The Coral Bay Community Council was able to offer financial assistance to two small summer learning programs for children on St. John this year using the resources raised through the GlobalGiving Program and additional general funds raised through our dues and donations. Each needed a differnt kind of support which we were able to offer quickly when asked due to this standing program. Constrructions Supplies to add screen doors and new lighting was provided to the still hurricane ravaged facility used by the John's Folly Learning Institute and teaching supplies were purchased, as well as donated from our office stock.
Support for a teaching assistant was given to the 2nd Annual Outdoor Learning Summer Creative Arts & Literacy Workshop©, The creation of Carla M. Sewer. These volunteer led programs provided new experiences for young people on an island that is still suffering from a lack of community spaces and infrastructure due to the hurricanes of 2017.
As no one is able yet to propose and implement larger scale ideas, we have not proposed larger or additional GlobalGiving Campaigns, but are keeping this one open to continue to stimulate possbilities as we hope there will be some govenment action. Ideas are being actively considered.
We are very grateful for the support of GlobalGiving and donors in keeping this campaign to highlight children's needs as we rebuild.
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This quarter has had our organization focused on other projects. However, we still hope to be able to expand children's program support as 1) COVID isolation ends and 2) some buildings that have not been opened since before the 2017 hurricanes may begin to come back on line. Currently we still have no group meeting faciltities for children or adults since the hurricanes. The government funding is slow and the church renovating a building for a preschool, with some of our financial support and volunteer professional help has not fel the urgency to complete it.
Thus we are staying prepared to help and know we will be asked for assistance to make pop up summer programs happen.
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Over the last several months, CBCC has continued to provide assistance to a volunteer led in-person "on-line school" for over 20 children for whom the public schooling was continuing virtually -- but their parents were concerned that the children could not manage home (alone while the parents worked) to effectively complete their school work each day and use their computer links to their public school teacher effectively. Supervision and direct interaction with caring adults made a huge difference in results. Two fourth graders finally learned how to read - as it was discovered that they really could not. Loraine (Pat) Richards, one of CBCC's valuable board members, on her own, started this effort to lead a group of children through COVID online schooling when the lockdown began last year and continued it into this year for the grades that did not get to go back to full time learning. Her skills at motivating children to learn talents and develop confidence in themselves and interact well with the world around them is outstanding. She enlisted the help of Lion'ESS Bruce, who received some compensation via donations and a stipend paid for by this GlobalGiving grant stream.
Additional community donations - provided 1) a building space for the classroom, 2) a $2000 donation for airconditioning equipment from the Coral Bay Yacht Club, through CBCC, 3) free installation by the professional AC technician, and many many others provided food, snacks, transportation and support. The program ended with a party on Friday Dec 17th with the children reading out loud in short presentations shared via a Facebook video with parents, relatives and friends. The photos are stills from the video.
Students are intended to be back in regular school beginning after Christmas vacation, at the beginning of 2022. Let's hope this new round of COVID does not reverse those plans. "Ms. Pat" may evolve her program into an afterschool enrichment program next--paid by the parents.
In the US Virgin Islands, as the goverment and everyone struggles with getting actual hurricane recovery contruction projects started, and maintaining safety protocols with COVID, little that was anticipated 3 years ago, has happened yet. We continue collectively to do what we can.
In CBCC's year-end giving messaging, we are promoting the idea of supporting ongoing children's programs via the GlobalGiving portal in our newsletter emails, as well as encouraging general donations via usual methods. We have received a $2,000 check directly to support children's programs, that really should count as part of this overall funding goal. The GlobalGiving platform does give us a unique way to focus on the Children's programs efforts which will continue into 2022 and beyond.
Happy Holidays All!
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Coral Bay Community Council has continued to support programs for children during this COVID period. Three small summer school programs run by volunteers received support using our GlobalGiving grant funds: The John's Folly Learning Institute, Negus Outdoor Camp, and remedial summer school tutoring.
We are also helping to fund rehabilitating a preschool building to open in the fall. Volunteer carpenters, donated appliances for the kitchen and other furniture are coming from the community
So far in 2021 we have spent $8000 on these programs.
We hope we will be able to announce some new larger initiatives to open facilities that will be exciting to donors - for children here. it requires cooperation from the Virgin Islands government.
Check out our website too!
Thank you for your donations!
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In the first quarter of 2021, CBCC used its grant funds to support a stipend for an assistant in a volunteer Children's School tutoring support program in Cruz Bay and to provide encouragement for a new summer children's programs by buying the school t-shirts. Funds are being reserved to continue to help with the construction of the preschool facility. Only $1,143 was spent thru April 15th from these funds.
Major efforts have been ongoing to try to be able to announce and actually start work on a broader community facility, so that we could make significant use of the GlobalGiving Funding platform to make a major difference in our Community, in the wake of the hurricanes. We are left with a hulking wreck where our elementary school used to be, and no willingness to engage in active plans for reuse. We keep hoping... and look forward to everyone's participation when we can move forward.
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