Our middle school VPL program is full of outstanding volunteers! You may have read earlier this week about Cristian Dominguez from Webb Middle School — today we are highlighting another VPL volunteer, Caroline Trang, in honor of National Volunteer Week. Caroline is a 7th grader at Decker Middle School, one of the three middle schools served by our Middle School Matters program. This year was Caroline’s first year in the VPL program, and she had the best attendance of any student in the program and was a leader of Decker’s Literacy Night activity booth. Other projects Caroline and her team have taken on include making book posters, sorting books for donation, volunteering in the school library and creating bookmarks with literacy tips for other students. Young Leaders Society (YLS) Executive Member, Frances Jordan, serves as the YLS Campus Captain of Decker Middle School and has worked closely with Caroline this past year. Frances not only volunteers through YLS, but also serves as a member of UWATX’s volunteer Resource Development Committee and helps our fundraising team find new business and make important decisions. Frances and Caroline sat down together and chatted about their involvement and volunteer experiences with UWATX: Frances: Why do you volunteer through the VPL program? Caroline: My friend Helen made me come at first, but it turned out to be so fun! I like to help others. Frances:What are your favorite types of volunteer activities? Caroline: Helping with cleaning up the community, presenting to groups, and giving gifts to those in need. Frances: Describe […]
Read MoreStudents Spend Spring Break Volunteering at Ronald McDonald House
While some of their classmates laid on a beach or drove cross-country, some students from Webb Middle School chose to spend part of their Spring Break giving back to others. The VPL program is a UWATX initiative and a collaboration between the organization’s efforts to support three area middle schools—Webb, Mendez and Decker Middle Schools. Students participating in the afterschool VPL program learn how to take a leading role in changing their community each week. VPL students from Webb Middle School were charged with developing, planning, coordinating and executing a volunteer project on their own terms. The Webb students chose to support the Ronald McDonald House because they wanted to support families staying at the “home-away-from-home” while their children are being treated at Austin-area hospitals. Past graduates from the VPL program who are now in high school or beyond, members of UWATX’s Young Leaders Society, F.O.R.C.E. dance team members and Kerbey Lane Cafe volunteers assisted the Webb students in making breakfast for the 20 families who are staying at the Ronald McDonald House. The menu included green pancakes made with Kerbey Lane Cafe’s famous pancake batter, as well other traditional breakfast foods, such as hash browns, oatmeal and fruit skewers. The students also made St. Patrick’s Day cards for the families and passed them around after the breakfast. The students and volunteers took a tour of the Ronald McDonald House after the breakfast to learn more about the organization. Shoutout to these exceptional future leaders of Austin for spending their […]
Read More300+ Volunteered on MLK Day of Service
MLK Day of Service is a national initiative to strengthen communities, bridge barriers between different groups of people, create solutions to our social problems and move us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community.” Thousands of individuals around the U.S. honor Dr. King’s legacy on this day by participating in volunteer projects that encourage community collaboration and make our towns a better place to live. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, more Americans live in poverty today than during Dr. King’s lifetime–which is why it is more important now than ever to work together to make Austin greater for all residents. More than 300 volunteers signed up to work on eight projects for this year’s MLK Day of Service on January 16th. This annual event is hosted by United Way for Greater Austin, Keep Austin Beautiful and State Representative Dawnna Dukes. We kicked off the event at UWATX with breakfast and encouraging speeches from Mayor Steve Adler, UWATX Board Member Rodney Northern and other influential community members. Volunteers then dispersed to work on a variety of projects, ranging from a clean-up of MLK Jr. Boulevard to creating works of art of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be auctioned off to raise money for UWATX’s Middle School Matters program. Some of the groups that signed up for the event were Apple employees, current and alumni AmeriCorps […]
Read MoreUWATX Hosts 2nd Annual Community Tree Lighting
We held our 2nd Annual Community Tree Lighting event for the St. John’s community on Giving Tuesday, December 1, 2015. Webb Middle School students and their families, as well as other community members, were invited to attend the free holiday party. The kids loved visiting with the bunnies, hedgehogs, ducklings and more that the Tiny Tails To You traveling petting zoo brought. Other activities included a cookies and cocoa station, card and ornament making, a balloon artist and face painters. One of our Webb Middle School volunteer project leader students had the idea to set up a reading corner and read holiday books to some of the younger children at the event. As the sun set, Principal “Santa” Sanchez spoke of the importance and positive impact that he has seen through United Way’s support of the Webb campus. 54% of students at Webb received at least one service coordinated through UWATX last year, including behavioral health, mentoring, tutoring and afterschool programs. Webb’s musical groups performed holiday classics and the audience counted down from five until the tree was lit up with blue and gold–Webb’s school colors. Young Leaders Society members passed out donated toys and books to the children who attended. Thank you to Capital Metro who once again sponsored the 15 foot tree that lit up the St. John’s neighborhood this year! Thank you also to ABC Home & Commercial for decorating the tree, DoubleTree Hotels who provided volunteers and cookies, H-E-B for donating the hot cocoa, Petsmart for […]
Read MoreVolunteers Scaring for a Good Cause!
