Update for Multicultural Tapestry Day @ the Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum

OKC

Casady Youth LEAD, Jack R. contacted the Education Director at the Museum.  We are still trying to find the best combination of audience and date for the retreat experience.  

On Friday, 3/4 Jack R. and Carmen Clay had a meeting to explore new dates for the Youth LEAD OKC Multicultural Tapestry Day at the Oklahoma National Memorial and Museum.  The first logistics exploration is to find new dates when Youth LEADERS can organize and facilitate the experience.  Ryan sent the following e-mail to YLOKCasady, Mercy, North West Classen, and Classen SAS, "I am going to try to help organize everyone and I will contact the heads of each committee (i.e. logistics, recruitment, programming) and see which dates are best out of these for the project:  April 10-14, April 17-21, or May 15-19"

Dare to Dream Conference Showcase 2017

Casady sophomores Sahanya Bhaktaram and Mason Thomas, and freshman, Ashley Cooper Lindstrom's proposal "It's Your Turn to Serve" for Dare to Dream, the 28th Annual National Service Learning Conference, has been selected for the conference showcase to be hosted at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA. Showcase participants are encouraged to share information about service or service-learning project or program and the impact of the project through a display that illustrates the work, engages attendees, and inspires others. The Dare to Dream Showcase Proposal Casady upper and middle divisions use YAC, Youth active in the community as a platform to provide kids the opportunity to serve. Our showcase focuses on three specific projects: Rachel’s Challenge, Peace week, and Special Care. We will share what we did and why.  Describe the impact the project has had in your community  Special Care gives teens an opportunity to spend time and interact with kids who have disabilities. Personally, it has taught me understanding, patience, and most of all empathy. It has impacted the community by helping parents with kids that have disabilities go to work, knowing that their kids are still getting the attention they need. For Peace week this year at Casady we decorated the halls with silhouettes of peace, paper people of all different skin tones decorated by children from different schools and shelters. These silhouettes remind our community of our diversity and our unity to be kind to one another. Rachel’s Challenge teaches kids to learn how kindness can stop bullying without coming face to face with the bully. It changes people, into living with happiness instead of anger.  Describe what makes your project unique  Rachel’s Challenge lets kids see kindness in their schools through a different perspective. It allows kids to listen and seek out kindness. The chain signifies the kindness happening in their community. Special Care is unique because their new facility opened a couple of years ago and has grown greatly. It gives children with special needs the ability to interact with children their age without the feeling of adults hovering. It gives kids the opportunity to interact in a mainstream social environment. Peace week is unique because we use silhouettes of peace to bring people together, this idea was created by Mason. They may represent kindness but they also bring peace between groups with different skin tones.  The Casady Dare to Dream Team will be showcasing their personal projects as described in their proposal.  The YAC sponsor, Mrs. Carmen Clay has also prepared a PP of service experiences promoted at Casady by its service-learning council, YAC (Youth Active in the Community), faculty, and administration. YAC's mission is to participate in the community to improve lives. The Casady Service-Learning Program's mission is to "Empower entrepreneurs of peace and social change".  View "The Infinitive Paths to Peace, What is Yours? Powepoint that will accompany the Dare to Dream Team Showcase here.  The team will also feature a t-shirt quilt of service projects as a table cover. Cooper Lindstrom will showcase her advocacy to stop bullying through kindness. She started her Kindness Chain Reaction inspired by Rachel's Challenge in the Middle Division as an eighth grader.  