first West Michigan Health Heroes event. Full article.

Grand Rapids Press - 4/28/11

Meet Jenny Gomez 

Shawmut Hills Coordinator

Meet Monica Rainey- AmeriCorps Member

AmeriCorps member Monica Rainey serves at Campau Elementary and Harrison Park Elementary. After receiving her teaching certification, Monica says she joined Schools of Hope as an AmeriCorps member because the position allowed her to keep working in the schools on a regular basis while helping students make reading gains.  

Monica says, "Reading impacts every single aspect of daily life and helping to ensure that all GRPS students have those skills is a cause that's very important to me."  Monica's favorite part of serving in Schools of Hope is tutoring her students. "I'm continuously impressed by their gains in confidence, skill, and insight. Seeing those "ah-ha" moments never gets old, plus getting to sit down and read as part of my daily work? Can't beat that."

After her service ends, Monica  says she hopes to either find herself teaching in a classroom of her own, where she can pass along her love of reading and passion for gaining new knowledge to her students, or working for a company with a commitment to community service so that she can continue to serve her community.