Ah… New Orleans… You just never know who you’re gonna meet. You can’t control where you’re gonna meet ‘em. And most importantly, you never really know exactly why. You have no control over it. Strangers become friends… become family over a beer, over a Saints game or over by the river.

Thanks Lynn and Fred for giving our students a chance to grow and learn at the Boys and Girls Club. I owe you a beer and a Saints game and a walk by the river. Welcome Home.

“And we live in a French Quarter a lot of the time, in New Orleans. And the camaraderie of everybody there. Everybody takes care of each other. “                                                                                                                Delta B.

From… My friends at Sammy Wilkinson Memorial Foundation http://www.nays.org/Sammy_memorial/

“I hope each of you are doing well! Things are moving along well here with the Sammy Foundation and our international programs and I wanted to update you on a funding opportunity we are currently in the running to potentially receive, if we obtain enough votes!

 http://www.refresheverything.com/oneworldoneteam

 Please follow the link above to go online and vote for our ONE World. ONE Team. initiative which is designed to help provide donated youth sports equipment and educational resources to communities in need throughout the U.S. and worldwide. This is a new campaign we will be launching in the next few weeks and if our idea receives enough votes we will receive $50,000 in funding. You can also vote by texting Pepsi and information on how to do that will also be found on the web page above as well. If you have problems registering let me know and I will be more than happy to assist you.

 If you have a Facebook and/or Twitter account please promote it on that as well because we need all the help we can get.”

 Cindy Daub

Director, Sammy Wilkinson Memorial Foundation

Coordinator, Global Gear Drive

International Alliance for Youth Sports (IAYS)

2050 Vista Parkway

West Palm Beach, FL 33411

1-561-684-1141

Fax: 561-712-9887

www.nays.org / www.iays.org

WE ARE…

ONE WORLD. ONE TEAM.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

The Recovery School District 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) is seeking a sponsor for our partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Louisiana.  Our goal is to enroll 100 participants at an annual membership fee of $5 for a total cost of $500.  This sponsorship will allow our 21st CCLC participants full membership and access to all club facilities and special events.  At the Club, they will have the opportunity to develop leadership and life skills as well as the opportunity to harness their interests in education, the arts, sports and fitness, and recreation.

 Participants who will benefit from this partnership are students enrolled in the Gregory Elementary 21st CCLC program.  They are 4th through 8^th graders who will visit the Boys and Girls Clubs facility once a week for two hours.  21st CCLC will provide transportation.  Having benefits as a full member, participants will also be able to visit the Club independently if they wish.

 Membership fees are not allowed with 21st CCLC grant funds.  We appreciate a sponsor who can enable this beneficial partnership for both organizations.  The benefits truly outweigh the cost.  

contact me at troy.peloquin@rsdla.net or 504-301-8902 to help out.

“The fundamental truth: a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day.”

 A busy summer plus a jump start to the school year finds me writing about what we have done as opposed to what we are planning to do. It was a summer filled with experiences that made me remember exactly what we are doing down here. For me, reflection comes easier with a paintbrush or shovel in my hands.

 But first… Playing catch up has never been my strong suite… but here goes.

 This summer, we worked with 1000’s of new volunteers and plenty from the past. Son Servants, Youth Works, Americorps NCCC, City Year, KaBoom!, Marriot, Robbins Floors, Covington Floors,  Starbucks, BP, the 3^rd District Kiwanis, Cox, the Irish Channel Association, Barnes and Noble, Community Coffee, the New Orleans Library, NORD, Office Depot, Home Depot, Kellogg’s, Piccadilly, Donor’s Choose, Sherwin Williams, VH1, C & M Music, NPR…

We packed and hauled textbooks up countless stairs, painted Haban’s Elementary and Rabouin, fixed a roof, built a new basketball floor, installed playgrounds, collected and distributed school supplies and uniforms, got sock tan lines, listened to so many hours of top 40 pop radio that we started thinking Katy Perry was quite talented,  received and delivered book donations from businesses and Girl Scouts (congrats on the Gold Award), discovered a new mascot (shout out to the Arch Duke), awarded grants to teachers, ate many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, delivered marching band instruments…

This year, we are more charter than direct run. We’ve picked up schools outside of Orleans Parish. We have brand new and newly renovated schools open. We have new bus and food and janitorial companies. Lacrosse teams are beginning to pop up. With all these changes, there seems to be some stability finally. Or else we are just getting used to instability. Perhaps chaos is becoming the norm. Either way, it feels better.