Before Random Acts of Kindness Week, Cooper presented her project at chapel and motivated peers and faculty to "catch acts of kindness they observed and write them on rectangular pieces of paper."  Cooper has been creating a chain of kindness acts with those strips in the month of February.   Senior Nicole Jia, Miss America, Outstanding Teen,connected her National Kindness Day Activity to Cooper's kindness initiative.  In its second year at the Upper Division, Nicole promoted sending kindness grams with kindness messages and lollipops to peers to celebrate the day.  The service-learning program placed mints at faculty mailboxes to thank them for their help and kindness with Upper Division service projects. Nicole is also promoting the Warm Project for the second consecutive year.  Each grade will make blankets which will be delivered to Positive Tomorrows when finished. Nicole's platform is #be selfless.  Nicole is the official National Teen Goodwill Ambassador for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals. Casady's Student Council Project, in its third year will be an April Walk-A-Thon with proceeds benefiting Children's Hospital.  Cooper and Nicole's focused on Kindness in the month of February inspired, Lower Division faculty, Mrs. Megan Thompson who created the LD Garden of Kindness Bulletin Board.  Children from 1st to 4th grade are adding their blooming flowers of kindness to the beautiful bulletin board which will be displayed at the Lower Division during the ISAS Arts Festival. Mason Thomas will showcase her "Peace Silhouettes" project. Mason had an out of the box idea when she was at the Primary Division and observed the children's decorations for their World Banquet.  The children decorated small cardboard figures to represent people around the world participating at their world banquet.  At the end of the school year 2015-2016, Mason requested the purchase of materials to decorated figures as people from around the world and place them on buildings to have a visual connection to our world's diversity like we did with world religions in the previous year. In the month of August, Casady Upper Division art classes, Casady After School Care, Stanley Hupfeld Academy at Western Village, and Boys and Girls Club Art Classes received the materials requested by Mason and decorated multicultural cardboard silhouettes following the chapel theme for this school year, "I AM".  Mason created murals with the silhouettes at every Upper Division building during Peace Week-11 Days of Global Unity (9/11-9/21, 2016).   The children and teens decorated silhouettes were an artistic connection to respect and understanding of our Oklahoma diversity and our unity in addressing the challenges of the themes of the week with awareness of the themes of the week through chapels speeches, and acts of service, kindness, compassion,and honor, the Oklahoma Standard. The Peace Silhouettes were also connecting seeds to new mentoring initiatives. Senior Erik Rangel has been exploring schedules for a mentoring program with Western Village.   The Peace Silhouettes made by the Casady after school care children will be displayed at the Activities building during the ISAS Arts Festival. Sahanya Bhaktaram will be featuring her service with Special Care Youth Board and its developing connections to Casady junior, Zac Conner, Best Buddies International Project, and Casady freshman, Aaron Puffinbarger, 2-WATRR project. As part of his Independent Study Course, Skills for Action: Classroom with a Cause, Aaron aims to build a new 2-Wheelchair Accessible Track for Andrew Johnson Elementary.  Zac's project aims to start a mentoring program between Casady Upper Division Cyclones and the after school care program at Special Care. Sahanya will also feature her commitment to serving to end Oklahoma hunger with collaborative YAC projects such as the Casady Cans Do Students Against Hunger Food Drive and YAC connections to Casady Cares administrative initiatives of professional development mornings at the Food Bank before school starts. Sahanya will also share her ongoing project of promoting once a month volunteering at Boys and Girls Club at Memorial Park, a Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Kids Cafe and YAC's connection to helping helping OKC homeless with projects such as Sophomore's Ellisson Guzzy, Perfect Pair, benefiting the Homeless Alliance.

