AALEAD Maryland answers the national call to service on MLK Jr. Day

Students from both the Middle School and High School After School Programs came together on Monday, January 19th to work with volunteers from the community and celebrate AALEAD Maryland's 1st annual MLK Jr. Day of Service. On the agenda for the day was assembling packages of health and sanitary items for homeless and low-income shelters in Silver Spring and DC, creating our own cards to be attached to donated books and toys for the children's wing of Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring as well as sorting donated magazines for the visitor waiting rooms at the hospital. Despite the snow and cold temperatures, a great core group of volunteers turned out and started working hard. By the end of the day, we had assembled or collected:

HOLY CROSS HOSPITAL

• 22 hospital "get well soon" packages (each containing 1 children's book, 1 toy and 1 hand-made card)

in addition to:

• 43 magazines and 6 extra books for the visitor waiting room

MONTGOMERY COUNTY COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS & COMMUNITY FOR CREATIVE NONVIOLENCE

• 118 "critical need" sanitary packages (soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc contained in a single sealed package)
• 100s of bars of soap, bottles of shampoo and rolls of toilet paper

Thank you to all those that came to help...without you we could not have done this work! A special thanks to Minh Le, Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders Americans for Obama, and Asian Pacific Bar Association of DC for all their assistance.

October 24, 2008 Community Service: Gilchrist Community Center

Mentors, mentees, and student volunteers gathered on a Friday afternoon to create a Welcome Wall at the Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity!

Here is the wall they were tasked with decorating:

Thanks to donations from Home Depot, there were large styrofoam panels that students used as their base.
Each group was responsible for one of the letters in "W-e-l-c-o-m-e."

Students included flags, maps, and pictures to decorate the welcome wall. The word "Welcome" was also translated into various languages!

The last group was tasked with making the exclamation point, using AA LEAD's logo!

Slowly but surely, the pieces of the wall all came together as students carried their panels into the room.

Kids4Kids Summer 2008

In the Summer of 2008, the elementary students started a pilot project which we hope to continue to educate our students about poor Asian countries and encourage them that they can make a difference.

The theme for the project was “At-risk Children Helping At-risk Youth in the Philippines.”

· Education: The project started by educating the students from the two sites about the urban poor children’s plight in the Philippines. The goal of this activity was to raise awareness among Asian-American youth of the realities of much poorer Asians in other parts of the world. On July 23 the Bancroft 1st-6th grade students (total of 20 of 25) attended a presentation about the urban poor children in the Philippines. The students were also given a chance to learn some basic Tagalog words (Philippine language) at this event.

· Fund Raising Initiative: On July 24, all the Bancroft students including the Pre-K and Kindergarten class participated in a Summer Festival. This event was dedicated to raising money for the children of the Philippines. Everyone (staff included) contributed by making different items to sell to raise money. Some of the items sold were pictures and picture frames, beaded jewelry, beaded pins in the shape of the Philippine flag, cotton candy, and snow cones. The pre-k and kindergarten classes provided many of the decorations including one mural done by Ms. Bui and Ms. Danielle’s class. The festival also included fun games and activities including a video presentation which gave the children the opportunity to see those whom they were helping and learning. The students and staff helped to raise almost $200 for the poor children of the Philippines.

· Letter Writing: All 69 students at Chinatown have made cards and corresponding through letters with youth in the Philippines on a weekly basis. The activity is intended to create friendship between Asian at-risk youth in America and Asia, and also to promote creative literacy activities.

Then we received a letter of thanks from the beneficiary!

Dawn for the Poor
Manila, Philippines
4th August 2008

To: AALEAD Team and Students

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you from Manila in the Philippines!
Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity.

We are going to use the money you raised for special classes that are being held in our small Waray Centre that we built in a poor area where families live close to a disused quarry just outside of the Manila.

Here many boys and girls run around in old clothes and bare feet and they live with their families in shacks made out of just scraps of wood, corrugated iron and old sacking. Some of these children do not go to school so we have a program to help them to learn to read and write. Some of our volunteers and young people teach them during the week.

We are so touched that you would be prepared to give in such a generous way to help these young boys and girls here to begin to have a good education. You have made a difference in the lives of these young people.

Thank you once again for what you have done!
God bless you all.

Patrick Hobbs
Patrick Hobbs
(International Advisor for Dawn for the Poor)