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' Engineering Classes at Stewart Middle School on Tuesday! Jeff was on an Engineering track at Cornell way back when and he knows that engineers need to learn more about teamwork! They tend to work alone and not create engineering teams. So, for the first time ever, we did this! It went very well, I have some pictures to share, of course, and we all agreed we would do this again in the future! These were 7th and 8th graders, a class of 20 and a class of 28.
Here are some pictorial highlights of the afternoon:
Watch a short clip here:
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More
When the students try the puzzles on their own, without sharing, they are, well, puzzled! Stumped! Frustrated! After two very long minutes of trying to solve them on their own, they are more than happy to collaborate on the solutions! The energy is palpable!
At the end of the class they all had a chance to indicate whether or not they would be interested in coming to one of our Summer Camps and many indicated "yes".
Summer Camps
We have two 4 Day Summer Camps scheduled at Stewart in June: 17th - 20th and 24th-27th. We ARE actively, currently enrolling students for these two camps NOW and targeting 8th grade. Our goal is 15 students plus two mentors that have gone through our program and can accumulate Community Service hours for helping out. We have already secured a donation from Chic-Fil-A for some of those days and are working on another donation from maybe McDonalds or Little Ceasars. Still in the works.
Here is the form:
Also, we have planned to have a Summer Camp in North Tonawanda, New York, my hometown, from July 8th-12th! Do you know someone up in the Buffalo area who might be interested?
Register Here:
Our collaboration up in New York is with the North Tonawanda Parks & Rec and they have been fabulous partners! Shout out to Alex Domaradzki!!
Can't say no to spending quality time with family and doing some work in really weather up there in July! Escaping the Florida heat for a bit!
BONUS
We get to see our dad who just turned 89 in February...on a personal note....he is doing so well in his late years! Why, I just happen to have a recent picture of him in the Dyngus Day Parade!
Dad is in the middle of course with the accordion and red hat! 89 and still playing his music for anybody who will listen in fact, he entertains at nursing homes too! This is the Matt's Music float and by the way, he is the founder of Matt's Music, founded 60 years ago, and my sister Kathy runs the music store and has been for a while now. So proud of our family!
Gotta ask yourself..."How do you run a successful business for 60 years, beating out competitors, growing, thriving...????
Well, for one thing, it has to do with character! Honesty, Politeness, Treating Teachers with Respect, Nurturing Families and Kids, Being Innovative and Charitable ...etc.
I guess I am beginning to realize why I enjoy working with my husband teaching Character Classes...values like the ones I listed, have been instilled into me from a very young age! Thanks dad for demonstrating great ethics and an even greater love for people, families and especially helping the younger ones who need coaching and mentoring.
THANKS DAD!
Today...we went to the Circuit 10 Juvenile Justice Advisory Board meeting in Polk County, our first time at a Circuit 10 meeting. We do now live in Lithia and felt the need to "change it up" instead of always going to the Circuit13 meetings held in Hillsborough County.
We did let all of our new friends there know that we still have money in our grant to use before the end June and we are available during this time to present one hour workshops and it can be anywhere in Central Florida. So, change is good, we are making new friends in new places offering our services to people that can connect us schools, possibly their detention center etc.
领英推荐
We heard a great presentation about Teen Court and we heard about the "Grady Camp Jail Tours", actually a great thing! Oh and by the way...we just adore Grady Judd and all that he does for his community! We have wanted to collaborate with Polk County for a while now!
Oh, there is one thing I want for Christmas...lol
Thank you Sheriff Judd and your teammates for all that you do!!!
We met so many great people including Eric Holm from Youth For Christ who brought in football paintings for everyone to see. These aren't ordinary paintings, these were done by the youth in the detention center and frankly, quite good! Sounds like he is doing some great work there!
All right friends....one more thing on a personal note...
We Love Lithia!
We Love Living in Lithia! We visit the cows down the street and this calf sometimes runs to Jeff! Watch here:
Hey, it's getting late, where did the time go? Thanks for spending some of YOUR precious time reading about Character GPS! We appreciate all of you!
Your Friends at Character GPS,
Deb & Jeff Cain