48 mentors in 48 hours

Bob has officially made his home on the roof of our building for the next 48 hours. He's up there trying to recruit mentors for this years freshman class of Starfish Scholars. If you're in the Indy area, stop by the office and say "Hi", you can even ride the scissor lift up to the roof and chill with Bob for a bit. We were on Fox 59 news this morning!! Here's the news clip... http://www.fox59.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3915734

I'll post again soon with some picture from San Diego and Bob's Return to the Roof.

Back to the real world

My first day back to work is almost over. After a wonderful vacation in San Diego, I've returned to my desk and duties as Starfish's event planner. Lots of catching up to be done. Recording Scholar Assessments and ME Camp evaluations, finalizing stuff for Bob's "Return to the Roof", my monthly VISTA report, being in charge of food. This last one is probably the hardest for me. I've been out of the loop for a week and have no clue what's been going on with the food situation. Last Wednesday, when I only came in to set up breakfast and do a food pick-up, Gleaner's called at 7:45am. They didn't have any of the food we ordered... AGAIN! While this would have been only a small set back, I was leaving that morning. I had to make some last minute tentative plans with some of the other staff members and pray that everything got worked out while I was gone. I knew that it would be fine, but I felt really bad that I was just leaving ME Camp short on food. The last day of ME Camp is tomorrow and the only thing I have to worry about is breakfast. All in all, I think ME Camp was a huge success and that my part in the whole process went fairly well.

Well, back to work. I'll post some pictures from San Diego sometime soon.

Vacation time!

I'm down to counting the hours to my vacation. I'll be in the office for a few hours tomorrow morning to set up and clean up ME Camp breakfast and pick up a Gleaners order. After that I'll be out of the office, moving into my new house. We get the keys tomorrow, so Becca and I are going to move as much of the little stuff as possible. The "official" move is the 26th. All of our parents are taking a lovely trip to Indianapolis to help us move all the big stuff. Then Thursday I'm off to San Diego!! YAY!!!

On a work related note, ME Camp has been going well. I volunteered to be the data recorder for some self evaluations and ME Camp surveys. They are all very interesting. I get to see how each Scholar feels about themselves and their futures and then I get to compare their answers with what their parents think. I also get to read about how they felt about ME Camp. It's great to see responses like "I wish it camp was longer" and "I want to be challenged more".

Well, I thought I'd update one last time before I left for vacation. Have a wonderful week everyone!

Friday... finally

So, it's Friday... I'm soooooooo happy for the weekend. I've been getting to the office all week at 7:30am to set up breakfast for ME Camp (Math Education Camp). This week we had about 30 Scholars here every day. We provide 2 meals and a snack each day. Starfish has personally provided all breakfasts, Wednesday lunch, parent orientation dinner on Thursday, all snacks, and a field trip today to Xscape (an indoor theme park kind of thing). This will ALL repeat for the next two weeks. Exhausting! That's all I can say. And on top of it all, we planned some educational field trips throughout the week. I was in charge of Wednesday's field trip to Monument Circle. They were suppose to get a tour of the museum and then go up to the top of the monument. I did not go with them, but yesterday I was informed by some of the staff members here that the monument in closed for construction this summer. So they just walked around in a boring museum in 100% humidity for NO REASON! I feel really bad. :( We're going to try and find an alternative trip for the next 2 weeks.

Up side to ME Camp is getting to know the Scholars. They're all bright, energetic teenagers and I'm excited to see them grow (at least through December). I did get to put my education degree to good use yesterday, though. I was setting up snacks in the afternoon and a group was playing Math Jeopardy in the commons at the same time. Some of the boys were being disrespectful to the tutors (who are all high school students). The tutors seemed to have everything under control, so I just sat back and let them do their thing. Unfortunately, the last five minutes of the game were ridiculous and I had to step in. I put on my teacher face and let them know (without yelling) how disappointed I was that they weren't respecting the tutors. I also told them to suck it up because doing math for 5 days out of their summer wasn't going to kill them and that this 1 week will reflect on their next 4 years in this program. Oh, student teaching taught me so much! :)

Non-VISTA update: This time next week I will be in San Diego!! Woo Hoo!! I'm excited to see Ryan and just relax somewhere outside of the Midwest for a WHOLE WEEK!! Official countdown is 6 days!