Newlyweds Aid Refugees on Humanitarian Honeymoon Meet Daily Point of Light Award honorees Ethan Zohn and Lisa Heywood Zohn. The couple kicked-off their marriage with a humanitarian mission to aid Syrian refugees in Northern Greece, raising $45,000 to support a large refugee camp. Ethan, known for his third-season win on CBS’s Survivor reality series, shares how that trip left an impression far more meaningful than honeymooning on a sandy beach every could. Read their story.

Volunteer Program Helps Address Refugee Crisis in Brazil Since 2011, the number of refugees in Brazil has doubled each year. Points of Light’s international affiliate Atados runs a series of programs and quick-action campaigns to mobilize a large number of volunteers to supplement the government’s efforts. Check out our February international member spotlight to learn how Atados is helping refugees integrate into Brazilian culture with the help of volunteers.

Celebrating the Contributions of Extraordinary Black Changemakers During Black History Month, we recognize and celebrate the significant contributions that African-Americans have made throughout history and their impact on economic, social and political issues. Read about some of these extraordinary changemakers who are featured on the Points of Light Monument, a one-mile walkway in Washington, D.C., that honors Americans who have transformed our nation and the world through service.

10 Young Changemakers Inspire Others to Take Action and Be Kind The 2017 Hasbro Community Action Heroes gathered in New York City this week to be honored by Hasbro and generationOn, the youth division of Points of Light, for their incredible service. Though they are still young - ranging from age 9 to 18 - they have already started their own nonprofits, lobbied state governments, created community impact and engagement programs, and much more. Read more about their work and how they’re inspiring other kids to get involved.

YAC meeting, Monday, February 27, 7:30 am

7:30 am, Harper, February 27
Seniors: Isaiah, Omar, MiAngila
Juniors: Safra and Mariam
Sophomores: Sahanya and Claire R.  Thank you Sahanya for breakfast bars!
Freshmen: Aaron and Ahmed

NO minutes or pictures provided for the meeting

The agenda was limited to starting the Fleece Quilts for Positive Tomorrows, the last official YAC Random Acts of Kindness for the month of February.  Nicole J. purchased the materials but was unable to attend the meeting.  Her mother brought the materials at 7:30 am.  The cost of the supplies was $78.  

Isaiah facilitated the meeting.  He reminded YAC members to sign-up at signupgenius to thank donors like Mr. Rainbolt.

Isaiah read the thank you note provided by Mr. Rainbolt and Mrs. Clay showed the two books Mr. Rainbolt sent for YAC and Casady Cares adults to read.

All other agenda items below stayed in the parking lot because YAC had to go to chapel.

  

 The blanket from the Dare to Dream team will go to the kindergarten class at Positive Tomorrows after the group showcases projects.

Agenda
Activity:
-Warm Project:  Blankets for Positive Tomorrows
-Rainbolt Visit Reflection and thank you note

1 Upcoming Projects
-March
Casady's Development Office Needs Volunteers to write thank you notes to donors March 7 during lunch and Activities at the Wing.  Taco truck lunch provided.   Sign-up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090f48a5ab2cabf94-notes. 

Ellie and Miranda's projects

New Project starting this Friday:  Meeting at Vineyard 9:00-11:00
Book Project:  I'm excited about the potential for creating Ms. Stout's book, as a service learning project and a collaboration between Casady and the Metropolitan Library System.

First things first: my schedule for the next week or so is a little busy because we're short-staffed right now. But I can arrange to go meet Ms. Stout with you either next Tuesday (2/28) between 8-10 am or between 12-2 pm, or next Friday (3/3) between 9-11 am. Let me know if any of those times could work.

I mentioned to you that the library system has a new service called Biblioboard, which is a digital library of indie and self-published books. Biblioboard has a component called Pressbooks, which allows a local author to design a book cover, compress images, and upload content into a digital book that then becomes part of the library's collection. All local books uploaded to Biblioboard also get reviewed by Library Journal and could potentially be highlighted if they get good reviews. This is still a new service for the library and I haven't yet been fully trained on it, but it would be a great tool for this project.

If Ms. Stout wants to publish a physical book and potentially sell it, there is also the possibility that this could be done through a new publishing arm of the Metropolitan Library System, the Park Hudson Press. The library just published a book in collaboration with the OKC Zoo called A Day at the Zoo, and we set up a publishing press to do that, with the thought of possibly publishing more collaborative books in the future. If you want to explore this possibility, I'll have to run it past the administration and they'll probably want the library to have final say over the editing of the book, to make sure the quality is such that we want our name attached to it. Again, this is another new initiative, but one that could potentially be helpful for what we want to do.

Thanks,

Elisabeth

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Elisabeth Wright
Young Adult Librarian
Village Library
Currently Reading: Make Your Home Among Strangers, by Jennine Capo Crucet

-April
-May

2 National Service Learning Conference
-Quilt Help
-Ideas for the Showcase

3. Items from the floor
-Re-schedule grant writing workshop
-YAC 2017-2018 officers
-Strategic Planning for YAC and interested clubs date/time/facilitator: Mr. Evan Walter


4.

