Equip 8 preschool classrooms on a college campus

One of the programs that operates at our Robert Mayer Child Development Preschool at Golden West College is the Twilight Education Project.  This program gives low-income English Language Learners free preschool instruction for young children, academic support for school age kids, and ESL and job skills training for moms and dads.  This program is the Club's premier "Family Strengthening" program and won Boys & Girls Clubs of America's 2011 Family Strengthening Award.  The program started in 2003 and over the years, it has received many honors at the local, state and national levels.  More important to the Club than any award that we might receive is the success of the families we serve. 

The Alvarez family has been participating in the Twilight Education Project almost from its very start.  In 2004, a staff member at the Huntington Beach City School District referred the Alvarez family to the Boys & Girls Club's Twilight program and to Speech and Language Therapy because their three year old child Melissa had a speech delay.  Coupled with her therapy, the Twilight preschool program forced her to use language skills to communicate with her peers and she started to have great results.  The speech and language therapy program usually takes a couple of years, however, Melissa only needed one year and was able to enter directly into regular education in Kindergarten, without having to do special day classes.  Her mother and her speech therapist thought the Twilight program had a lot to do with this success.  Melissa and her younger sister Marian have both been in the program since 2004 and have attended regularly over all these years.  They are doing excellent work in school.  Melissa is now in 5^th grade and gets A’s on her report card.  Marian is now in 4^th grade and is having great success in her school’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program.   Their mother, Marqueza Alvarez, believes that the help that her children have received at the Twilight Education Project is what has enabled them to be so successful in school.  Mrs. Alvarez is one of the biggest parent promoters of the program and helps us spread the word within the local community. 

The preschool classrooms that this project helps support are now giving the next generation of young children the opportunity to succeed like Melissa and Marian.  Thank you!

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As you can see from the big smiles on the face of these little ones, the kids at the Robert Mayer Child Development Preschool love the program and are thrilled with the classroom supplies that your generous support helps buy.  Thank you so much!

When we opened the new preschool, we hired more staff to accommodate our growing enrollment and the wide variety of teaching styles this has brought to our school has been wonderful.  We have incorporated so many new ideas!  I’d like to tell you about some of the fun activities that we’ve done this summer... 

In June, teachers took our preschoolers to visit Harbour View Elementary School so that they could get a sense of what to expect when they go to Kindergarten in the fall.  They toured the campus, visited inside a Kindergarten classroom where a Kindergarten teacher read books to them and led them in some music and movement activities.  They also got a chance to play like the big kids on the Kindergarten playground.  When they came back, the kids were so excited about starting school now that they knew what to expect. 

This summer we also held a Family Picnic where families gathered on the preschool playground for an evening filled with a BBQ, games, karaoke, and raffle prizes.  We had a great turnout and families enjoyed the time spent together. 

In the classrooms, children have been busy learning about the ocean and sea animals.  They are painting and creating the ocean and everything that they can think of that lives under the sea.  Along with discussions of the ocean, staff has also used circle time for the opportunity to talk to the kids about sun protection and how important it is.  Water play has been a big part of our summer outdoor play as well.  The kids enjoy cooling off in our small swimming pools, sensory tables and simply playing out in the sunshine.

Thank you for making all these fun and special activities possible by supporting the preschool!

Thank you for making our preschool a great place for young kids! 

The kids are excited about the classroom supplies your support helps buy:

• “The new classroom has a lot of legos!” – Nathaneal, age 4

• “My school is different because it has tools.” – Joey, age 4

• “I like the new building and the new toys!” – Zayn, age 4

Here's what parents have to say:

“The new center is beautiful and my children love the teachers. It’s wonderful having a fresh, new facility to take my kids to.” –Sarah Mitchell

“It’s a great facility. We appreciate what has been done and that the preschool is maintaining some of the lowest fees around, even with the increase of classroom capacity. My daughter has really grown since she started when she was four months old and has thrived in her environment with the awesome staff and teachers.  Parents can trust the teacher who is helping to raise their child." – Lucie Walden-Schulz

“The classroom is a lot more spacious and more organized, and the teachers show so much care for the kids. The Boys and Girls Club is a great facility and pretty much everything is all provided, from health screening to everything needed to prepare the kids for their first day of school.” – Trang Lai