WriterCoach Connection

Celebrating philanthropy: Giving Tuesday, giving every day (to WriterCoach)

Excerpted from Celebrating philanthropy: Giving Tuesday, giving every day
by Patty Enrado
The Dress at 50

It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
– Mother Teresa, Albanian Roman Catholic nun, humanitarian, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient for 1979

Getting ready to celebrate giving!

I missed giving a shout-out for Giving Tuesday on its actual day this year, which was December 3rd. Giving Tuesday, in response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, was the brainchild of Henry Timms, interim executive director of 92nd Street Y in New York City, who created and wanted to promote a day of “personal philanthropy” on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

“The driving spirit of this season is about generosity and giving thanks,” said Timms. “Giving Tuesday is a celebration of all forms of giving.” This year, more than 7,000 nonprofits around the country were slated to have participated in the growing movement through myriad activities, including volunteerism, grant matching, year-end donations, and support for specific projects.

Okay, now we’re ready to celebrate with a fit-and-flare Tracy Reese paisley embroidered dress.

I love the idea of Giving Tuesday! I love the idea of celebrating philanthropy during this time of consumerism. Since I missed highlighting Giving Tuesday on its appointed day, I’m advocating for picking any day this holiday season and giving back. Make a tradition out of it. For the last few years, our family has collected the various solicitations that come in the mail for the holiday season and on an appointed evening, we each pick one nonprofit organization to make a donation. We talk about the different types of organizations – environmental, animal, political, social justice, and so on – and we group the solicitations accordingly to make the process more manageable and less overwhelming. We talk about why we have chosen a particular organization. There are a lot of worthy causes out there, but here are our selections for this holiday season...

Community Alliance for Learning (WriterCoach Connection)

When my son entered Portola Middle School as a seventh grader, I first learned about WriterCoach Connection, a program run by the Community Alliance for Learning (1191 Solano Avenue, #6098, Albany, CA 94706, 510.524.2319). The program was modeled after a successful writer-coach initiative on the East Coast and first implemented at Berkeley High School in February 2001. Its success led to the expansion of the program to Albany middle and high schools, Berkeley middle schools, Oakland high schools, and El Cerrito High School and Portola Middle School – all in the East Bay.

Celebrate philanthropy in style!

Trained community volunteers work with students on an individual basis for one hour per week. The testimonials are tremendous and inspirational. English teachers see vast improvement in their students who were previously getting low grades or not turning in their work. Students are getting the support they need and are motivated to become better writers, critical thinkers, and confident communicators. While Jacob didn’t require WCC resources, I’m a firm believer in supporting all aspects of the school community because that only strengthens the school overall.

My time is limited and to be honest I’m not a great tutor, as my kids will tell you, which is why homework duty falls on David’s shoulders. So I choose to support this incredibly important program with a modest donation. If you have the time and like to tutor, WCC would certainly appreciate your support as a community volunteer.

However you choose to give – be it through volunteering or donating or a simple act as offering a hug – give with your whole heart. To do so is an act of generosity of staggering proportions.

Gardeners' Guild helps grow our volunteer crop

Once again the Richmond business community and the Richmond Chamber of Commerce have stepped up to support Richmond students. 

The greater Richmond community has been highly responsive to our call for volunteers to offer one-on-one writer coaching to students at Richmond High. The Richmond Chamber of Commerce has been instrumental in that effort through their Think Local First ad campaigns, which are vital to our success. The creative and collaborative thinking of Chris Phipps, Office Manager Extraordinaire at the Richmond Chamber, recently led us into a new relationship of support with one of the Chamber members, Gardeners’ Guild, Inc.

With the donation of one of their Think Local First ads to our recruitment campaign, Gardener’s Guild has increased the visibility of our volunteer opportunity to thousands of community members. We are deeply grateful for such generosity and know that it will translate into many hours of individual attention from caring coaches for Richmond High students. When the businesses in a community step in to support our youth, we can achieve a great deal together.

Thank you, Gardeners' Guild!

Shelli Fried

Richmond Volunteer Coordinator

Lunching at Farley's to support WCC

A little more than a dozen of us met at Farley's in Emeryville on this glorious Tuesday afternoon to eat a delicious lunch, to drink (good) coffee, to discuss writer coaching (etc.), and to support Farley's as they supported WriterCoach Connection as their featured non-profit for the month of May. 

