April showers bring...

April showers bring May flowers and this year it seems like a lot of other exciting opportunities as well! We have so much to be thankful for here at St. Mark Youth Enrichment and much of it is because of you and our community!

Earlier this month we received notification that we received a 21st Century Community Learning Centers continuation grant. This grant is a 5 year grant that will help fund the before and after school programs that we provide to at-risk youth in Dubuque. This is a pretty hefty grant so we are extremely grateful to all of our partners throughout the community and tri-state area in this endeavor!

We were also contacted by Dyersville Elementary, a school in the Western Dubuque Community School District, about a summer learning program. With changes in state legislation and working to be proactive, they wanted to partner with us to get their community even more engaged. We are thrilled to be working with them this year to do a pilot summer learning program with Dyersville Elementary and St. Francis Xavier Catholic School in Dyersville.

Hiring is well underway for our Summer Program here at St. Mark Youth Enrichment and we already have 50 children registered to attend this 6 week program that begins mid-March.

Gallery of Growing, a fundraiser we are doing with the Dubuque Rescue Mission, is also set to go and we have over 100 pieces of artwork donated by community members that will be auctioned off May 1st at 6:30 here at St. Mark. There will be an open house on April 29th if you want to take a sneak peek!

We are also gearing up for Great Give Day on May 6th, a national day of online giving, with local and national matches!

Amid all of these exciting developments and programs we have going on, one of the most exciting things is seeing how the students develop in our program. One of our site staff shared this: "I have tons of big reading books and when they rotate to this station they can choose what ever they want to read. Well, today they broke out in song! This is just one reason I love my job!"

Thank you for continuing to support us! Watch us grow!

Stories Make the Difference

My four year old loves it when we read to him before bed. Usually we read the regular books like "Meet Heatwave the Rescuebot" or "Are You Grumpy, Santa?" (yes even though it's now spring.) His favorite though is when I tell him the story of the Three Little Pigs. Stories allow us to have fun, use emotion, and put emphasis on certain aspects. The amazing thing is that it rubs off on the listener!

At St. Mark Youth Enrichment, we always have stories to share. Sweet moments when a staff member and student really connect and laugh together, inspiring moments when a student accomplishes something they were struggling with, and moments that surprise all of us. Earlier this week I had the chance to speak at the Resources Unite and Chamber's Community Connection meeting about donor devotion (aka donor retention). One part of my presentation was about the importance of telling and sharing stories and I shared a few of my favorites. One of them was about a student who had to write why he would like a new bike from one of our donors. He wrote just a few sentences but it said, "My daddy would buy me a bike but he is in heaven and mommy works hard so she can pay the bills." He is definitely getting a bike.

After my presentation, I had one of the attendees approach me. She shared that she was so thankful for what we did at St. Mark Youth Enrichment and said that it made a huge difference in her nephew's life and means so much to their mother. Overall, it wasn't my story that made the impact, it was hers.

We always try to tell our stories so we can share what it means to us to have community support to continue to grow and strengthen our programs. This is one reason behind our newest awareness campaign. Check out our Twitter page and Facebook page and see what St. Mark Youth Enrichment means to so many people. These stories would not be possible without your support and help. Stories truly do make a real life difference.