All the competitors were in top shape for the 5B (held over from Friday because of bad weather) today. Under sunny, blue skies the parents joined their very happy, top rated athletes for a very fun, Fun Raiser to buy school supplies for our sister schools in Nairobi, Kenya. The teachers and children did a great job putting the event together for a very worthy Kids for Kids project. So far they have raised $822.00. Congratulations and a big thank you to all the participants.
A visit from Simeon
Simeon Ajigo, Director of Facing the Future (FAFU) an Early Childhood Program in the Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya visited with some of the children and teachers at Imagine at Lehman College Childcare.
Island Park Event
Imagine Kids for Kids does it again!
Port Washington Director AnneMarie Robley delivered a check for $4300 to her alma mater, the Francis X. Hegarty School in Island Park, Long Island, which just reopened in September after being closed for ten months after Hurricane Sandy. The donation will be used for classroom supplies and new playground equipment. Imagine children raised the funds themselves through bake sales, art auctions and other activities during our annual Kids for Kids 'FUNraiser' in April. The Hegarty children and staff are thrilled to be back home in their beloved school with new supplies and equipment. Imagine is thrilled to have been able to help
"Growing Global Citizens"
"Growing Global Citizens", an article by Jaci Maurer, director of the Lehman College Child Care Center.
What is a Global Citizen? Global Citizenship is an idea that goes beyond simply knowing that we are citizens of the world to an acknowledgement of our responsibilities both to each other and to the Earth itself. Global Citizenship requires understanding the need to tackle injustice and inequality and having the desire and ability to work actively to do so. It is about valuing the Earth as precious and unique, as well as safeguarding the future for those in the next generations. Global Citizenship is a way of thinking and behaving. It is an outlook on life—a belief that we can make a difference.
Just Add Water
Imagine Kids for Kids’ seventh annual “FUNraiser” will follow a theme of “Just Add Water” and support our “Food For All” focus. We will develop a curriculum about the importance of water and FUNraise to help provide the children at our sister school DFC in Kibera, Kenya with three meals a day. The children at Imagine will be learning about the importance of water in our lives; all living things need water, water comes in three forms (liquid, vapor and ice) and where does water come from? When the Lehman College Child Care preschoolers were asked, "Where does water come from?" they answered, the sink, the bathtub, the ocean and the clouds. When asked, "What do we have to take out of the ocean water before we drink it?", one child answered dolphins. It is going to be a fun topic to explore. Imagine Early Learning Centers will join forces during the Week of the Young Child (April 22-28) and sell recipe kits that you “Just Add Water” to for a delicious treat or meal. These recipe kits will be handmade by the children at Imagine and support our food program at DFC.
Travel Awards Given
Janine McMorrow (Vetkids), Tracy Schaffran (Brooklyn Heights) and Lauren Holleran (Courtyard Kids) were nominated by their directors to win a trip going to the Dominican Republic in March. They were given this honor because of the work they have done for Kids for Kids at their centers. Janine, Lauren and Tracy will travel with a group from Bridges to Community (along with Imagine's President Holly Saltzman) to the DR to build a house for a family. They will also see the foundation for a new school to be built and meet the teachers and children who will attend. Imagine Kids for Kids is thankful for their efforts to teach Imagine's children about empathy and reaching out to others!! All were nominated by their directors.
Just Plain Cute
A parent sent this email after he and his 2 year old child delivered a donation for the Food For All "Fun Raiser". The money will be going to our sister program DFC for a holiday feast and celebration.
"It was great. I was able to explain to my child that we were delivering an envelope, because not every child has all that she has, and that we want to share with others and help them. I would say she understood it about 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 (preoccupied as she was by a hangnail!), but she’ll never get to 3 on that scale without getting to 2. So, thank YOU guys for making that possible".
Vetkids Goldfish sharing coats with cold New Yorkers
As the calendar turned to September and Autumn's cool breezes became a natural springboard for circle time talks on weather changes and the need for more layers of warm clothing, Vets Kids for Kids "Sharing Coats With Cold New Yorkers" was born! We were aware of a neighborhood where coats would be given away during a Coat Share in mid-October to men, women, and children who will appreciate the warmth of being wrapped in coats that are gently used and given with a true spirit of generosity! Our preschoolers connected to the enthusiasm from the start when they dressed "Weather Jim" for the cooler temperatures and saw that he has 3 coats and decided he should give 2 away and put them in the coat share box! One child decided "My coat that doesn't fit anymore can go to my friend" and another child's Mom reports that after helping to make the Coat Share poster, "Her son went home and started pulling his coats off of hangers to give away!" So as our Share Box has become more and more filled in the last few weeks with warm and colorful jackets and coats, the Goldfish Class gathered around the box touching the coats and telling which were their favorite colors to share! So there we have it ...............generosity lives in the hearts of our children!
Janine McMorrow
2011 FUN-raisers
Lehman College Child Care is leading Imagine Centers in a Jump a thon to raise awareness and much needed funds for the children of Joplin, Missouri. The children will collect sponsors for a special day of jumping and helping!! If you would like to sponsor a child please fill out the form provided on the link Forms on the sidebar.