6 month mark!

This past Friday was the 6 month mark for us VISTAs that started in December. I can't believe how fast this is all going and that I'm at the point where I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do after VISTA. While these last 6 months have definitely had their ups and downs, I'm so happy that I chose to serve here at Starfish. I like seeing the end product of all this event planning. It makes me feel really good to see the Scholars and their mentors having a good time and forming relationships.

The most important stuff I've learned in the past 6 months...
1) How to feed 150 people on a $200 budget
2) How to get free coffee for 100 people
3) How to write a good donation request letter
4) How much I REALLY love volunteering and serving others
5) The importance of and need for the Starfish Initiative

I'm looking forward to adding to this list. Congrats to all the VISTAs that hit their 6 month anniversity with me and to all the VISTAs that are about to end their year of service. Together we make a difference!

On to the next project

With the Open House under my belt, it's on to ME! Camp. "ME!" stands for "Math Education!" Starfish holds an Algebra Camp for it's incoming freshman during the summer. This year we're taking 3 groups of about 35 Scholars in week long increments. We'll provide breakfast and lunch, the math instruction, Starfish orientation for Scholars and parents, and field trips throughout the week.

What's my roll in all of this? Organize all breakfasts, lunch and the field trip on Wednesdays, and parent orientation dinner. I've become very good at buying food for large groups on a budget. I had planned on getting all the breakfast stuff from Gleaners (the local food bank) and the lunch and dinner stuff from Sam's Cub. While the Sam's Club part of my plan is still on track (hot dogs and chips for lunch and Stouffer's lasagna for the parents), I've seemed to run into a problem with Gleaners. Last week I picked up a small order to see what they ended up giving us, it turned out being exactly what we need. When you place an order online, the food descriptions are not very specific and sometimes you end up with food you didn't even think you ordered. On Monday, I reordered more of what I picked up last week. Unfortunately, I got a call today telling me that they ran out of what I ordered and that I will not be able to pick it up tomorrow. :(

So, now i have to come up with a plan B for breakfasts. We already have leftovers from the Open House and a small order from Gleaners. But it's definitely not enough to feed 35 high schoolers every morning for 3 weeks. I'll figure something out, I'm not worried... yet...

Despite this little bump in the road, VISTA world is looking up and things are going smoothly here at the office.

Last tidbit for this post: A big CONGRATS to my friend Nick!! He jumped into the AmeriCorps VISTA world and is waiting on approval from the state office on a VISTA position he was offered at the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic. Woo Hoo!! Welcome to the wonderful world of VISTA!

Open House = Success!

After about a month and a half of planning, making decisions and changing our minds, and being just a tad bit behind schedule with getting our invitations out, the Open House is over! It was a wonderful day and I'm pretty sure that everyone had a good time. I'm going to give a run down of the day with pictures...

First of all, here are the display walls that I have been working on for a few weeks. I'm really happy with how they all turned out. FedEx Office (formally known as Kinko's) ROCKS!

Scholar Photo Wall

Donor Wall -

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" ~Churchill

Starfish History Wall
2009 Graduate Wall -

"Programs don't change kids - Relationships do..." - Bill Milliken

Indiana Colleges Wall - upstairs in the Training Room

Here are some pictures of the office all clean and finished before the Open House...

Reception Area ($10,000 and up donor wall)

Pretty new kitchen (love the tile!)

Lounge Area (the mural is probably the coolest part about the entire renovation)

Some pictures of the Dedication ceremony...

A view of the Rick and Patti Webster Commons - Rick Webster was one of our founders. He was the one that got the ball rolling on this renovation. Unfortunately, he passed away before he could even see the project start.

Joyce and representatives from the companies that donated to make this all possible

Mike Feeney (one of our founders) and Patti Webster (Rick's wife)

Pictures from the community Open House. Lots of Scholars, mentors, and families...

Beverly (Admissions Director) welcoming some of the families to the Open House

Jimmy (Director of Scholar Services) chatting with an incoming freshman and her mom

Carol (College Access Program Director) talking to a Scholar at the College Fair upstairs in the Training Room

A Scholar and her family visiting the Franklin College booth at the College Fair

And last but not least... Starfish Initiative's VISTAs!!!

All in all, the Open House went over really well. In the words of our Executive Director, "It was TERRIFIC!"