2007-2008 Accomplishments

School Projects:

Much of our efforts and fundraising went to supporting a Peace Train Project orchestrated by Cathy Haag in the Middle School and including classes in the elementary schools. The residency was from March 31 to April 4^th 2008 and included a variety of school activities led by members of the musical group, Peace Train from South Africa. It culminated in a performance that was open to the community. ACCORD’s involvement included:

            Raising and donating a total of $1925 to the Project (from the annual fund  drive and from a Claude Ray barbeque)

            Inviting all donors to the project to come to the performance and sit in front  row seats, then meet members of Peace Train after the performance

            Providing refreshments for the performance

            Facilitating placing the video of the performance on the public access TV

            Making sure the Times-Journal came to the performance to cover it

            Linda Holmes making quilted wall hangings for Cathy Haag and Sharon Katz in honor of their contribution to the school

            Linda donating money to ACCORD to buy a camera for the school in  South Africa that Peace Train supports

            Sue Spivack worked with 8th grade classes in March, telling African folktales and then facilitating poetry writing inspired by African poems. 

The ACCORD video collection was given to the appropriate schools to be kept in their libraries.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and African-American History Month binders were updated and returned to every school office. Teachers were again notified about their availability. Pam Kostbar-Jarvis again presented a school play on King’s life. The T-J reported on the performance.

Becky put together a packet of information for the new superintendent of schools and invited her to attend an ACCORD meeting which she did.

Jack and Louise Daniels Peace Award: 

Sue worked on and defined the scope and purpose of the peace award. ACCORD members agreed to set up a special fund through the C-RCS district office to house funds for the award. This way, people can donate directly to it for tax purposes. Sue met with the high school principal to clarify how the award would be given. Linda made a poster advertising the award that was placed in the high school library. Sue had it posted on the school district website and sent a news release to the T-J about the award. Sue spoke to members of the high school faculty to explain the award and to encourage teachers to get students involved. Two students shared the award this year. Jack was present when the awards were given to the students. It was decided to revise the guidelines for the peace award for the next year to include it as a mini-grant.  Members agreed to donate $100 a year from the fund drive to the Peace Award account.

An art show was held at the community library with paintings and cards of Louise Daniels’ art work on display and for sale. Over $1,000 was raised from the sales which were donated to the Peace Award fund. ACCORD members helped with the show and reception. Sue sent a news release of the event to the T-J.

Safe Contacts: 

One family contacted Vena with a school related problem.

New information cards were printed and placed in every district school office.

Two ACCORD members (Linda and Annie Fonda) were trained to work with Vena as safe contact team members.

ACCORD website:

Mary Black continues to help update it. It was decided to include only current events and the previous month’s meeting minutes.

Community involvement:

Natasha filled out a form for the Youth Bureau describing ACCORD’s activities for their data bank of organizations helping youth.

Financial Status

It was decided not to apply for not-for-profit status due to the cost and effort involved. Members agreed to inform potential donors during the fund drive that if they wanted to deduct their contribution to ACCORD for tax purposes, they need to write checks directly to C-RCS.

The fund drive brought in a total of $1925.

Future plans:

The May meeting was a retreat and potluck lunch. Members decided to refocus our efforts next year on learning about programs on diversity we can introduce to teachers to use in their own classrooms. Each member would take a turn introducing a program and presenting an activity to the group at every other meeting starting in the fall.