The Last 48 Hours
The Latest Character GPS Updates from Debbie's Desk

The Last 48 Hours

Dear Readers,

A lot has transpired within the last 48 hours! First of all Floridians....Stay Warm! It is going to be cold today! Jeff and I decided to have a fire last night under the beautiful sky, the moon and the stars were stunning! We have recently moved out into the country, unincorporated Hillsborough County, and we can't get over how much clearer the skies look at night! Jeff makes a great a fire and never misses a chance to remind me that he is part Cherokee hence he loves to create, in my biased opinion, the best fires! OK now you be the judge:

Hubby's Fire-Making Skills on Display
Looking up through the trees

We love living out here! It is our haven of peace amidst all of the hustle and bustle of the world!

Character GPS has a grant from the State of Florida Department of Juvenile Justice which allows us to provide our services for free to certain populations of youth in the Central Florida area. Private donations go toward expenses not covered by the grant for example if we take our program to Haiti (which we did)!

One of the requirements for our grant is that we have to attend the Hillsborough County CAB (Circuit 13 Action Board) Meetings which are held every other month usually at the Hillsborough County Center on Kennedy Blvd.

Notably, Rocky Brancato has been running these meetings and he is also running for the position of Public Defender!

We enjoy these meetings, they are televised and the public can sign up to comment, as they provide synergistic networking opportunities which would benefit our community, specifically our youth.

In fact, we would not be providing services at Seminole Heights Charter High School and West University Charter High School if it wasn't for the fact that we heard a presentation by Principals Dr. Bobby Smith and McRae Mangum at one of these meetings! Principal MacRae told this amazing story at our Annual Luncheon (see video link below McRae at 16:50):

https://youtu.be/TtJeel2DS44?si=ijWjjSwWWFnFPHdD

Here is a link to yesterday's CAB meeting:

https://www.youtube.com/live/zeG1sevBO-I?si=ExRxx_hp7Ryl0OOI

After yesterday's meeting on the 26th floor we were talking with Robert Parkinson , Criminal Justice Liason for Hillsborough County, and we asked if we could see his office on the 24th floor, on our way down. Rob has always been very gracious to us and he started giving us a guided tour on the 24th floor and I had this deja vu moment and said to Jeff "We've been here before! 8 years ago!" We then recalled the day maybe 8 years ago, before we knew Rob, that Jeff presented Character GPS to the CAB Meeting on the 26th floor. We were directed to speak with Rob about how to get funding as we had no grant at that time, and he graciously took us to his office. He then spent quite a bit of time with us sharing his best practices for grant writing. Since that time we have gotten to know him better at Juvenile Justice events in Orlando and now it's like we have known him for a very long time.

We got to see his office environment again and here are some fun pictures from this time spent on the 24th floor:

An Office with a View!!!
Rob and Jeff
The Three Amigos LOL
Rob's Business Cards
Rob and Jeff talking Porsches

This last picture reflects the fact that Rob and Jeff learned something about each other they did not previously know; they both love Porsches! Here they are talking cars which gives me a great opportunity to snap pics because, hey, it's all Greek to me! From the look of Jeff's facial expression in this last pic, he was at that point recalling a time when he almost died in a Porsche! His dad restored Porsches as a hobby and Jeff was allowed to take it for a drive and well, there was ice involved, and to make a long story short, he survived a harrowing experience! We always say it just wasn't his time to go yet, there still much more that God had for him to do and so we live our lives that way, with purpose, wanting to help as many youth as we can. Therein lies the root of our passion for helping!

Speaking of helping youth, Thursday's Character GPS classes were held at West University Charter High School and we presented the Overview to these new students. Here are some pics from Thursday's classes in Tampa:

Peer Mentor Rifan Coaching a New Class
Peer Mentor Rifan with Graduation Pic at Left
One of the Class Exercises
"Close Your Eyes and Point North"
Peer Mentor Stryker Coaching a Class of New GPS Students
Peer Mentor Stryker
Peer Mentor Tayana Being Interviewed by Jeff in front of New GPS Students
Tayana's GPS Grad PIc
Principal Dr

Classes went very well and we are so proud of our new Peer Mentors, how they are gaining confidence and paying it forward by helping others.

Here are short video clips from Thursday's classes:

Peer Mentor Rifan

https://youtu.be/FbDKELsLFcw?si=rgOjVgevts4PisJQ

Dr. Bobby Smith

https://youtu.be/bq5J3aTJiNU?si=TPOnAnWNJYy_rnOs

Peer Mentor Stryker

https://youtu.be/6i99G55AVUM

Peer Mentor Tayana

https://youtu.be/q1Cz_ahkO_k?si=--GnB4I4tpR2Gy_A


That is about it for now but hey...stay inspired and find your passion

Your Friends at Character GPS,

Debbie & Jeff Cain

Donate | Character GPS

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Deborah Cain的更多文章

  • Happy New Year from Character GPS

    Happy New Year from Character GPS

    Happy New Year from Character GPS! First of all, we sincerely hope that you enjoyed the holiday season, spending time…

  • Character GPS December 2024 Updates

    Character GPS December 2024 Updates

    Dear Friends of Character GPS, What a Wonderful Annual Luncheon!!! We were so proud of our students receiving their…

  • Prison Ministry

    Prison Ministry

    One of our new partners this year is The Polk Regional Juvenile Detention Center located in Bartow, Florida. We…

    2 条评论
  • July 2024 Summer Camp Success

    July 2024 Summer Camp Success

    Jeff and I left Florida on July1st for a familiar destination..

  • Summer 2024 "Good Start" News from Character GPS

    Summer 2024 "Good Start" News from Character GPS

    We just finished our 1st 4-day Character GPS Summer Camp held June 17-20 at Stewart Middle Magnet School in Tampa! The…

  • Meeting the New Challenges in Education

    Meeting the New Challenges in Education

    Greetings dear readers! As I have mentioned in earlier newsletters, we are new to Lithia and are now actively seeking…

  • "Save Our Children"

    "Save Our Children"

    This weekend Jeff and I attended the "Save Our Children Conference and Gala". We were amazed at the expert panel that…

    3 条评论
  • What's New?

    What's New?

    What's new at Character GPS you ask? A lot actually! We did a Team Building Workshop with two of Brainard Harris'…

  • A Life Saving Pledge

    A Life Saving Pledge

    Our Character GPS Students were given the opportunity to sign a pledge this week and were given our Character GPS…

  • No Dream is Too Big!

    No Dream is Too Big!

    We just finished Adventure 4, V=Vision, with our Character GPS students at Seminole Heights Charter High School and…

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了