The Summer of Giving

It has been nice to finally get a stretch of decent weather. My wife and I went to the Goo Goo Dolls concert on Friday, and then we spent Saturday on Keuka Lake. Surprisingly, my golf game is finally back to where I can actually call myself a golfer again, instead of a "hitter of golf balls", although that will be short lived as school events begin to get mixed back into my evening work schedule.

I have to tell you that we have a LOT of very generous people and organizations in this community. During the summer, I spend a lot of time working through contracts, ordering, planning, hiring, scheduling, and preparing. I also take the time to check in with many of the people, companies, and organizations who help support our students. 

The Wildcat Golf Tournament Helps Fund Programs: This year, we have a few more very generous people to thank beginning with the locally owned and operated "The Wildcat".  Thanks to a golf tournament sponsored by owners Dan and Heather Thome, our student activities funds will receive a shot in the arm of $3,200. 

This money will go to the After-the Ball All-Night Party held after the Senior Ball, the Respect and Responsibility Club (which puts on community favorite events like the Culture Fair and the Halloween Festival among other things), and a fund to help families who struggle with the cost of renting musical instruments for our Fine Arts program. Many thanks!

Annual School Supply Drive: The West Genesee PTA/PTO District Council is once again sponsoring a School Supply Drive. The purpose is to provide free school supplies for students in need of assistance who attend any school in the West Genesee School District. Our students collected school supply donations from the community at the Walmart in Camillus and for those in need of assistance, requests are still being accepted up until Saturday, August 19, by clicking here.

Township 5 Partnership: At the same time, managing partners of Township 5 have invited our students to sell raffle tickets at their Wednesday Concert Series with the proceeds going to the After-the Ball All-Night Party. They were so pleased with how our students behaved and presented themselves at their last event, that they are exclusively working with West Genesee. Talk about Wildcat Pride!



State Fair Update: We also worked with a local business owner who has a large presence at the New York State Fair, and he hired 120 of our students to work at his restaurant stand, lemonade stands, and water stands throughout the State Fair. Again, due to how our students behave and present themselves, they were given first access to those jobs. Good stuff!

Also, while on the topic of the New York State Fair, our Marching Band was asked again by Governor Cuomo to welcome him at the ribbon cutting of the Fair, which will be at approximately 9:30 a.m. on August 23. Very cool!

Providing Meals: Lastly, we have developed a new and wonderful working relationship with New Life Ministries. They have started a "Power Pack" program to help supply our younger students who do not get consistent meals at home with ready to eat lunches and dinners, as well as food for the weekend. We did a trial run in the spring and quickly serviced sixty families. We met and are now going to work together to provide 100 children with meals for home and weekends. We are truly fortunate to have such great community partners.

Other Great Things are Happening: Other than that, not much is happening (insert sarcasm here). The Marching Band is working hard, some fall sports officially begin today, and there have been some great engineering camps, science camps, CMS students in the NYS Honor Choir, and orientations taking place; so we are busy!

As we get closer to the beginning of school, I will use future posts to let you know our goals for the school year and how we can continue to work together for our students.

Thanks and enjoy the week!

Chris