Our future belongs to our children, and children are our future.  They will take over the role of caretakers of this good Earth when we are no longer able to do so.  One woman, Dr. Jan Van Blarcum, PhD, took on the challenge of educating children when, in 1999, she founded Creative Tutors 4 Kids International, Inc., a Plano, Texas for-profit company, which provides in-home, one-on one tutoring for children in grades PK-12. Dr. Van Blarcum and her tutors (currently over 600) are highly trained, degreed educators with 8-10 years of educational experience.  They realize that each child possesses unique talents and gifts that are waiting to be shared and give children the tools they need to be successful in the classroom, unlock potential to a world of opportunity and make their dreams a reality. In her first year in business, she had 150 students and about 35 tutors. Today, the company lists about 20,000 students and expects 2009 revenue to reach $1.2 million.

The first Creative Tutors franchise was sold in 2004, and currently has 12 franchisees with locations in North Texas, Houston and North Carolina. Franchises cost between $19,500 and $25,000 based on an area's median income and student makeup, plus a 5% royalty of monthly gross revenue.  Each franchisee signs a 10-year franchise agreement for a territory which is defined as one owner per school district

In 2004, Dr. Van Blarcum established a not-for-profit public charity, Creative Learning 4 Kids, Inc., that works to raise funds to provide one-on-one tutoring and attendance at educational camp programs for disadvantaged students.  As each franchise is established, the franchisee begins to raise funds within the community to fund tutoring services for students in that community.  It is the goal of Creative Tutors 4 Kids to make access to skills necessary to be successful in school available to every child that needs assistance.  The non-profit has provided tutoring services to over 100 students in need, mostly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and has helped Dr. Van Blarcum achieve her personal mission of meeting the educational needs of every student, no matter how they learn.

Creative Tutors 4 Kids believes in improving the future of the community one child at a time. "As kids are growing up, they will have failure. But success comes from failure," said Dr. Van Blarcum. "It's getting on the right path, and you can't do it alone."  Today, the company tutors about 20,000 students.

"The great thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you."

(Resource: Dallas Business Journal and http://www.creativetutors.com)

Notarizing a blank or incomplete document can be against the law in several states (i.e. California, Colorado and Florida), and is highly discouraged in all states.  Documents that are complete except for blank spaces that will be filled in later also have a great potential for fraudulent misuse.  Many times it is the signer who is a potential victim by insisting that an incomplete document be notarized because it is inconvennient to obtain needed data to complete the document and the signer may decide to get the notarization out of the way first. The prudent Notary will decline to notarize a blank sheet of paper, and ask any signer to fill in the blank space of an incomplete document before notarizing.  If the spaces are inapplicable and intended to be left blank, the signer should be asked to line through each space (using ink) or to write "Not Applicable" or "NA" in the blanks.  Rare and acceptable exceptions for leaving space blank on a document are if a document needs to be circulated for additional notarized signatures, and to preserve confidentiality in adoptions, it is generally acceptable for the names of birth mothers or adoptive parents to be filled in after certain adoption forms are signed and notarized.

 

If you have further questions, please contact:  National Notary Association, www.NationalNotary.org.

 

 

Ronald E. Osborn