This last month has been very busy for us with fundraising events, big decisions from the Board of Directors and making plans for this year's trip to Pignon.
Our May 4th "Wine and Art Event" at Cool Bean Cafe in Oakhurst, CA was a fun and tasty evening with 40-50 folks enjoying some award winning local wines and hearing the story of Be the Power of One. The main fundraising focus for the evening was to build support for our
Higher Education Scholarship program that supports post high school educational programs for deserving students. In April the Board of Directors took a bold step and committed to raising an additional $1500 in support of this program. Within a week more than 20% of this goal was reached through private donors. Added to this, the success of the May 4th event gave the Board enough confidence to move forward and immediately award our first scholarship to Jean-Ronel Joseph. Beyond deserving this scholarship for his academics and determination, Jean deserves this award for his efforts in support of Be the Power of One. Jean has been in the classroom with us since day one in 2010. He has keep us informed and updated with ongoing school projects and the school well project. Jean-Ronel is the perfect person to receive our first scholarship and we look forward with excitement to seeing what he'll accomplish in the future. Here is an email from Jean-Ronel thanking our Board.
May,29,2012
To:The Board of be the power of one.
Greetings in the name of the risen Lord,hope this letter finds all of you well.I would like to say thank you in advance for the money because it is going to be able to help me to materialize my dream which is to go to Saint Vincent to study Theology.With this money i will bay:The ticket which is around 900 to 1000 USD,The visa which is 200 USD ,A Lap top,Bus fair to go Santo Domingo,fee to stay at Hotel there for two days because there is no England Ambassy in Haiti so i have to go Santo Domingo first from Santo Domingo to Saint Vincent,personal items like: suitcase,clothes,brush,toothpaste,soap,shampoo etc.....
For now i count on you because i believe this goal is already achieved. my God richly bless you all now and forever.
sincerly, Jean-Ronel JOSEPH
Again this year Jean-Ronel will play a big part in the summer program at the Pignon school. He is currently lining up a number of friends that will help us in the classroom. Each year the number of students grows throughout the week to the point that by Friday we have upwards of 200 young students. I am reminded every year just how much energy young kids have. We will be taking more sports equipment this year in hopes of burning some of that energy off outside.
As the trip gets closer (we are still looking at July 21-29th) we'll continue to update plans. We have started a Rosetta Stone French program that should help in several different ways. Also, many readers have asked if there are certain items they can donate for the summer program. This will be one of the places to look for that information or you can find us on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/bethepowerofone
Thanks for all the continued support and encouragement!!