I neglected to take a picture of everyone who was there, but I got a shot with most of the group (plus most of the Farley's sign). The lunchtime celebrants included (below, l. to r.) Chizu (Fremont High), Linda (Richmond High), Helen (Fremont), Kathryne Ann (prospective coach), Janis (Fremont), Asano (Fremont), Lisa (Fremont), Nancy (Fremont), Sarah (Richmoind High).  Not pictured: Phyllis (Richmond High), Terri (Richmond High), Thomas (Richmond High), Jeanne (Berkeley High), Carol (Berkeley High), and and Karen (Berkeley High).

El Cerrito High Site Co-coordinator Maureen Dixon also convened another dozen coaches for lunch at Farley's on two earlier Tuesdays this month. 

Thanks to everyone who made it today and on the other Tuesdays in May when Farley's contributed a percentage of their proceeds to WriterCoach Connection!  Eating lunch with a group of WriterCoach friends?  Now that's my kind of fundraiser!

Karen Larson

We thank our peerless supporters

This year's Read-and-Write-a-thon (RWAT) has been a spectacular success -- our most successful fundraising drive ever, in fact, and it isn't even over. About a week after we gathered in the Longfellow Middle School library to read to each other, solo and in groups, our total raised is approaching $37,000, and donations will continue to come in as we move into summer. See for yourself! 

Countless people reached into their hearts and pocketbooks to make this possible -- our coaches and other valued associates, and the friends, family members, and co-workers they in turn reached out to. What all this has meant is the continuation of writer coaches sitting next to students in classrooms. Funding is what makes it possible for our coaches to do this. For everything and anything you did to support RWAT this year, we are deeply grateful!

Here are the stalwart individual readers, in order, who began our literary conga-line at 8:00 a.m. and finished it at 6:00 p.m. on May 18: Kathleen Hallam, Erica Siskind, Jim Delaney, Michael Dickens, Karen Larson, Denis Clifford, Bill Schechner, Ruth Minka, Anita Goldstein, Cynthia Barnes-Slater, Susan Brooks, Jeanine Brown, Paul Epstein, Maureen Dixon, Kent Wright, Margy Wilkinson, Tina Boyer, Libby Vega, Chris Keeler, Ryan Bell, Lisa Awrey, Richard Goodman, Katie Koelle, Jeff Wyneken, Daniel Bort, and Lynn Mueller. And that's not even mentioning those others who joined us for a reading of The Laramie Project and the twelve Longfellow students who came with their teacher, Martha Cain, and read their identity poems.

The Read-and-Write-a-thon is the biggest single regular funding source in our budget -- bigger than any single grant or any school or school-district payment. It's vital to the success of our program, and we are awed by the generosity of those who make it happen.

Bob Menzimer

Sun-splashed art in Sonoma wine country

More than 50 guests filled the bus that took is into the renowned Oliver Ranch on Saturday for our third fundraising tour of the stunning works by internationally recognized artists. The only way to see this art is to enter the Ranch with a nonprofit organization that has made the cut with the Oliver Ranch Foundation, and we're grateful to have been invited for a third tour. Here we are at right, under way for the Ranch on our luxury bus. 

Before that, however, came our delectable riverside breakfast. Our gracious comestibles host Jed Larkin (left) of Chef Jed Catering and guest Ed Weil help serve it up, below.

 

 

 

 

Our tour guide was Steve Oliver himself. Well-known in the Bay Area as a major contemporary arts supporter, advocate, and civic leader, Steve is the former chairman of the board of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where he served as chair of Phase III of the New Museum Campaign in 1992, a role in which he was responsible for raising the final $5 million— a goal which he exceeded when he finished the campaign at $95 million.

It's a breathtaking experience to see this art. This installation, by Martin Puryear, is a mortared fieldstone sculpture with red cedar. When you peek in the front (it's hollow in there, but very dark),you have no idea what you're going to find when you walk around to the back (at right). 

 

 

 

 

 

We decended into the installation by  David Rabinowitch and Jim Jennings, "Visiting Artist Studios," architecture and carving in concrete walls, and then decided that sure, we could live and work there. Or spend a weekend. Or an hour. Whatever we can get.

 

 

Roger Berry's mammoth Corten steel sculpture "Darwin" (at right) is always a big favorite, for obvious reasons, with a scale that dwarfs a tour group.