 The personal relationships that come with this kind of work are what continue to drive it forward. It seems to be the same people and the same groups returning again and again. New relationships are based on recommendations from past individuals.  Talk to someone on the phone for months and you may have a sense of who they are. Work next to that same person for a few hours on the components of a playground or on a ladder with a paintbrush and you truly know who they are. If you can slow it down on a summer day and pay attention… that’s when it all comes together.

I am making that last-ditch effort to get to all of you. I appreciate all of you who have responded with donations and who are planning to play with us next Saturday.  I am urging all of you who haven’t responded, to visit our website (www.nolacharitycrawl.org)  to register to play, or to donate if you aren’t available to play next Saturday. Also, please remember all participants must be 21.  The Roots of Music is a great program. If you’d like to research it more than the information on our website visit: www.therootsofmusic.com.  I have attached the rules and itinerary for next Saturday.  You’ll be playing for a 4 night cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines (all port charges, government fees and prepaid gratuities are included). If you are not available for the whole day; but, will be in town, please come to 13 Monaghan for 3:40pm for the live auction. We have some really great items to sell. 

Please support this program – it’s for the children, and the future of New Orleans!

 Thanks,

Alana Bishop Monaghan

Please join us (the Monaghan and Koehlar families) on Saturday, June 26th, to pay tribute to Jim Monaghan Sr., by participating in the Second Annual French Quarter Poker Crawl Fundraiser.

This year’s proceeds will be donated to The Roots of Music (www.therootsofmusic.com) …this program serves almost 100 students, making up a full marching band that is successfully parading the city since Mardi Gras 2009.  The program provides music education in history, theory, instrumental instruction and ensemble performance. Furthermore, academic tutoring is offered to ensure the students maintain at least a 2.5 GPA in school. Participation in the Roots of Music is free for students but attendance is mandatory. The students are also provided a hot meal before being sent home on buses.

Registration will be in Jackson Square in front of the Cabildo from 9am-10:30am, where participants will enjoy a performance by the students and get their first card. The rest of the hand of 5 card stud will be dealt at Erin Rose, Molly’s at the Market, Johnny White’s and Tropical Isle.  Hands will be judged at 13 Monaghan, where there will also be an auction.

Each hand played will require a $30.00 donation and will include a commemorative t-shirt. 

Please register and pay on our website to reserve your space today www.nolacharitycrawl.org. If you can’t make it out that day, please send your donation.

Looking forward to seeing you on June 26!!!

Thanks,

Alana

Yesterday, my sister (Stinko) and I spent the beautiful spring sunlight visiting playgrounds (KaBoom!), my new favorite hole in the wall barber shop/ lunch spot (the JuJu Bag) and 1 of our brand new school sites (Lake Terrace). Then we went to Carver/ Penn Field. Last night she sent me this…

chris jones was my husband.  he was born in september 1968 in georgia, i met him in july 2004 in texas and we got married in october 2006 also in texas.  he built things made of wood (and when i say built i mean everything he made was meant to last for a good 100 years or longer) as a hobby.  he drew houses as a living.  we came to new orleans seven months after we got married.  nola is home for me and we wanted to help to rebuild the city after the storm. the best way we could think to do that was to live here, have a family here, and grow old here.  we did not get to do all of that because chris died in july 2008.

for my birthday in 2006 he designed and built me a giant four poster bed.  he searched for weeks to find the right wood.  had his dad help him with the lathe to hand turn all four posts and the filial eggs for on top of them.  i had always wanted a four poster bed.  after he died, i had my brother help me take it apart (which was entertaining for me to watch because there were bolts, and hidden bolts, and screws you couldn’t see that troy had to find).  i loved the bed but i couldn’t sleep in it anymore.  troy kept the wood for me.  one day i knew he’d find a way to use it.