In celebration of the spookiest time of the year, UWATX’s Young Leaders Society (YLS) members volunteered at Decker Middle School’s Fright Night last week. Fright Night, one of Decker’s most popular student events, allows students to use their creativity while coordinating with YLS volunteers to transform the school into a “haunted house”. Volunteers helped set up, scared students as they moved through the haunted house and took photos of the students for souvenirs. Fright Night helps sponsor the AVID program at Decker Middle School, which gives students the opportunities to attend field trips to college campuses and provides in class activities around career and college readiness. We had the opportunity to talk with Julie Fisher, YLS Chair, about her volunteering experience the Fright Night event. What were some of the activities you were involved in during Fright Night? I was involved with set up, setting the kids in waves down the stairwell and cleanup/breakdown. Describe your favorite part of the night Watching the kids give each other pep talks before going into the Haunted House. The event itself is always a blast, but I love the set up and break down with the students. It is a great opportunity to interact with them and give them a chance to give us the orders on how to set up the different rooms and halls. It was encouraging to see how excited they were after they received such positive feedback from their peers on how “awesome” the experience was. What do you enjoy […]
Read MoreI Wish I Could Tell My Middle School Self
This year’s Young Leader’s Society campaign kicks off on September 3rd. Each year, United Way for Greater Austin provides quality educational programming for middle school students right here in Central Texas, and the Young Leaders Society helps make this work possible through donating, advocacy and volunteer efforts. Middle school is a notoriously hard time, especially for the low-income students we serve. We asked YLS members to tell us what they wish they could travel back in time to tell the middle school versions of themselves. Celso Baez, III “If such a time capsule existed that would teleport my 26-year-old self in front of my chubby 13-year-old middle school self, I’d have quite a lot to say. Beyond the flat-top haircut humiliation, the one thing I’d emphasize is that community involvement is a way of life and to start acting like it, plus encouraging others around me to follow suit. The Young Leaders Society’s (YLS) efforts via United Way for Greater Austin’s Target Graduation Program aim to bridge the ever-growing opportunity gap between students in low-income households and students in medium to high-income households. While this is very important to tackle, I’d look at my “state-dubbed, at-risk youth” self in the eye, and challenge myself and my other prepubescent friends to endeavor in rewriting their own narratives by way of community engagement. Simply put, if you see a need, try your best to do something about it. In non-13-year-old language, I’d suggest to others that caring about your neighborhood and the […]
Read MoreYou Know It’s Campaign Season When…
You probably hear the phrase “employee campaigns” from UWATX, but if you don’t work in a business that runs campaigns, this phrase can be quite confusing. Employee giving campaigns are how we receive many of our donations throughout the year. Our Development Officers visit multiple workplaces to inform employees about United Way for Greater Austin’s work, help set up fun activities to encourage employees to pledge and coordinate team-building volunteer activities. We make it easy to give in your workplace through payroll deductions; employees sign up during their campaign to give $5, $10 or more per each paycheck for the upcoming year. We asked UWATX Development Officers Heather and Keith to give us an idea of what campaign season feels like to them. Heather says: UWATX runs employee giving campaigns throughout the year, but August through October are the busiest months when most of our corporate partners promote giving to make Austin greater! With running campaigns comes numerous planning meetings, special events, embarrassing challenges, tables of food, jars of pennies and large campaign finales. It’s a great time and one that I and my fellow Development Officers enjoy. These are a few of the ways I know it’s that time of year: 1. Your phone is full of companies’ campaign event photos 2. Your car turns in to the campaign mobile 3. Your friends tell you to quit asking them for money 4. Your wallet always has 2-1-1 cards in it 5. You change your clothes three times in one day – […]