Ditto Richard Serra's monumental  six pairs of forged hyper-dense Corten steel blocks, titled "Snake Eyes and Boxcars." They are placed in precise mathematical relationships with each other and weigh up to 50 tons each. We spent a long time with them, riveted by Steve Oliver's stories about forging and transporting them. Below is CAFL board member LuNell Anderson, leaning against one with no fear of pushing it out of position! Note another pair, off in the distance. We moved on, but the pieces stayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was on to a dual installation, Terry Allen's companion "humannature" pieces. They pretty much tell their own story, and WCC coach Paul Epstein (l.) is capturing part of it here with his camera. As for the second part of it, well, let's just say one of our guests is going to keep his belt tightened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near the end of the tour came one of the day's true highlight's, Ann Hamilton's famous performance tower, all eight stories of it (and that doesn't count the base under ground). It defies description, inside and out. Here we are, climbing in, and climbing (or sitting) up and down, with Richmond and Oakland Site Coordinator Karen Larson in a pose you won't see her in much while she's supervising her coaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a day to remember. We raised in the neighborhood of $8,000 (!), at least four times the amount from our previous Oliver Ranch tour two yearsa go. Many thanks to to our generous paying guests; to our organizers Shelli Fried and Kent Wright; to CAFL helpers and tour benefactors LuNell Anderson, Maureen Dixon, Kris Hafner, and Karen Larson; to our gracious in-kind contributors:

• Chef Jed Catering
• Blue Chair Fruit Company
• Oracle Team USA
• Alegio Chocolate 
• True Grass Farms
• Chanticleer
• Aziza 
• Steve Oliver and his Oliver Ranch Foundation staff. We hope to be back in two years!

Bob Menzimer

 

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Spread this on your breakfast pastry, and then go see world-class art!

Raffle surprises await our Oliver Ranch tour guests

Besides the world-class art our guests will experience as part of our Oliver Ranch tour on Saturday, April 27, our guests will await the plucking of lucky tickets in our Oliver Ranch raffle drawing. Each guest will get a free raffle ticket and the prizes include:

• America’s Cup Oracle Team official crew shirts
• Alegio Chocolate tasting and tour for six
• A bottle of fine, tongue-tickling Champagne
• True Grass Organic Farms tour and lunch for two
• Two tickets to a performance by the renowned group Chanticleer, “An Orchestra of Voices”  

Limited seats remain on the luxury bus that will take us into the Oliver Ranch for our tour (no cars allowed on the ranch), so if you plan to join us, please register on our website today!

On this morning walk in the gentle, wooded hills of Alexander Valley, you’ll encounter one-of-a-kind installations by Ann Hamilton, Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Martin Puryear, and other world-renowned artists commissioned to endow this wine country landscape with their creative vision.

Your tour guide will be none other than ranch owner Steve Oliver, former SFMOMA board chairman. A passionate supporter of the arts, Mr. Oliver has also served on the board of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. If you'd like to learn more about Steve Oliver and his deep roots in the arts community — or about the remarkable evolution of Oliver Ranch — we recommend his biography on the California College of the Arts website,  this article on SculpSite, or this SculpSite podcast. 

Tours of this exclusive art preserve are granted solely to select, non-profit groups for use as fundraising benefits. The ranch donates all tours to the group hosting it. Your donation will go entirely to WriterCoach Connection -- Mr. Oliver conducts the tours of this magnificant art reserve free of charge.

Your $195 donation to WriterCoach Connection includes:
•      A delicious pre-tour breakfast in Healdsburg
•      A luxury charter bus to and from the ranch
•      A 2.5-hour guided tour by owner Steve Oliver (10:00am - 12:30pm)
•      The aforementioned raffle prizes to enjoy along the way

We hope you'll join us for a memorable spring day in the heart of Sonoma's enchanting Alexander Valley wine country.

 

 

Bob Menzimer

 

Spread this on your breakfast pastry, and then go see world-class art!

The Blue Chair Fruit Company is sweetening the breakfast menu for our fundraising Oliver Ranch Tour on April 27 by donating half a dozen jars of Blackberry-Greengage Jam and half a dozen jars of Peacotum Jam for our early-morning table. (Peacotum is a stunning hybrid fruit comprised of peach, apricot, and plum.)

Tour guests will enjoy these fine jams and an array of other breakfast treats before boarding the luxury bus that will take them into the Oliver Ranch to view one-of-a-kind, world-class site-specific works at the famed Sonoma County acreage. 

On this 2-3 hour walk through the gentle, wooded hills, you’ll encounter unique installations by Richard Serra, Andy Goldsworthy, Martin Puryear, and other world-renown artists invited to endow this wine country landscape with their creative vision. 

Oliver Ranch is a privately owned art collection with a unique twist: admission is granted solely to non-profit groups, and admission fees are strictly employed as a donation to support that group. Your donation will support WriterCoach Connection in our mission to strengthen students’ chances for academic success by helping them master essential writing and communication skills. 

