LEGOLAND Summer Trip – The summer ended with a wonderful trip to Legoland on August 12, 2021. While it was the hottest day of the summer, students were able to enjoy the activities by going into the movie theater and other indoor ventures. The students enjoyed lunch and testing their skills on different rides. One of the children was having such fun he asked his teacher to “pinch me— I don’t believe this is real”…It was a wonderful day made possible by a State Education Grant awarded in 2019 from Senator Jenn Metzger.
KERMES Fundraiser – Each year the parents of the students have held a fundraiser. This was the first one in two years due to the COVID restrictions. Parents prepare traditional foods and sell them to raise money for the school. Over 400 community members supported this event by coming and purchasing the foods that was for sale. It was a great time to come together to also enjoy the art work prepared by the children with the WICKHAM WORKS program. There were audio displays as well as beautiful masks that the children had made during the seven weeks of summer. The artwork was hung around the park for all to see. A mural was painted by Emily Welch, AMERICORP volunteer with Sun River Health as well as a group of Alamo Teenagers. This is now a permanent art structure in the Pine Island Park.
Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton attended the event and commended the families for their support and delicious food. Over $4,500 was raised during this event.
Science Careers Presentation – Scientist Dr. Rachel Liberatore came to the Dulce Esperanza program in the last week of the summer. She is a Virologist working on COVID and treatments. During the presentation to the two oldest groups, she talked about what are the characteristics needed to become a scientist and what it was like to work in this most important field. She brought photos of her lab as well as sample pipettes and vials to show students some of the equipment she works with. The students were able to hear about science as a career as well as some of the critical work being done to combat COVID. Several of the older students have been presenting short talks to the younger children on COVID so this tied in with what they were learning.
THANK YOU – Thank you to all our teachers, student teachers, interns, volunteers, and staff members who all helped make the 2021 Summer Session of Dulce Esperanza a success! We are really proud to have such a great team this year and thank everyone for all they did to get our Summer Enrichment Program back in full operation despite the pandemic still being ever present. We are also appreciative to all the parents of the children in the program as well as the support from the larger local migrant farmworker community that continues to give back and support this program in so many ways. Finally we cannot thank all those who donated so generously this year enough. There was a point just before the session began that we were worried the program may not happen due to funding issues and then so many wonderful “angels” came to the rescue for the children through donations big and small.
Your financial support is so greatly appreciated and because of you so many children had a truly wonderful as well as educationally enriching summer. These experiences are life changing for the children. They help to mold them into their future selves by giving them a chance to learn and experience things they otherwise would not. We have seen the results of this again and again as the kids in the WAMC/WAFO programs go on to be adults who give back to the programs they once were in and to the the larger local community (and world) around them. We see these children become the leaders, healers, and business owners of the world. The children grow up to move into all sorts of careers and fields that they never would have dreamed of doing before they came to the programs. It all starts with a summer program, trying another one of the programs out, or one chance to learn something new in the WAFO classes. You made that happen for these kids and we cannot thank you enough for doing so!
We now begin to shift gears towards our school year long educational support programs including our after school programs, as well as, the many clubs and groups we host for the adults in the migrant farmworker community. As we do though, we cannot thank everyone enough for all we were able to accomplish this year because of you and we look forward to more success in the coming month with our other programs!
