The Avenue Peachtree City Collects Over $1,100 for CARE

The Avenue Marketing Manager Kim Tanalgo-Minshew (first row far left) and The Avenue Peachtree City Merchant Relations Coordinator Lisa Hernandez (first row far right) present the donation check to CARE Coordinator Karen Spangler (center front row) and school counselors (back row L-R) Leslie Fear, Inman Elementary, and Oriska Griggs, Spring Hill Elementary.

Generous moviegoers donated over $1,100 to benefit the Fayette County Public School System’s CARE (Children at Risk in Education) program.

Thanks to The Avenue Peachtree City, the CARE program will be able to offer more After School Program (ASP) scholarships to families who need a safe place for their children to stay after the school day ends but are struggling to make ends meet. The scholarships pay for a portion of the ASP tuition for a limited number of weeks. Parents have to pay the other portion of the tuition in order to receive the scholarship.

The Avenue Peachtree City raised the donations through the Movies in the Park event on August 6 that featured “Night at the Museum 2.” Although the event was free, The Avenue Peachtree City allowed patrons to make monetary donations to benefit the school system’s CARE program.
“We are very grateful to The Avenue for their continued support of our CARE program. This donation will make a positive difference in the lives of our students and their families. Many parents who have been able to afford after school care in the past are now having difficulties providing for their families. The scholarships are a way we can take one worry off their plate about where their children are going to be after the school day ends,” says CARE Coordinator Karen Spangler.

The Avenue Peachtree City has other events planned for this year during which the shopping center will collect donations for CARE. Visit www.shoptheavenue.com for more information. In addition to ASP scholarships, CARE also provides other assistance to working families in need such as tutoring scholarships, school supplies and other programs or services to help meet the educational needs of children.

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GSU basketball teams coach After-School All-Stars Atlanta kids

The Georgia State University men’s and women’s basketball teams coached more than 200 Atlanta Public School seventh and eighth grade students at a basketball clinic March 28 in the Sports Arena.

The clinic was sponsored by the After-School All-Stars Atlanta program, housed in the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health.

The students, who play on middle school basketball teams, listened to a motivational speaker and then received help from GSU players with basketball fundamentals, including dribbling, passing, layups, rebounding and defensive slides.

The After-School All-Stars Atlanta program, part of a national initiative, currently provides more than 2,000 at-risk students in nine middle schools in Atlanta with tutoring, recreation, technology instruction and club activities. The partnership between Georgia State and the After-School All-Stars program began in 1999.

“We make after school fun and exciting,” said Walter Thompson, executive director of the program and GSU Regents professor of exercise physiology. “Kids are learning and they don’t even know they’re learning.”

After-School All-Stars Atlanta has been shown to improve student achievement, Thompson said.
Students who participate in the after school program have higher test scores in all three categories of the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test, better attendance rates and higher GPAs, sometimes as much as a letter grade, Thompson found.

“We’re sure the program is effective,” Thompson said. “We have a model we think is scalable and cost effective enough for us to expand into all the middle schools in and around Atlanta.”
Community members are noticing the impact of After-School All-Stars Atlanta as well. The program last year received the “Regional Excellence Award” from the Civic League for Regional Atlanta, one of four awards given by the non-profit to individuals, organizations or initiatives that create a better Atlanta region. The program also received in October a $2 million grant from the Georgia Department of Human Resources’ Division of Children and Family Services to expand its programming.

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