Friday, January 29, 2010

Ice Skating with the Mentoring Program






On Saturday, January 23, 2010, the Mentoring Program sponsored an afternoon of ice skating at the Wheaton Ice Arena. Students, mentors, and staff all came together to eat homemade soup, drink hot chocolate, and take a few laps around the rink. For many people, youth and adults alike, the experience was a completely new one. For those, falls, bumps, and scrapes happened. Thankfully, no one was injured beyond pride and red hands. Of course, some of the AALEAD'ers were actually quite skilled out on the ice. We got to see some backwards skating, racing, and little tricks. What show-offs!!

Thanks to all who attended and we hope you enjoyed the day!


Wednesday, January 27, 2010

AALEAD goes to a Wizard's Game!





AALEAD mentors, staff and students from our DC, MD and mentoring programs spent their Friday night at a Washington Wizards basketball game versus the Miami Heat on January 22, 2010.


Due to our large numbers in attendance, we were separated into two sections of 410 and 405. For some our staff and students it was their first time attending a professional basketball game at the Verizon Center.

Despite the Wizards losing the game, everyone in attendance enjoyed the game. At the end of the game everyone joined together for a group photo.

Thank you Washington Wizards for having a community tickets program!

AALEAD visits Japan Information & Culture Center

As part of our Cultural Exploration theme this fall, our 3rd to 5th Grade students took a field trip to the Japan Information & Culture Center to learn more about Japanese Culture. Special thanks to AALEAD Board Member Jimmy Lynn for the contact!

Our students learned about several different aspects of the culture, including traditional dress, foods, and even language! Check out the video clip below!












Thursday, January 21, 2010

MLK Day of Service in Maryland



For the 2010 Martin Lurther King Jr. Day of Service, AALEAD Maryland held our second annual collection of toiletries for an area homeless shelter. This year, community members, students and staff all pitched in to donate soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toilet paper, etc, that our students then assembled into packages which can easily be carried from place to place when people leave the shelter. The shelter got valuable toiletries that will help those in need and the students got an opportunity to earn SSL Hours, all in all an amazing day of serving the community!

For more information on the organization that received our donation, please visit:
The Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless






MLK DAY in DC with Accenture Volunteers!

It was a full house at the AALEAD Community Center in DC. With almost 50 students, staff, and Accenture volunteers, there were multiple projects going on at once!

A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to these volunteers, who helped us beautify our building by: putting up blinds, cleaning the outside of our building, creating banners, painting a mural, and restoring computers in our computer lab! The final products? 3 beautiful banners. 8 working computers (from 3 originally). 1 amazing mural. 5 rooms that now have blinds on our windows. 1 cleaner building. and a lot of good spirit!

Here are some photos from the day!









Friday, January 15, 2010

EAS starts the year with "Going Green".








After hard work and persisitence, this is the finish product "Journal made of Recycled materials" for our students to use.