We Heart the Discovery Garden!

On Saturday, December 8, several Movers and Shapers volunteers--including two first-time participants--spruced up Monarch's Discovery Garden at the Houston Zoo. Monarch students have been doing an excellent job of taking care of the garden, but we still found things to do, including laying out this heart-shaped plot of flowers. The Discovery Garden is one of the many "faces" Monarch shows the Houston community, and it's a great way to introduce new people to the school and its mission!

Monarch's 1st Garage Sale is a big success!

The Monarch School held its first garage sale on Friday, October 26. We had such a positive response, that we decided to hold the sale again on the following Friday, November 2. The total amount raised was approximately $550.
Thanks to all the volunteers who worked so hard to ensure the garage sale was a success; Penny Weiss, Julie Meaux, Laurilee Etterbeek, Donna Selke, Kandace Shyer, Brenna Schwartz, Gaelle Rosseneu and Choo Saik Leong. Thanks to all the Monarch parents who generously donated items. Thanks to Sara Ranger for her awesome organization and a special thanks to the students for their excellent sales techniques and muscle power!

Good Works Volunteer Fair

Marion, Julie, Debrah, and I attended the Rice University Community Involvement Center's Good Works Fair on Tuesday. We talked to a number of prospective volunteers, as well as to a few people just interested in learning more about Monarch. The possibility of helping out with the Discovery Garden was especially appealing to Rice students without cars (the campus is across the street from Herman Park, so the zoo is easy walking or biking distance away). We also enjoyed meeting representatives from other community organizations and comparing posters, brochures, and giveaways. Thanks to the efforts of Stephanie, Penny, and others, our booth could more than hold its own!

Discovery Garden at the Zoo

Several Movers and Shapers spent Saturday morning at the Monarch Discovery Garden at the Houston Zoo, where we spent a few hours weeding, pruning, and planting. The garden is a joint project between Monarch and the zoo, and Monarch students contribute to its upkeep a couple of times a week. By taking care of some of the more time-consuming tasks, we hope we made it easier for the kids to enjoy their work caring for this lovely spot.

UST Helping Hands Volunteer Fair

Stephanie, Julie, Justin, Penny, and I hosted a very successful table at today's Helping Hands Volunteer Fair at the University of St. Thomas. We handed out lots of brochures and invitations to the Miracle Makers Morning--as well as cookies, magnets, bookmarks, balloons, and other goodies. We left with a nearly full sign-up sheet (fifteen names and email addresses!), and I'll send follow-up messages soon. I hope this will result in some enthusiastic new Movers and Shapers!

Sorry you missed all the fun--and those cookies? Join us at Rice for a similar event next month (see previous post for details). It should be even better--it's indoors!

Builders Committee Project

Members of the Builders Committee recently rolled up their sleeves and with hammers in hand, responded to a need in the Monarch Life Academy for more shelf space. Penny Weiss and I spent two afternoons hanging shelves along two of the walls in the Life Academy. As you can see from the picture, the shelves look great, and are being put to good use! The Building Committee is incredibly appreciative to Penny for driving this project. Life Academy- how are the new shelves working out for you?

Computers and Laptops

If you have not already heard, I wanted to share the great news with all of you. The Monarch School is a member of a program called Gifts In Kind. This program allows non-profits like us to "Shop" (we don't actually pay anything) for items that we need. These items are typically donated by large corporations. These items can be anything from furniture or computers, or even office supplies. Upon hearing that ExxonMobil had donated over 400 desktops and laptops to the program, I immediately asked for 32 desktops and 10 laptops. And guess what?!?! We got ALL of them. This is great news because these computers can replace all the student computers on both campuses.

Also, we recently received a generation donation from the Viereck's (Monarch parents) to pay for a defibrillator and cabinet for each campus, and for pediatric pads for the Apprentice campus. We are thrilled that they did this for us, especially with all the news going around about schools that do/do not have them. All staff will be trained at the beginning of November on how to use them.

Yay Developers!

One item on the Developers' to-do list has already been checked off! At our recent meeting, this group discussed ordering car decals featuring the Monarch logo. Here's the latest from Julie Meaux:

We had 1000 4x4 decals printed and we are planning to give them out at the breakfast to each guest. We should have plenty leftover for anyone who would like to have one for their car.

Fantastic!