Website Launches!
CBC is proud to announce that our brand new website launched in early May! We've been working on this project for almost a year, so you can imagine how good it feels for us to see it activated.
We would like to acknowledge and heap loads of thanks on our website designer, Sandie Bero ( MOLO), for her remarkably creative work and unbelievable patience with us in putting this all together. We invite you to visit the new website and see Sandie's tremendous work.
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CBC Goes Back to Summer School!
Our BIG NEWS in June is that, thanks to the success of our recent Mahoning Valley fundraiser, CBC was able to fund two Count Me In summer programs serving Youngstown, OH area students.
We're working with two groups of 10 students each this summer at the Rich Center for Autism and one group of 10 students at the Leonard Kirtz School in Austintown, OH. We're pleased and proud to be offering these summer programs to area students with special needs and want to thank everyone who contributed directly to our May fundraiser!
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TRAP Training in Youngstown
CBC again found ourselves needing to hire and train a new Count Me In instructor to deliver the TRAP (The Rhythmic Arts Project) curriculum for the 2014-2015 school year in Ohio's Mahoning Valley. Our 2013-2014 instructor, Jon Dean, is leaving to pursue graduate studies and we wish him well!
Fortunately, we had a large number of impressive applicants for this position and selected four of them for our TRAP training session that took place on the YSU campus June 23-25. Many thanks to Stephen Flinn of Los Angeles, long-time CBC facilitator and TRAP genius, who flew in to train the four candidates.
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We have lots to share since our last newsletter! Here's the latest quarterly news.
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The Rich Center for Autism
Linda & Dan visited the Rich Center in April to meet with the new Director, Melanie Carfolo, and catch up with others associated with the center, including Renee McConnell, Casey Annico and co-founders Phyllis Ricchiuti and Geri Kosar. We are fortunate to have friends like them!
 | | Melanie & Renee |
 | | Casey, Geri & Phyllis |
We've had a really great second year at Rich Center. This year's Count Me In group consisted of very young students (ages 6-8) and our local instructor, Jon Dean, had a ball with them! Our end-of-year data suggest that these youngsters seemed to benefit a good deal from their participation in the program. We have an expanded update about the Rich Center at our website.
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Fairhaven School
Linda & Dan also paid a visit to the Fairhaven School in Niles in April to attend the school's annual spring talent show, which included a segment from our Count Me In students. The school gymnasium was literally packed with parents and friends of Fairhaven students who joined in the festivities.
 | | Rosanne & Dan |
 | | Final Fairhaven Class with Mr. Jon |
Our initial year at Fairhaven has been both successful from a program evaluation perspective, as well as a real joy thanks to Principal Rosanne Morrell, her staff, and the parents and students who comprise this wonderful community of learners. Read an extended Fairhaven project update at our website. |
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Lanterman High School
In April, Bill took two Los Angeles area high school students interested in working with special needs students to visit our Count Me In program at Lanterman High School. The visit was a great experience for them.
Lanterman is our longstanding project serving the largest number of students annually (more than 30), and this third consecutive year may have been our best yet! You can read more about our Lanterman project at our website. Meanwhile, here are some pictures and a video from the year-end concert for your enjoyment.
 | | 2014 Lanterman Concert |
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Vista Del Mar
It's been a challenging year for CBC's Count Me In project at Vista Del Mar. Following last spring's highly successful pilot project, we dove into the new school year with the CUP (Contemporary Urban Percussion) program expecting similar results each semester of this school year (Fall 2013, Spring 2014). Instead we were faced with numerous challenges throughout the year. Nonetheless, we thank everyone at Vista Del Mar who tried hard to make this project work. Read more about this project update at our website.
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LUV IN FUNDRAISER A HUGE SUCCESS!
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CBC hosted its second annual Mahoning Valley fundraiser, LUV IN, on Sunday afternoon, May 4th , at the Fireplace in Poland, OH. This event was the culmination of months of planning, preparation and legwork!
We garnered a good deal of media coverage, ranging from a video shout-out from Martin Mull and several local print press releases to multiple television and radio appearances in the run-up to the event.
Close to 200 people came to see members of their favorite local bands from the late 1960s: The Executioners, Holes in the Road, Human Beingz and Pied Pipers. Many of the original members of those bands were on hand to both meet & greet their former fans and take a turn at performing live that afternoon.
Those in attendance had the opportunity to bid on exclusive unique music and entertainment themed items, including an autographed Rolling Stones guitar, autographed cast photos from Breaking Bad and the Big Bang Theory, autographed sheet music from Lady Gaga and Katie Perry and much more!
We want to offer special thanks to Karen & Tom Campana and their staff at The Fireplace in Poland for their generous and eager support for this event, along with Jerry Centifanti and his "House Band", photographer Joan Yanchick and the many CBC volunteers who worked so hard to make this event a winner! Thanks also to Stephanie Sferra and the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau for the strategic planning session that guided our path to success.
Check out our Photobucket page to view hundreds of pics from the event.
 | | Bill on Dan Rivers Radio Show AM 570 |
 | | Bill & Len Rome on WKBN |
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MANY THANKS.......
We want to say THANKS to Casey Annico, our primary contact for the past three years at the Rich Center for Autism in Youngstown, OH. Casey has been a strong supporter of CBC over the years and we wish him all the best in his new position.
 | | Jon Dean (l) & Casey Annico (r) |
We also want to offer a special thanks to everyone who contributed financially to our recent fundraiser. We appreciate all who purchased tickets, took part in the silent auction, and offered their personal checks and Paypal contributions in support of LUV IN.
Finally, thanks to members of our CBC Advisory Board who continue to share their financial contributions, their networking contacts and their professional and personal support.
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We've spent most of June playing catch-up and looking ahead to the coming year of Count Me In programming. To begin, June is a routinely busy month for us in that we spend a good deal of time working with our external research company, LGM Research, preparing end-of-year reports for our various Count Me In projects. We hope to have all of these finalized and shared with project sites and corresponding donors soon.
At the same time, June is a month when we find ourselves submitting grants and Letters of Interest to funding agencies (a process that begins, actually, in February).
All of this recent activity has helped us to decide that CBC needs a summer break! This year we've decided to take our vacation between July 28th and August 10th. But know that if you send us an email, we'll respond quickly-even if it means that we'll tell you that we're on "vacation" at the moment!
We hope that you enjoy the summer season and look forward to sharing our next CBC update in September. Be sure to visit our new website and, by all means, stay in touch!
Bill Bodine,
Dan Marshall
& Linda Wellendorf
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