June 2012

A Fabulous Evening at the Hot Pink Party! 

Cool Girls' Executive Director Sandy Welfare and our

2012 Cool Woman of the Year CeCe Winans   

Cool Girls' Transform Sponsor:Verizon Wireless  

For over five years, Cool Girls has been able to count on the support, kindness, and dedication of Verizon Wireless, a company that invests its time and resources in ensuring that we transform girls' lives.  According to Cool Girls' Board member and representative from Verizon Wireless, Sheryl Sellaway, Verizon likes the broad range of efforts that Cool Girls offers to impact girls' lives - "from technology to health to fitness to healthy relationships," Sellaway stated. "I believe 'it's a great opportunity to help girls in so many different ways."

This past April 28th, Verizon Wireless was the "I am cool because I transform" presenting sponsor at our signature Hot Pink Party. Our signature party is Verizon's favorite Cool Girls event because it shines a spotlight on us, recognizes outstanding women and raises funds - all in one evening! 

"The full value of Cool Girls may never be fully known given the many lives that have been influenced by the organization-the girls, their families, friends and their future. What we do know is that lives are being impacted, lives are being changed and many of the girls have high ambitions and hopes for their lives - as a result of influence from mentors, the broad range of programs and interaction with leaders in the organization," said Sheryl Sellaway.  

Cool Facts about Verizon Wireless . . .  

   *      Owns and operates the nation's largest 4G LTE network
    *     Built the nation's first wide-area wireless broadband network
    *     Delivered the nation's first wireless consumer 3G multimedia service
    *     Offers global voice and data services in more than 200 destinations around the world 

2012 Annual Scholarship Reception

Awardees Imon Freeman and  Samantha Thomas 

On Tuesday, May 22,  Cool Girls honored three Cool Girls alumnae at our annual Scholarship Reception. Congratulations Ayana Barry-Buchanan, Imon Freeman, and Samantha Thomas.  

Cool Girls is proud of all of their accomplishments during the many years that they have been involved in our programs. All of these three young women are an example of what all Cool Girls should aspire to be and they represent the positive impact that our programs have on our girls, in building confident and empowered young women on the path to academic excellence. To view photos from the Scholarship Reception, please click here.  

'A Beautiful Me 2012'    

Wonderful day to end the 2011-2012 Program Year 

Our Cool Girls ended their program year with an informative and fun day at 'A Beautiful Me' - our annual pregnancy prevention workshop. Over 200 Cool Girls attended the event on Saturday, May 12th at Clark Atlanta. The day specifically addressed issues regarding health and wellness, pregnancy prevention, body awareness, child development and healthy communication and relationships. This year's theme was "Love Yourself from the Inside Out".  The workshop also included powerful parent and mentor panel discussions focusing on instilling self-esteem, nutrition and physical fitness. The event also included the annual Girl Power awards which honored Cool Girls participants who excelled in our programs.  The day concluded with  

a fun 'Pink Mob' performance by all attendees, choreographed by the Atlanta Dream Dance Team- Shooting Stars.  

Cool thanks to everyone who made this event possible !  

To view photos from 'A Beautiful Me' click here!     

Hot Off the Press

Cool Girls En Espanol- Cool Girls was featured in an article by newspaper Atlanta's Hispanic Newspaper: Mundo Hispanico. Click here to check it out! 

Over 20 Cool Girls are getting ready for our annual summer camp. This year, Camp Pink will take place at the Georgia Tech campus and will include a week of informative workshops on technology, fun field trips around the city and of course, healthy meals and fitness activities! 

Our Cool Futures participants will be heading to Washington, D.C. next week! During the trip, participants will visit colleges, houses of government and museums. The girls will also be presenting their pregnancy prevention PSA at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.     

Interested in volunteering?   Please e-mail Jasmine Nelson at j.nelson@thecoolgirls.org for information about volunteering this summer.    

