Thank You Gap!
Last month, Firewall’s Pompano Beach Middle School Center was pleased to host a group of Gap clothing stores’ District Managers. In town for a regional meeting, these managers took time out of their busy schedules to spend the afternoon inspiring our students. They brought snacks as well as blank t-shirts, paint, glitter, stencils, fabric markers, and more and encouraged our kids to create their own masterpieces! The kids had such a great time expressing themselves, as their artwork reflected their favorite school subjects, hobbies, and interests. We are grateful that the Gap came out to support us, and we are excited for a continued community partnership that helps give our kids a chance to succeed!
Leadership Broward to make our
2015 Serve-A-Thon a huge success!
Leadership Broward is a leadership development program designed for adults who are currently in leadership positions and are involved in their communities. Every year, Leadership Broward specially selects several community projects developed by local nonprofit organizations – And we are honored to announce that Firewall Centers has been chosen by this year’s leadership class! Group participants have committed their time, skills, experience, and resources to help make our 2015 Serve-A-Thon a huge success! (Click here to learn more about our Serve-A-Thon). Our Leadership Broward Team is amazing, dedicated, and already hard at work planning, organizing, and scouting out community partners. With almost 400 Firewall students and mentors ready to serve our community on May 2nd, we have a big task ahead of us, but are confident in Leadership Broward’s ability to make our Serve-A-Thon a staple event in Broward County for many years to come.
CENTER SPOTLIGHT
Indian Ridge Middle School Center
This month, we would like to introduce you to our Indian Ridge Middle School Center. This site is unique as it is housed within the Town of Davie’s Orange Park Community Center in the middle of over 2,000 mobile homes, and students are bused to the Center every day after school. This, our first Firewall site, is now in its fifth year and is run almost solely by Firewall graduates. The students at the Center keep us challenged with their strong academics and recognize Firewall as an important part of their community.
Juan-Diego
Meet Juan-Diego. He is in 6th grade and just moved here 10 months ago from Venezuela. Despite just starting middle school in a brand new country and being an ESOL student learning English as a second language, he is doing an extraordinary job! We are so proud of Juan-Diego for being committed, never quitting, and always smiling even when circumstances get difficult. “He is so sweet and asks lots of questions. He is persistent until he gets the right answer, which proves how much he really wants to learn,” said one of his mentors, Kathy. Juan Diego is now an A/B student, and we look forward to having him in our Firewall family for a long time!
Alexa
We would like to introduce you to Alexa, the newest Mentor on our Indian Ridge Team! She is currently a nursing major at Broward College. Being the only Mentor at the Center who is not a Firewall graduate, Alexa had some big shoes to fill, but she fit right in and is making a notable difference in the lives of our students. She is a hard worker and even comes in early to help tutor at our nearby High School Center. To Alexa, being a mentor means “being a friend to these kids, always encouraging them and never giving up on them. I had a goal to just see myself impacting one life, and working at Firewall has already shown me that I have impacted a lot more than one, and that is so rewarding!”
