Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer

Constellations: The Stars newsletter June 2011

IN THIS ISSUE

ARRA Funds to Our Community

Math & Double Dutch

80 Years Young

Volunteer Days

'Panthers' Take Home Trophy

Stars is Now Tweeting

Help Us Reach 300 Followers!

Stars is now on BOTH Twitter and Facebook. Enjoy fun updates on news stories, our upcoming 40 Under 40 Awards, volunteer days, events & more.

Stars' programs receive Child Development Grants

Grant awards to eight programs will be used to enhance learning environments with classroom instructional equipment.

Provided by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, the grants, obtained through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, were distributed to 400 programs in 139 communities.

See Boston.com article

Students exercise bodies & minds in Double Dutch Tournament

Randolph students participating in South Shore Stars' after school enrichment programs had an opportunity to demonstrate their fancy footwork recently, when Stars presented its annual Double Dutch Tournament.

Ledger Article

Held May 26 at the Randolph Community Middle School, the tournament featured five teams from Randolph schools competing in speed, compulsory and freestyle challenges.

"What makes the Stars Double Dutch program so unique is the fact that academic outcomes played a role in the competition," said Meghan Daniels, a Randolph teacher who served as tournament coordinator. "Working from state curriculum frameworks for Language Arts and Math, the students incorporated verbal and written communication and graphing into their practices - so the goal was not only to exercise the student's bodies, but also their minds!"

Board Member In the News:

"She Just Went Out and Did It"

In a wonderful article released early this month, Quincy's Patriot Ledger honored one of Stars' founders and longtime Board Member Rosemary Wahlberg.

Rosemary just celebrated her 80th birthday, and has spent nearly that long advocating for programs for children on the South Shore. The whole article is available here.

2011 Raffle Winners

Congratulations to all of our calendar raffle winners!

$100 winners:

Krystal Windley

Raymond Middendorf

Yong Chen

Govanna Borquez

al Mirabile

Lian Feng Hu

$500 winners:

Susan Mullen

Edwenta Smith

The raffle raised over $9,000 to support program activities. A giant thank you to everyone who sold tickets!!

Administration office:
200 Middle Street

East Weymouth, MA 02189

(781) 331-8505

Mission Statement:
Stars provides comprehensive early education and youth programs, using a family support approach, that enhance the development of children from economically and culturally diverse families through collaboration with parents, schools and communities.

Kids, Adults Alike Enjoy EHS Early Childhood Fair

Furry friends and face painting shared space with fingerprinting and facts on early childhood resources at South Shore Stars' first Early Childhood Fair in Randolph last month. The event was sponsored by Early Head Start Stars & HarborOne.

More than 250 attendees enjoyed breakfast snacks, a storyteller and a baby animal petting farm as well as such activities as child safety fingerprinting by the Randolph Police Department and information on dental health for young children provided by staff members of Quincy's Lux Dental. Attendees also received a free book at the event.

A special thanks to event partners; Lux Dental, Health Imperatives/Blue Hills Healthy Families, Manet Community Health Center, Self Help, StepOne Early Intervention, Randolph Board of Health, Randolph Police Department and WIC and to the Spirit of State Street Volunteers for all their wonderful hard work at the event!

A toddler makes friends with a bunny.

1.062937062937063

Facepainting fun.

Paul Fernandes and grandson taking a peek at twin kid goats Pinkie and Twinkie

HarborOne

HarborOne employees hand out frisbees.

Spring Volunteer Days

Thank you to our spring Volunteer partners:

DUNKIN BRANDS Volunteer Crew
MILTON ACADEMY Students
QUINCY MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE Volunteer Crew
ROCKLAND TRUST RockCorp Volunteers
SOUTH COASTAL BANK Volunteer Crew
STATE STREET Global Volunteers, Interns, & Spirit of State Street
WEYMOUTH HIGH SCHOOL Students

Volunteer crews painted and ran gym activities at JFK Extended Day; helped out with spring landscaping, RISE events, camp openings and letter mailings; weeded, mulched and did arts and crafts at Weymouth Afterschool; assembled curriculum and first aid kits; translated brochures; and facilitated activities at the Early Childhood Fair.

Many, many thanks for all your hard work!

State Street Global Volunteers by the Waterfront at Hale Reservation

United Way Community Care Day with

Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Volunteers

Weymouth High School Volunteers
after weeding and mulching the playground

Donovan School 'Panthers' Take Home Trophy

More than 50 students put their robots to the test, but it was "The Panthers" from Randolph's Donovan Extended Day program who triumphed at the Stars Robotics Challenge held in late March.

The culmination of a three-month after-school robotics program, the annual robotics event offered participants a chance to experience their own version of "March Madness," as the robotics teams moved through the brackets to the Final Four. Upon winning this year's competition - which featured a "Sumobot" challenge where teams attempted to push each other's robots out of a ring, sumo wrestler style - the Panthers celebrated with their Robotics coach, hoisting the trophy in the air. View the Wicked Local coverage of the event here.

Donovan School 'Panthers' celebrate with Stars Robotics Coach Richardson Douesius

1.0621468926553672

Michael of Young Extended Day Stars despairs as "Chuck Norris" gets pushed to the edge of the ring

0.9891304347826086

State Sen. Brian Joyce and Stars Robotics Coach Samantha Cuthbert watch as the Sumobots battle