Garfield

Rene, a Co-VP of service, made an appointment with a prospective elementary school to pitch the chapter's ideas about an educational presentation and possible projects. Our VPs of service, Astrid and Rene, attended a meeting at a Charter Elementary School named Garfield located in Redwood City with another active member, Alex. They met with Claudia the Program coordinator for Garfield’s after school program,called Youth Adelante. Youth Adelante is sponsored by Chicana Latina Foundation and is the after school program for 7th and 8th graders. The group pitched their ideas concerning pennies for peace, educational presentations, and a possible volunteer raffle contest for PTK members. Claudia accepted the chapter's ideas, but were warned that a volunteer raffle contest would not be possible because the organization did not want strangers coming and going from the school. In addition, Claudia told the group that they had to choose between a one-time presentation or 8 presentations to be spread out through the school year. Aside from these presentations, the volunteers who decided to present would need to have get a background check, apply as a volunteer, and commit to presenting on Wednesdays only. The group was also told that after the first presentation the children would choose the topic for the remaining presentations. Feeling overwhelmed with the commitments, the group graciously thanked Claudia for her time and told her that they would need talk to the chapter before any decisions could be made. The next meeting, the group talked to the chapter and laid out the conditions Claudia presented to them. The chapter found the amount of commitments frustrating and agreed that it was too much of a commitment and that we should terminate the deal with Garfield. A Co-VP of service, Rene, decided to e-mail Claudia apologizing for the termination of the deal and further explaining that her conditions, schedule, and rules would not work for the chapter. Not long after the email Claudia responded asking the chapter to reconsider since the children of Garfield were excited about the presentations. The chapter was then able to find a compromise on the number of presentations and requirements for the presentations. The benefits of this project would be to reach out and educate young children about the environment, prospective careers, and hands on activities relating to engineering. The chapter is hoping to introduce and open up important subjects that are not readily available to the the children's daily lives.