Presidential Service Awards will be ordered at the end of February.  If you have not reported hours served yet, please do so ASAP.  After your hours are verified and entered in personal service report files, transcript and report cards, you need to create or update your file at the Presidential award website.  The service learning office is only able to order awards from the Presidential Award website.  Awards are delivered at chapel during National Volunteer Week in April.  16 year old and older qualify with 100+ hours of service.  Younger students qualify with a minimum of 50 hours.

Lunch with Mr Rainbolt

Photos by Aaron P.'20

Program

12:00-12:30 

Joan K.* Coach Bonfiglio, Coach T., Father Marlin*, Father Blizzard*,  Mr. Evan Walter*, Dr. Wesley Fryer*, Dr. Sara Price*, Mrs. Small*, Mrs. Clay*, Mrs. Betty Jane Garrett 

  

Available Casady Cares adults visited with Mr. Rainbolt at the Wing conference room.  Faculty, administration, and Oklahoma non-profits, such as the Respect Diversity Foundation of Oklahoma are resources for teen initiatives that help actualize the mission of the Casady service club, YAC (Youth Active in the Community).  YAC's why is to participate in the community to improve lives.
  

Mr. Rainbolt asked us to reflect on how our projects are aiming to lessen the "economic, capitalistic Darwinism" and empower our students to use their education to change "opportunity in life," because education is the lever that creates prosperity from poverty.  

12:30-1:30 (Lunch and Activities)

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

   

"Honestly, I did not know so much service was going on.  It was great to meet Mr. Rainbot and learned about the projects around campus and in the Oklahoma City community."  Members of the Junior Class.

  

Freshmen:       Saadia N. Jacob B. Malavika R. Aaron P. Ahmed H., Ellie T., Cooper L. (7)        

Sophomores:   Sahanya B., Katherine S., Ellie G., Anna B. Hallie R., Brooklyn D., Justin S., Brandon T. Hannah H. (9)

Juniors:            Safra S. Mariam S. Luke A., , Gabrielle M. (4) 

Seniors:           MiAngila G., Jack R., Johnny L., Calvin T., Jake U., Josh B., Miranda T., Isaiah L. Barry Z., Caitlyn , Nicole Jia (11)

Adults:             Father Marlin, Mr Evan Walter, Dr Wesley Fryer, Mr. Kelly, Dr. Sara Price, Mrs. Small,Mrs Clay, Dr. Carlos Torres

Cyclone servant leaders ate lunch and shared "their service spark" with Mr. Gene Rainbolt, benefactor of the Service-Learning Program.  The Rainbolt Family has an endowment at the Oklahoma Community Foundation for the service learning program to be part of the Casady education for perpetuity. Mr. Rainbolt received yearly reports from the program director at first. Then, reports came in the form of informal conversations with YAC students about the difference they were making in the community.  

The lunch dialog was a collaborative reflection of what Cyclones are doing to be the change they want to see. Freshmen Saadia N. and Aaron P. created a PP with sample YAC projects and Mrs. Carmen Clay, Rainbolt Family Service-Learning Chair reported on the program of the current academic year with a PP, which will also support a Cyclone showcase at the 28th National Service-Learning Conference in Anaheim, California.  Freshman Cooper L. and sophomores Sahanya B. and Mason T. will be showcasing their projects and motivating youth and adults at the conference to bring similar initiatives to their communities.

As a token of Casady YAC's appreciation, Mr. Rainbolt received a t-shirt and roots of service drawings quilt designed by freshman Malavika R. under the guidance of our master quilter and CFO, Mrs Shirley Small.  YAC students learned how to make a quilt and how to sew as they created the quilt.  Mr. Rainbolt also received an orchid plant to add to his garden.

"Education changes the opportunity in life.  It might be a teacher, it might be a subject, (it might be a buddy or a mentor) but education as such is the lever that creates prosperity from poverty" -Gene Rainbolt