Newspapers / Philanthropy Journal of North … / Sept. 1, 1994, edition 1 / Page 6
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Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina September 1994 Vote Continued from page 4 of 1992. Materials were available for home-school students in libraries, and for private school students upon request. After participating in the program for legs.than three months, nearly 40,000 stifents “voted” in the November election. Program officials in Charlotte were surprised at the major turnout. “It was phenomenal,” says Murphy. At each voting precinct in Mecklenberg County, a special area was set up for Kids Voting. About 1,400 volunteers were on hand to dis tribute specially made ballots and help children with the voting process. Volunteers were recruited from parent-teacher associations, private businesses, local churches and other community groups. The Charlotte project is funded in part by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami. Also, local banks, utilities and people Murphy characterizes as “our good corporate citizens” helped support the project. The Kids Voting office - located in The Charlotte Observer building — is a donation from the newspaper. Charlotte Kids Voting board member Betsy Williamson says that the project has four main goals: to teach children the meaning of democracy and responsibility, to stimulate awareness, to increase the likelihood that these children will vote as adults and to increase adult voter turnout now. Williamson coordinates efforts to get information about Kids Voting to teachers. In addition to putting together workshops for teachers, she visits principals, parents and com munity groups to let them know what Kids Voting is about. So that students may become more involved in the project, Kids Voting in Charlotte has started a stu dent advisory board. After submit ting projects showing the importance of voting to children and adults, 20 students were selected by teachers, board members and members of the League of Women Voters. Each month, the board will meet to offer ideas ^out how to. make Kids Voting woi4^. V - “We’re going to empower them to speak on behalf of students in the county,” says Murphy, who adds that the board will be “an important voice for the project.” Since 1988, when the project first started in Phoenix, Ariz., Kids Voting has grown from reaching 30,000 stu dents to an expected 2.5 million throughout the U.S. this year. According to Kids Voting USA, about 86 percent of the students and 96 percent of the teachers that partici pated in the program said they would like it to continue. For information on Kids Voting, caU (704)-358-5821. School Continued from page 4 North Raleigh, which is home to Wake Summerbridge. The private school’s sprawling campus hosted 36 students from a variety of Wake nei^borhoods, rural and urban. For six humid weeks, the youngsters studied physics, dis cussed literature, and pondered the horrors of the Holocaust as weU as the words of Taoist philosopher Lao- tse. They took home about three to four hours of homework each ni^t. All the classes were taught and designed by hi^ school and college students from schools as far away as New Orleans, who are considering teaching careers. “It’s a multiple-win kind of situa tion,” Ledyard says. “You have kids who are growing excited about edu cation. You have young adults testing a whole new avenue of teaching for themselves. Plus, from an institution al view, it brings pubMc and private schools together.” Ledyard and Monaco, director of Wake Summerbridge, first met at the Kentucky Country Day School in Louisville, where Ledyard taught and Monaco studied. After Monaco grad uated from Hamilton College in New York in 1989, he returned to Louisville to work with a Summerbridge program there. “Before that I taught at Summerbridge Cincinnati and just fell in love with the program” Monaco says. While in Louisville, Monaco con tacted his former high school mentor, — who had by then moved to Raleigh to become Ravenscroft’s headmaster — and told him about the nonprofit education program. Would Ledyard be interested in having a program in his community? In one year, Ledyard had enlisted the support of his school board to donate campus space, and persuad ed the Wake County Board of Education to let the nonprofit recruit students. All that was left for Monaco to do was secure funding — about $70,000. Not a simple task, as any director of a start-up nonprofit knows well. But Monaco had the Summerbridge name behind him. The program dates back to 1978, when a former public school teacher founded the first Summerbridge program in San Francisco. Programs now operate througiout the U.S., including cities such as New Orleans and Boston. And they enjoy widespread support, including annual teaching grants from the John Motley Morehead Foundation in Chapel HiU. In fact. President Clinton in June named 17 Summerbridge programs —Including Wake’s — to his new AmeriCorps National Service Program, which matches young peo ple with community service jobs and gives educational stipends to partici pating students and grants to partici pating nonprofits. AmeriCorps will fund young administrators at Summerbridge. With that kind of cache, Monaco quickly secured funding from a num ber of sources, including the Z.Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Glaxo Special Projects Fund, and was launched Wake Summerbridge in June. “I can assure you this one’s off to a great start,” says Chuck Lovelace, executive director of the Morehead Foundation, who attended an open house at Wake Summerbridge in July. On that day, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the pro gram was 11-year-old Duane Doster. Last spring, teachers at Leesville Middle School discussed holding Duane back in the 6th grade because he had begun to spend time with a truant crowd, was skipping class and getting into trouble. But Monaco recognized Duane’s academic potential when he submit ted essays and standardized test scores for admission to Wake Summerbridge. “This is the classic story of the student who got in with the wrong crowd and got labeled as a trouble maker,” Monaco says. At the open house, Duane stands outside his physics class, shifting from one black high-top sneaker to the other. “It helps me with my organization and helps me prepare for the next grade,” he says, of his new interest in school. “I’m learning some pre-alge bra. It sort of gets me ahead of peo ple. It’s fun learning here because there are only four people in each class.” Duane’s future dreams? “Oh, aerospace engineering,” he says. “Hopefully, go to Morehouse College,” in Atlanta. But Duane won’t limit himself to rocket science. He wants to leave time for his mythology studies. “I’m working on soap sculptures of Greek Gods, ” he says. “Hercules is my favorite.” Like many of the Wake Summerbridge students, the 11-year- old is quick to admit what his sum mer would have looked like without the school program. “I’d be sitting at home watching talk shows and stuff on TV,” he says, “and I’d probably be mad at myself because I should be doing something else.” Media Continued from page 3 Administration. At an Adoption Summit in Ralei^ in July, 'Tar Heel media rep resentatives heard from their coun terparts in other states who have run adoption features. Among them was Rosemary Dorr, a reporter with the Detroit News whose weekly column has pro filed more than 1,000 children since 1987 — 70 percent of whom have found homes. At WGHP in High Point, produc ers welcome the state’s involvement in the effort to find homes for Tar Heel children. “We have tried to offer our pro gram continuously, and the only thing that has hampered us is not getting referrals from social work ers,” says anchor/producer Cynthia Smoot. “I’m glad to see the state is putting its weight behind this now. That’s key to the success of these programs.” Besides raising public awareness of children’s needs, Smoot hopes the state will help track the success of “Wednesday’s Child-type” features. “One of our frustrations is we haven’t been able to document placements except in a case-by-case way,” she says. “We’d like to be able to do more follow-up stories so that people who might be kicking around the idea of adoption, but are nervous about it, can see adoptions that work.” By the first week in August, edi tors at The Charlotte Observer had received five dozen calls about the inaugural “Sunday’s Child” feature they ran July 24. Features reporter Richard Maschal was initially skeptical about the adoption stories. “My first reaction was that this was “Pet of the Week,” he says. “But the thing you realize about it - and the response [to the feature] shows this - is that the newspaper is such a powerful medium and search light. You shine that search light and it has a result...If two kids get adopted from this, that’s fabulous.” Suzanne Brown, Sunday fea tures editor at the The News & Observer, says the Raleigh paper plans to begin a “Sunday’s Child” feature sometime this fall. Deitch says North Carolina is the first state to try a statewide media recruitment campaign tor “adoption features. Despite their success in other parts of the country, he says, such programs are only part of the solu tion to the problems facing children. “Our project is not the only answer,” Deitch says. “It’s at the end of the line when the kids have already lost their homes.” For information about the media program or children awaiting adop tion in North Carolina, call the Division of Social Services, (919) 733-3801. A primer for parents Answers to questions about adoption riie Si:iie Division of Social Services lias come up wiih these answers to frequently asked questions about adoption. Q: How do i find out about childivn who are available for adoption? in addition to ii receniK launched mi’din camptiign to profile chil dren awaiting homes, .North Carolina's Division of Social Services publish es ;i "I’hoio .VIoplion Li.-tings Services' book containing biographical inlorinalion on more than 5110 ciiiklren. Q. Do adoption agencies chargi' a fee? A. I’nblic ngencies charge no fees for adoption scrvictt.s. I’rivate agen cies generally do not charge fia-s for adoihions involving special needs children, but most charge fees for other adoption soiviees. (J. How long dot's it take to adopt a child? A. It can takt; six months or more after submiiiing an application before a child is placed in a home Altcnhai, another six months to a year inav pass tielore the adoption is made fimd in court IJ. Can I get financiiil a.ssistance for iidiqtlingspt'cial nct'ds chihlrcn? A. ^c.'. 'i'hc aintiunt of assistance is based on the child's backgrtiund iiml Is anil may cover medical cxijeiiscs and .some costs as.sociated with the adoption process. U. What are ri'((uiremcnts to iHicomo an adoptive parent? A. N'ou do nof have to have a high income or be married to adopt a child. \ou mav have children of your own or other adopted children. You don't have to own a home You can begin as a foster parent before commit ting to legal adoption. SaiiivK K,€. 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Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Sept. 1, 1994, edition 1
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