The Learning Center is now in its final weeks of operation for this school year. It has been an absolute joy to be a strong and committed supporter of the educational work being done in Copey. The “Friends of Copey” took on a more structured look when the Blog site was established allowing us to have our own identity and a voice to speak with. The Blog site was born out of our desire to set up the Anne G. Broady Scholarship Fund. Before this, several of us were already working with the Learning Center and had already begun establishing our credibility and willingness to help. As we will soon complete our first year with both this Blog and the Scholarship Fund, we believe our credibility is solid and our willingness to support the Learning Center is without question.
More than 19 students attended the Learning Center this year because of tuition assistance provided by the the Anne G. Broady Scholarship Fund. This is a major success that we all can be proud of.
“Thank You AGB Scholarships! “ The student recipients are certainly pleased that they had the opportunity to attend. We “Friends of Copey” should realize these students would have missed a school year of enhanced English education if the donors had not provided the needed tuition assistance.
The students say “Thanks” on behalf of the entire community including teachers, staff, and the Learning Center’s Board members.
“Friends of Copey” have provided other forms of support throughout this school year. The English speaking, reading, and writing learning tool named “Reading Bear” was introduced to the Learning Center by our “Key Friend” Joe Thomas and is part of the teaching material now in use.
Lisa Baldwin, our rock star elementary teacher and very popular musical talent from Virginia headed up our very successful Pen Pal Program by introducing her 5th graders to the students attending the Learning Center.
Beyond exchanging pen pal letters, her 5th graders have also donated school supplies and money to the Learning Center to help their new friends. Lisa’s successful efforts seem to be causing other schools to seriously consider setting up pen pal projects with the Learning Center.
As a side note, Lisa is a semi-finalist for a major teacher’s award. We wish her the best in this competition and very happy to have her involvement with the Learning Center be part of the final consideration for the award.
The Learning Center had other wonderful experiences to brag about this year. Several students did very well in the Costa Rican Spelling Bee competition. Students reached the Regional Level this year with sights on reaching the national level next year.
There are even students learning ballet and several have been invited to perform in The Nutcracker scheduled in San Jose, Costa Rica in early December.
And when there was a shortage of school supplies, we stepped in to help out with several “Friends of Copey” donating some emergency funds.
We will continue our support as we get set for school starting again in February 2015. The “Friends of Copey” are working on several new initiatives for 2015 for the students attending the Learning Center.
The Learning Center is a very unique operation and the “Friends of Copey” is a very unique friend devoted to help and support the Center’s mission. There is a great story behind the Learning Center and there is equally a great story behind “Friends of Copey”. Together, we are a really great story. Thanks for helping write the story.