Read MoreYLS Chaperones Webb Middle School Dance
As the school year comes to a close and students have summer tunnel vision, most adults would assume that they are thinking about anything but school. This is not the case at Webb Middle School. Managing the Young Leaders Society for UWATX has allowed me to get a glimpse into the lives of middle school students at Webb and they continue to truly impress me. On June 2nd, the Young Leaders Society volunteered to chaperone the 8th grade graduation dance for the second year in a row. The dance immediately followed a graduation ceremony, where several Webb students were honored for academic achievement. As I listened the names being called of the students that worked so hard to gain success, I could not help but be moved. As an employee of United Way for Greater Austin and a donor, I could clearly see the impact this organization has on Webb, Mendez and Decker Middle Schools at that graduation ceremony. After the last name had been called and the parents made their way down to congratulate their graduates, other YLS volunteers and I headed into the cafeteria to get set up for the dance. Members of the YLS executive committee as well as potential YLS members mixed and mingled while we set out punch, tacos and a sheet cake the size of Texas. After a few minutes all of the middle school students filled the room, and once the DJ started playing you could tell it was going to be an […]
Read MoreUWATX Celebrates VPL Students With Documentary Screening
Students and staff from Webb, Decker and Mendez Middle Schools joined Young Leaders Society members at the Alamo Drafthouse last week for a fun end-of-year celebration. The UWATX Volunteer Project Leader (VPL) middle school program aims to transform youth into active community leaders by teaching them leadership skills they need to make meaningful and lasting change in their communities. This year, our 110 VPL students from the three campuses completed 28 volunteer projects. This resulted in 1,565 hours of time given to improving their Manor, St. John’s and Dove Springs communities! Members of the Hands On Central Texas team, who work with these kids each week, and YLS members handed out certificates and t-shirts to the students who were dedicated to the program during the 2014-2015 school year, as well as special plaques for the principals of each school. They also received popcorn and their choice of snacks and drinks during the film as a special treat. Underwater Dreams is a documentary about the story of a group of Hispanic high school students from a Title I school who build and enter an underwater robot in a national robotics competition. The students constructed the robot out of low-cost materials from Home Depot, and beat out all of the competing colleges, including powerhouse MIT. The documentary was meant to inspire the middle school students to pursue STEM fields, as well as any other dreams and future goals they have, regardless of their upbringing. Jesse Garcia, a YLS member and engineer at […]
Read MoreSaatchi & Saatchi Donates to UWATX During SXSW Panel
Saatchi & Saatchi don’t just talk the talk. They hosted a SXSW panel on Sunday titled “Do Good. Feel Good: The Science of Altruistic Acts,” and showed the audience firsthand exactly how doing good can make you feel good–by ending the panel with a check presentation of $1,000 to UWATX! Saatchi & Saatchi is an international global communications and advertising agency network with 140 offices in 76 countries. S&S’s global chief creative officer, Kathy Delaney, sat on the panel along with Devon Eyer of Johnson & Johnson, Michael Norton of Harvard Business School and Sebastian Buck of Enso. UWATX development officer and Young Leaders Society manager, Keith Richardson, accepted the check on behalf of United Way. The $1,000 will be put toward the YLS $180K Challenge to provide full-time service coordinators at three local middle schools. Keith’s perspective of the panel: “When first hearing the title of the panel, “Do Good. Feel Good: The Science of Altruistic Acts,” I knew I would be impacted by the content. As the manager for YLS, I’m always looking for ways to engage our donors more with our work, so linking volunteerism to positive physical effects hit home. The panel discussion began when moderator Kathy Delaney welcomed everyone in attendance by introducing the topic as a “different kind of wellness.” Kathy’s opening statement, “If you want to be happier and healthier, giving back or doing good is essential,” truly set the tone for the panel. The first part of the panel focused on examples […]
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