Imagine children, parents, families and teachers fun raised 950.55 for Japan. Many of the centers participated in a Coins and Cans Campaign for Japan. They partnered with Mother's Touch a Head Start early childhood program in Engelwood, Chicago. Mother's Touch raised 82.00 for a total of $1032.55. The money is being donated to UNICEF to set up 4 temporary schools using their School-in-a Box Kits.
For our 2011 Kids for Kids FUNraiser the Directors decided on Imagine Giving Back. Each center selected a program in their community or sponsoring institution to give back to. All the children and teachers gave back to their parents and all shared wonderful parent celebrations. Imagine Newark made individual keepsake pins for each family with their child's footprint on them, Jamaica sponsored a talent show night by the teachers for all parents with an art show and poetry reading by the children.
For Imagine Giving Back imagine Port made homemade dog treats for the local animal hospital and delivered one of a kind art work by the children to local businesses. Imagine BSC planted flowers for the local ecology site and Islip and Brooklyn Heights did some much needed gardening outside their centers for the neighborhood. Imagine at Lehman College Child Care sponsored Singing Children Telegrams all over the Lehman Campus, Mt Sinai Kids made beautiful baskets filled with goodies, some hand made by the children to share with the children at the Child Life Program at Mt. Sinai Hospital. The children at Imagine Dumbo designed and made bracelets to sell. Vets Kids did a clothing swap and a gallery walk featuring children's art work.
All the children, teachers and families have shared a special week. The monies earned will go to Kids for Kids and help support our sister program DFC in Kibera Slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
The children continue to raise awareness for Japan through their FUNraiser Coins and Can for Japan. By collecting plastic bottles to raise much needed funds they are also remembering and celebrating Earth Day. For all of us......it feels good to be able to help.
posted Aug 15, 2011, 2:59 PM by Ken Marlin [ updated Oct 22, 2015, 10:06 AM by Holly Saltzman ]
For our 2011 Kids for Kids Fun Raiser the Directors decided on Imagine Giving Back. Each center selected a program in their community or sponsoring institution to give back to. All the children and teachers gave back to their parents and all shared wonderful parent celebrations. Imagine Newark made individual keepsake pins for each family with their child's footprint on them, Jamaica sponsored a talent show night by the teachers for all parents with an art show and poetry reading by the children.
For Imagine Giving Back imagine Port made homemade dog treats for the local animal hospital and delivered one of a kind art work by the children to local businesses. Imagine BSC planted flowers for the local ecology site and Islip and Brooklyn Heights did some much needed gardening outside their centers for the neighborhood. Imagine at Lehman College Child Care sponsored Singing Children Telegrams all over the Lehman Campus, Mt Sinai Kids made beautiful baskets filled with goodies, some hand made by the children to share with the children at the Child Life Program at Mt. Sinai Hospital. The children at Imagine Dumbo designed and made bracelets to sell. Vets Kids did a clothing swap and a gallery walk featuring children's art work.
All the children, teachers and families have shared a special week. The monies earned will go to Kids for Kids and help support our sister program DFC in Kibera Slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
The children continue to raise awareness for Japan through their Fun Raiser Coins and Can for Japan. By collecting plastic bottles to raise much needed funds they are also remembering and celebrating Earth Day. For all of us......it feels good to be able to help.
July 7, 2010
The five Imagine teachers representing Imagine Kids for Kids at our sister school DFC in the Kibera Slum in Kenya returned from the 2010 Africa trip. Theresa Hendricks from imagine DUMBO and Jessica Wurster from BSC KIDS were recipients of an Imagine's Imagination Innovation award covering part of their travel expenses. Along with Jaci Maurer, the trip leader from Lehman College Child Care, Johanna Rojas also from Lehman and Lashana Dumpson from Imagine at Port Washington, all the Imagineers traveled with gifts and letters from Imagine children to the children at DFC. All had a life changing experience.
While there they expanded on the 2010 Kids for Kids theme, the Grow-a thon and planted tomato plants and tress and flowers with the DFC staff and children. They met with the DFC teachers to improve our on going pen pal relationship, helped to build DFC a new dining hall, took an amazing safari and saw the migration of the wildebeest.
In the next few weeks they will put together a slide show to share with all of Imagine. We look forward to a presentation about their trip at the October conference.
Jaci speaks at theNational Coalition for Campus Centers Conference
In April, Jaci Maurer, Director of the Lehman College Child Care Center presented a workshop at the National Coalition for Campus Children’s Centers (NCCCC) Conference in San Diego, CA. The workshop focused on implementing a curriculum which creates opportunities for our children to develop cross cultural, learning friendships with children in other parts of the United States and the world. The goal of this program is to instill a sense of empathy in our children by incorporating age appropriate activities into our curriculum that will help our children gain a better understanding of the world.
Through this curriculum, the children of the Lehman College Child Care Center have developed an ongoing pen pal relationship with children in a school in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Children and teachers have incorporated classroom activities and sponsored “fun raising” events to help support the educational growth, nutrition and support the teaching staff of our sister school, Drug Fighters and Counseling for the Future Generations (DFC). Over the past 4 years, Jaci Maurer and some of the teaching staff from the child care center have visited DFC several times to assist in improvement projects at the school, as well as implement educational activities with the children of DFC.