1. You find yourself trying to tell everyone you meet about the cool History Channel documentary you just watched.
2. You love “shocking” young people with stories about what things were like when you were in school.
3. Your idea of a good time is coming up with funny nicknames and inside jokes with friends.
4. You feel called to make a difference in your community but you aren’t sure how to do it.
5. You secretly loved pizza day in the cafeteria when you were in school.
6. You believe all kids deserve a fair chance at becoming a high school graduate.
7. You’ve got at least one hour a week that you just don’t know what to do with.
Sadly, hundreds of people in Lexington and Davidson County live with these symptoms for years without ever being diagnosed.
Call 336-242-1520 or visit our mentor page to find out what steps you can take today to finally become a mentor to a child in need.
An article in the High Point Enterprise and a press release printed by The Dispatch have given Big Toy Day some much-needed publicity over the past few days. We’re just getting started and we hope the attention will help us make it even bigger and better than last year. Check out our homepage to find out how to become a “big toy” participant or a sponsor!
Plans for the second-annual Big Toy Day presented by Communities In Schools of Lexington/Davidson County are well underway.
Right now we’re working on putting together sponsorship proposals so we can invite local business and community leaders to play an active role in one of our organization’s most important fundraisers.
We’re also looking for Big Toy Day participants. Last year, we had more than 40 owners of “big toys” join us at Davidson County Airport and we’d like to have even more this time around. If you or someone you know has a “big toy” they’d like to share with the community, let us know!
Check back soon for downloadable forms and more Big Toy Day information.
Clyde Fitzgerald, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank, spoke at Southwest Elementary's backpack program kickoff event on May 25
Clyde Fitzgerald, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest N.C., often uses the maxim: “Children who can’t learn become adults who can’t earn.”
We never get tired of hearing him say it because it’s true. To truly break the cycle of poverty that has too many members of our community struggling, we need to throw a cog in the wheel.
By providing meals to children at risk of going home on the weekends to empty refrigerators, we help them come back to school focused and ready to learn on Monday morning, making them more likely to achieve academically and therefore more likely to grow into adults with choices about their education and career.
Yesterday, Southwest Elementary held the official media kickoff for their backpack program, which as been actively feeding students since February. Read more about Southwest’s program in this article from The Dispatch.
50 students at Lexington Senior High School are much closer to receiving a supply of food to take home on the weekends next year thanks to the youth groups of First Lutheran, First Baptist, First Presbyterian, First Reformed, First Methodist and Grace Episcopal.
Last night, the spaghetti supper they organized to support the LSHS Backpack Program raised nearly $5,000. That’s more than enough to fund the program for the first half of the school year. “Like” us on Facebook to see more photos from the supper.
More than 400 people purchased tickets for the spaghetti supper held at First Lutheran on May 22. Members of six Lexington-area youth groups sponsored the event in support of their peers.
Martha Maness, CIS Site Coordinator for the Teen Parent Program at Davidson County Extended Day School, recognized three mentors on Monday during an end-of-year celebration in their honor. Several girls who are current and past participants in the program joined the mentors at a lunch buffet.
Martha Maness (center), Site Coordinator for the Teen Parent Program at Davidson County Extended Day School, stands with two of the mentors she recognized Monday during an end-of-year mentor appreciation lunch.
“Like” us on Facebook (right) to see more photos from the celebration!
The backpack program has expanded to two more schools to help provide nutritious food for students when they are not at school.
Southwest and Southwood elementary schools have started the program through Communities in Schools of Lexington/Davidson County.
Fifty students from each of the schools who receive free or reduced-price lunch receive the easy-to-prepare food that assures the students have something to eat during weekends and holidays through CIS. At school, the students are guaranteed food with breakfast and lunch, but school officials wanted to ensure they also had food at home.
Read the rest of the article by The Dispatch’s Deneesha Edwards here.
Hunger may have many faces. But as a student at Lexington Senior High School, hunger has a more personal face: a face in the hallway at school, a face of a fellow classmate, a face of a friend.
- Blythe Riggan, Teen Correspondent for The Dispatch.
Thanks Blythe for your moving words about the joint effort between CIS and several Lexington-area youth groups to raise money to start a Backpack Program at Lexington Senior High School.
Read Blythe’s entire article here.
Currently there are three schools in the Lexington City school system — LSHS, South Lexington & Charles England — that do not have Backpack Programs. Contact us at the CIS office (242.1520) to learn more about what concerned community members are doing to change that.
CIS was up bright and early Saturday morning to celebrate Healthy Kids Day at J. Smith Young YMCA with nearly 100 kids and their parents.
CIS staff members (Ryan Jones & Martika Byers) and two CIS students manned the Nail Art table while several other area businesses and nonprofits hosted activities like face painting, DIY first-aid kits and a trail mix buffet.
Like us on Facebook (right) to view more photos!