WCC and Oliver Ranch are asking a $195 donation for the tour, which will include:

• Pre-tour breakfast in Healdsburg
• Luxury charter bus to and from the ranch
• A 2.5-hour guided tour by Steve Oliver (10:00-12:30pm)
• Special gift prizes to enjoy along the way! 

We hope you will join us for a glimpse of these hidden treasures! Visit WriterCoach Connection or Oliver Ranch Foundation to learn more, purchase your tickets online, or call 510.530.7600.

Meantime, look forward to some delectable Blue Chair jams for breakfast on April 27!

Bob Menzimer

 

 

 

 

Hands clapping, hearts pulsing for WCC

The joint was jumpin' this past Saturday night as First Person Singular presented its third benefit show for WriterCoach Connection. Scheduled every year around Valentine's Day, the benefit series is an offering from a cast of regulars from the First Person Singular monthly HOOT! series. This year's WCC benefit was called I'm with Cupid 3: Hearts at Play in Hitsville USA, a folk-music slant on Motown favorites from a group led by First Person Singular founder Joe Christiano and Theresa Kelly, shown here under a full head of steam.

The audience packed the upstairs hall at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Albany and included plenty of clapping and hooting WCC volunteers, who were showered with appreciation several times by the performers on stage.

First Person Singular donated all proceeds from the evening to WriterCoach Connection, a heartfelt gesture from all the performers and others who helped set up the show and provide refreshments. The result: more than $600 into the WCC coffers to help us keep our writer coaches sitting with students in class for individual writing support.

 

 

Talented pianist Joshua Raoul Brody has been a fixture at all three of the First Person Singular benefits for WriterCoach Connection. We could hear him plenty on Saturday night, at the keyboard and on vocals, but he was in the shadows offstage and we couldn't get a good picture of him!

At various points in the show, Dave Tilton (l.) held the spotlight on both guitar and banjo.

With Dave (below) are Wendy Fiering and Tim Kieschnick. Things got even more interesting when Wendy hauled out her double bass and Tim grabbed his trumpet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The posters  for the monthly First Person Singular HOOT! series are singular indeed, prize collectibles from artist Jeff Boozer. They are available at the Pegasus bookstores in Berkeley. Check out the poster below, Jeff's creation for this year's WCC benefit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many, many thanks to everyone who came to this event and helped fill the big heart-shaped donation box at the door. We are especially indebted to Reverend Julia Wakelee-Lynch and St. Alban's Episcopal Church, for donating the venue for this year's I'm with Cupid WCC benefit.  

And special thanks, of course, go from all of us associated with WCC to our compadres at First Person Singular, for extending that Valentine's Day feeling for everyone in the WriterCoach Connection family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Menzimer

 

Upcoming WCC benefit by First Person Singular: "I'm with Cupid"

I'm With Cupid 3: Hearts at Play in Hitsville U.S.A., benefiting WriterCoach Connection, is a folk-styled interpretation of Motown favorites by the all-stars of First Person Singular's HOOT! Featuring Bekah Barnett, Joshua Raoul Brody, Joe Christiano, Wendy Fiering, Theresa Kelly, Tim Kieschnick, and Dave Tilton.

Saturday, February 23rd
7:00 p.m.

St. Alban's Episcopal Church
1501 Washington Avenue, Albany, CA

$10 Suggested Donation
Wheelchair accessible. Refreshments. 

www.1stpersonsingular.com

Richmond Community Foundation continues to lead the way in West County

The Richmond Community Foundation has been a leader in fostering the mission of countless nonprofit organizations in West Contra Costa County, notably in helping organizations build the capacity they need to do their work. Since spring 2011, the Foundation has sponsored semi-annual grant cycles in capacity building, filling a need that all too often is under-addressed by funders. 

We have been the fortunate recipients of two such capacity-building grants. Last fall, RCF funding helped us immeasurably to reach our volunteer-recruitment goal for our new Richmond High School program, for which our coaches began filing into RHS classrooms this past September. And the RCF has helped us build on that success with a new grant of $2,500, announced on Nov. 7, to support continued volunteer recruitment as we plan for an expanded program at Richmond High for next year. 

And RCF support has extended beyond direct funding. For example, we would be hard-pressed to count the number of meetings we have attended in the Foundation’s capacious board room, collaborative meetings with other West County non-profit and agency stakeholders and CAFL meetings as well. Given the fact that we don’t have a central office, the generous donation of meeting space by the RCF has meant a great deal to us. 

We are deeply appreciative of the support of the Richmond Community Foundation, and we are honored to be their partner in West County.

Bob Menzimer

Executive Director