Against The Grain

I realized that I had not updated this in a couple of months.  We have been very busy with a new group of moms starting up and preparing for Freedom Schools for the kids.
Today we end week three of Freedom Schools which is the summer portion of the year-round Reach & Teach program. Freedom Schools is a five week literacy camp which also focuses on character development, leadership skills, team building exercises and a whole lot of fun. This has easily been the most challenging and rewarding thing we have ever done.
A day in the life of Freedom Schools; We start at 8:00 when the kids get off the buses and come together to eat breakfast. After breakfast we have a group time called Harambee (Swahili for “lets pull together”). We start with singing, then an individual from the community will “read aloud” and we end with cheers and chants. The next 2 - 2 1/2 hours are spent reading and doing activities based around the books that are being read; crafts, games, drama and song writing are just a few of the activities to reinforce the books. The kids eat lunch at noon which ends with the group doing the Cupid Shuffle and the Cha-Cha Slide. Each afternoon is a little different. We have done sports, relays, crafts, a newspaper, played Guitar Hero III and had a whole lot of fun. The day ends with cheers and chants before the kids get back on the buses and head for home at 3:00.
The next two weeks will highlight a trip to a Nashville Sounds game, a visit from the Nashville Predators, a swim day at the Rec and will end on August 1 with a trip to Beach Bend. The evening before, July 31, we will have a celebration event where the kids will perform many of the cheers and chants and activities that have been worked on over the 5 weeks. If you are interested in attending it will be at 6:00 pm on Thursday July 31 at Christ Community Church on Hillsboro Rd with a reception to follow the celebration. We are also in need of volunteers for the last 2 weeks, if you are interested please call Meredith at 496-8769.

Before you get worried that we have seen aliens, this was an amazing invasion.  Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY had a retreat in Nashville May 16 - 18 for their 20 something group and sent 100 volunteers to Franklin to serve the community.  Saturday, from 9 - 12 they cleaned houses, organized, re-arranged furniture, landscaped and completely cleaned out the tutoring center.  In total, there were 19 projects that were completed on Saturday.  We love picnics, so at 12:30 we met with our friends from S.E.C.C. and the moms they had just served in Strahl Park and spent 2 hours eating and playing games.  It was an amazing privilege to introduce people with a heart to serve to people with a need.  The interaction between the two groups was awesome.  As one of our kids (Princess - a five year old young lady that has been a part of AtG for 4 years) said after everyone left "Miss Meredith, out of everything we have done…this was the best ever".  We want to send out a special thank-you to our friends from Louisville for making this work day a complete success.

The school year is ending and Reach & Teach is preparing to shift from the school-year tutoring to the 5 week summer program.  To celebrate the kids efforts throughtout the school year we had a picnic.  On May 5, the children of Reach & Teach and their parents joined AtG staff and volunteers for a great time of food and fun in Strahl Park.  We had a great time…eating, playing games and getting to know some of the parents that we don't normally get to spend time with.  There were over 150 people in that park. 
Remembering back to June of 2003, this is the same park that AtG met with 8 single moms and presented the vision for AtG.  Those 8 moms have grown to over 200 moms we have served and over 50 moms that we are currently working with.  This have grown from 23 kids to over 100 coming to the tutoring program, there are several other kids that we work with outside of the tutoring program through one-on-one coaching.  It has been an amazing ride and we look forward to the next 5 years to see what the future holds.

We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks.  We started with an evening of Laser Chase and pizza with the boys and mentors (thank you Dave and Adam at Laser Chase for donating the games).  6 boys with 6 men had a great time shooting each other and then stuffing ourselves with pizza.  Last weekend we had 4 different activities.  Friday night started with a community group from Fellowship Bible Church which held a party at a home in Westhaven for the moms and their kids.  Saturday a group from Brentwood Baptist came and played at the park with the kids while the moms went to a women's event at Fourth Avenue Church.  We had over 60 kids and 25 volunteers in the park playing kickball, basketball, making gift bags for their moms and walking around the pond.  We ended Sunday night at Let It Shine Gymnastics (thanks Let It Shine for opening up your building for free).  The youth group from Fourth Avenue Church came and once again we had pizza, drinks and a lot of fun.  Sorry to all for not getting out the prayer list like I should have…as you can see we have been very busy.  Monday, May 5 we will have a picnic in Strahl park to end our schoolyear with Reach & Teach.  Last year we had somewhere around 150 volunteers and kids show up.  If you are intersted in coming, please contact Meredith at the office of email her at meredith@atghope.org. 

Friday Night in Westhaven

Saturday in the Park (Sounds like a Chicago song frm the 70"s)

Sunday night at Let it Shine

As many of you know, it was 5 years ago we started AtG.  Remembering back to April of 2003, we hired Shareta to work for Meredith 5 years ago because she couldn't get enough hours at her other job and we were watching her  boys most nights and every weekend.  Helping her with a weekday job gave her time to begin to add much needed structure to her family.  Today, we have her oldest (he had to be picked up at school because of a sore throat) so that Shareta can stay in school.  She will be graduating this fall with a degree as an Office Medical Specialist. 

Check back again for more updates.

Several weeks ago 2 men approached me and said "you all do a lot of stuff for the moms, but you don't offer anything for us".  I was a little suprised because I had never even thought about it.  After working through some of the details, we agreed to take them through our Job's for Life curriculum.  Last night, we had a celebration as these 2 men were the first to graduate from an AtG class offered to men.  In honor of their efforts, J. Alexander's provided a dinner with the students and their mentors (it was awesome, Steak Maui is my favorite).  These two men have requested additional training in other subjects and there are other men in the community who have shown an interest in taking classes as well.  I keep thinking that we don't work with men, but I am reminded of the old adage "as go the men…so goes the community".  So maybe we do need to rethink the idea of a Men's Program.  Please keep us in prayer as we consider how we will proceed with the men and continue to impact the community.