when the AmeriCorps NCCC silver 6  team and jill came to new orleans i got to work with them building KaBoom! playgrounds around the city.  what i didn’t know was that there was a “secret” project they were working on.  one that would mean so much to me.  they and my brother were building benches out of the wood from chris’ bed that would go to a baseball diamond that was to built this spring.  they cut and re-stained and varnished the wood and built two really beautiful (and comfortable) benches for people to use at the brand new baseball field.  the AmeriCorps NCCC gold 3 team and marnie then installed them this spring.  they made a plaque and brought it to my brother that says “in memory of chris jones”.

troy had a rare day off today and he called and asked me to lunch and said he had a surprise for me.  after we ate he drove me around to a couple different places and we ended up at the new baseball field.  we got out and walked around and then came to the benches that silver 6 made.  i recognized the wood.  then he brought out the plaque that gold 3 made and we walked to the back of the benches and he mounted the plaque.

i cannot imagine that chris would not be overjoyed at the re-purposing of the wood he so carefully chose and sanded and stained for me.  he wanted to bring something good to new orleans, because he didn’t believe that the people here deserved so much that was bad.  one of the very first things we ever did when we met was go to my first baseball game in round rock just outside of austin.  since he cannot be here in person to bring good things home i think he will be there in spirit every time a mom or dad  sits on the benches to watch their child play ball or a little brother or sister crawls or lies on those beautiful benches.  i can’t say thank you loudly or longly enough to silver 6 and jill and gold 3 and marnie and especially my brother troy.  what they have done for chris and for me is amazing.  what they all continue to do will be history changing for the city of new orleans and the people who call it home.

          Marnie and I are spending our break between AmeriCorps teams visiting every school. Making lists of what has been done, what can be done, what needs to be done, checking on the state of KaBoom! playgrounds and researching for Restoring Glory (the Cox / RSD American Flag project you will be hearing of in the near future… stay tuned).

         When we visited George Washington Carver Elementary School we were amazed by the environment they have created with simple decorative details. Banners welcoming you into President Obama’s Library, an invitation to relax in the Maya Angelou Gazebo and College Pennants are monuments to the administration and teacher’s dedication to the students. Students are made welcome in the school. Futures plans and goals are laid out before them.

Truly Amazing.

         Oh… and windsocks. GWC Elementary is a modular site. Trailers on the site of the demolished Carver site. Right across the street from where the Florida and Desire Projects used to be. Right down the road from the new housing communities. Beautiful Brownstone style structures (see…I have been working with Oriole and Nationals fans). Windsocks.  Splashes of color rippling in the breeze and for the first time at a modular site, I forgot I was at a modular site. And now… ladies and gentlemen… Marnie… What did you think of our adventure today?

            Well, Troy. Seeing those bursts of color and those connections with school and sky put a smile on my face this April morning.  And guess what happens next month, on May 5^th?  Countries around the world will be celebrating Children’s Day, or Tango-no-Sekku.  On this day, with its origins stretching back to 8^th century China, families fly one koinobori “windsock” for each child of the household in order to celebrate the happiness, health, and strength of all children. 

If they do it, why shouldn’t we? 

          Putting up something as simple as a windsock can make a child’s day…I know it made mine.  The Chinese fly carp-shaped windsocks because according to legend, a carp that swims upstream becomes a dragon. Against adverse condition and with great determination, they persevere.  And isn’t that what our children are doing everyday at school?

          So let’s put ‘em up in ALL our modular sites.  Whether it’s carp-themed, hummingbird-themed, Saints-themed or crab-themed…it’s important.  We are sending out letters to all the kite/windsock/wind art companies that we can find.  As usual we are open to suggestions, ideas and donations to further this windsock dream.

Contact troy.peloquin@rsdla.net or send donations directly to

Troy Peloquin

RSD

1641 Poland Ave

New Orleans, LA 70117      

If you are reading this on facebook please check us out at www.nolaschoolvolunteers.org