Board Spotlight: Aaron Goldman

  Dedicated to our Cool Cause

Aaron Goldman is a Milwaukee native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Mr. Goldman is the President and co-owner of Perennial Properties, Inc., a development, investment and management firm focused on rental multi-housing and retail, centered in Atlanta's in town neighborhoods. He has been involved in Cool Girls for over six years and dedicates a lot of his time to ensure that Cool Girls makes an impact on its participants. 

What do you like best about being involved with Cool Girls? Cool Girls provides the perfect vehicle to have the business community bond together and share the opportunities we have been given by our parents, schools and mentors with girls in at-risk community who are just a small amount of guidance away from having a fair shot at reaching their unlimited potential. It is tangible and local, so our own kids can see what it means to be part of a community that looks after each other, and particularly sees that a girl in any community in Atlanta can be empowered to accomplish anything she in her dreams about her future, her health, her family and career.

What advice would you share with our Cool Girls? The advice I would share with our constituency is that each and every one of them is only a few good decisions away from reaching amazing potential in school, extracurricular activities, careers, and public service. Think in the actions that you take about what is best for you in the long term, not just the next hour, day or week. If mistakes are made, own them, learn from them and don't repeat them. No reason to dwell, but always move forward, stay positive, and seek help from mentors, teachers and friends when facing those tough days. You are unique, special, and worthy. You are our future, so make it happen!   

Volunteer Spotlight: Lisa Tolliver

Though she wasn't born in Georgia, Lisa does consider herself a native because she completed all of her school-aged years here in metro Atlanta.  She is a graduate of The University of Georgia, and found out about Cool Girls through her employer's volunteer website in early 2011.  Lisa began volunteering with Cool Girls by participating in the Girls Club at Coan Middle School.  Since then, she's spent time encouraging the girls at many other programs and field trips, including her favorites, Cool Fitness and A Beautiful Me.  Lisa was recently matched with a mentee and is now officially a very cool 'Cool Sister'. 

What do you like best about being involved with Cool Girls? When I first read about Cool Girls, I wanted to get involved with the organization because I was drawn to the line "dedicated to the self-empowerment of girls."  To me, this basic principle is such an important need in all of our communities.  After attending the volunteer orientation, I was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of the facilitator (Shot out to Andrea!), and knew that Cool Girls would be a great fit for me.  All of this is to say that what I like best about being involved with CG is that everyone I have met truly believes in the organization's mission-it's not just a line.  And every time I participate in a Cool Girl event-even if it's volunteering for a 9-hour shift-I know that I am going to have fun.  Why?  Because everyone in attendance is helping to drive the same mission in their own way.  And ultimately we all know that we're helping to provide a valuable experience for the girls each and every time.

What advice would you share with our Cool Girls? The best advice I can (and always) give is to keep your options open.  All of us grow up in a unique environment.  And while we can't control those environments, we all have in common that we can control how we prepare for, and react to those environments.  This means that every decision we make either gives us more options, or takes a few options away.  I tell my Cool Sister to keep this in mind as she makes simple decisions like who to hang out with, whether or not to do her schoolwork, and following her mother's instruction.   We may not always know the "right" choice, but we usually know the best choice.  So every time we make a decision,  we have to be ready for the consequences... sometimes that's a reward, sometimes it's punishment.  But we always have to own our decisions.  And when/if we find out that we've made the "wrong" decision, that's okay too.  Just decide to try again-and be better that next time!

SAVE THE DATE-  

Cool Girls 4th Annual Pink Pin Bowl 

Sunday, August 26th - Midtown Bowl - 1-4pm

Mark your calendars! It's almost time for our annual Pink Pin Bowl- the coolest bowl-a-thon fundraiser in Atlanta. Everyone is invited to participate as a sponsor, fundraiser (that's true- you can create your own personal fund raising page!) or volunteer! The event will include games, prizes, food, a raffle, music and of course- the family favorite- BOWLING!  

All of the event's proceeds will go directly to our Cool Sisters programs - our one-to-one mentoring program that has a positive impact and changes the lives of our participants. 

To learn more visit www.thecoolgirlspinkpinbowl.com today!