What a wonderful night we all enjoyed from excellent entertainment to hearing our Youth of the Year speak about their Club experience.  The art auction was a tremendous success and as usual, we had the best Master of Ceremonies in Abilene to guide us through the night.  Our special thanks to Stephen Eurich for doing such a great job, the Board for making the night exceptional with their service, Genniene Koehn for superb decorations and organization, Sharon Allen’s for fabulous food, MCM Elegante for the venue and such courteous staff, Gary Miller who proves you can have good sound in an atrium, and of course, the Club Directors and Staff for making the night possible through excellent work with the kids.

Enjoy the photos!

One of the favorite activities of our Youth of the Year dinner is the art auction!  Emcee Stephen Eurich does an exceptional job of getting great prices for these beautifully matted pictures donated by Club kids!  Thanks to Surroundings, each picture is double matted and ready for framing!  Here is a preview of the pictures… I apologize for my lack of photography skills!

Chris Parker, our Teen Night Director, was chosen by Youth of the Year competitor Dashia Layman, as her choice for the Billy Thomas Award.  Monday night she presented it to Chris before the Q&A portion of the competition.

Billy Thomas was the Club director at the New York Club where Denzel Washington grew up and it was Billy who influenced Denzel the most, according to his own statement.  The Billy Thomas Award is given by the Youth of the Year finalist to the person who they believed has had the most influence on their life at the Club.

“Mr. Chris and I don’t always get along but he is always patient with me and pushing me forward, ” was Dashia’s response on why she chose Chris.

We applaud Chris and congratulate him on this wonderful award!

Chris Parker receiving the Billy Thomas Award from Dashia Layman

Our own Dashia Layman, Youth of the Year for Teen Night, spent Monday and Tuesday of this week competing against seven other finalist for the right to be called Texas’ Youth of the Year.  She was excellent in the Q&A on Monday night and hit a home run on her speech at the Tuesday luncheon.  Unfortunately she didn’t win but she is always a winner in our hearts!  We are proud of her achievements, grace under fire, and overall friendly enthusiasm!  Way to go Dashia!

Dashia with her mom, Chika, at the Monday night event

The Future Fund has awarded the Boys & Girls Club of Abilene a $2,500 grant for the Learning Through Sports (or Kids College) software licensing for the next calendar year.  This donor advised gift comes from the T and T Family Foundation (yes, the same great folks who provide Christmas for all of our Club members!), who has been a long time supporter of our Club kids.

The marvelous program of Learning Through Sports allows kids to address deficiencies in Reading, Math, and Science through a fun, progressive, and constantly analyzing program.  Being a video game based module, kids learn in the areas they need the most help in while earning game time.  We have seen great results and are thrilled to have this funding come to us through the T and T Family Foundation and the Future Fund of Abilene!

To see how Learning Through Sports (Kids College) works, follow this link:

http://www.ltseducation.com

Follow the demo button to get a taste of this great program!

The Boys & Girls Club of Abilene’s Summer Program will run from June 4th through August 10th.   This is a transitional year for the Club with the closing of the Fannin Club on May 31st, we will run Summer Programming in only the Nelson Club this year.  There is a limited amount of slots for the summer.  Parents or guardians wanting to secure their child’s spot in the program will need to pay the first month upfront.  You can sign your child up now at:

              4610 N. 10th      325.672.3772    1-7 p.m.  Monday-Friday

Instant Facts!

• Summer Programs are from 7:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
• We will be closed for July 4th.
• Breakfast and Lunch are provided
• Field trips are offered throughout the week including swimming, bowling, miniature golf, zoo trips, museum trips, etc.  (These activities require additional costs but Club kids are given reduced admission prices)
• Art camp is available for a limited number of children during the week of  June 18th
• Wide variety of activities are available at the Club including computer labs, reading rooms, table games, games room, gym activities, art activities, leadership activities, to name a few!

For additional information call the Nelson Club!  Noe Espinoza is your person of contact: 672-3772

This year we had five wonderful candidates for our Youth of the Year.  All of the candidates did an exceptional job speaking, answering interview questions, and presenting themselves as upstanding members of the Club!  The candidates were: Jamie Ramos from Wylie, Rachel Berry from Fannin, Dashia Layman from Teen Night, Kaitlyn Garcia from Highland, and Marcus “Malcolm” Wilson from Highland.

Congratulations to Marcus Wilson for being chosen our Abilene Youth of the Year!

Congratulations to Dashia Layman for being our Regional representative to the Youth of the Year Contest in San Angelo on March 3rd.  We are proud of all our candidates and thankful they have grown into leadership roles within the Club.

We never dreamed how much of a difference the painting scheme of the Dyess We Care Team would bring to the Wylie Club but after they cleaned their last brush, installed the last piece of trim, and took their group photo, we were totally blown away by the results!  Enjoy the photos of this great day of giving by them!

Newsletter Feb 2012-1

Here is the newsletter for February 2012 minus the Donors Pages.  These will be added to this post within the next 48 hours.  We hope you enjoy the new format and keep an eye on the transformation this informational piece will be making over this next year.  Enjoy!