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Dear Supporters and Friends, We hope 2021 is off to a good start for you! For many in the not-for-profit space we start the year with continued uncertainty due to the changes wrought by the pandemic. But, we have many reasons to be hopeful this year. The outpouring of support we had in December during our Annual Appeal campaign reinforced for us how lucky we are to have steadfast supporters like you on our side. Thanks to you we have matched over 300 students with caring volunteers. Thanks to you we have built up a robust library of resources for tutors to help them navigate the world of remote tutoring and using new technology. Thanks to you we have been able to continue recruiting tutors to match with students as they are referred into our program. And, thanks to you, our mission to Touch a Child, Reach a Family, Build a Community, is made real under circumstances never seen before in our world. Your support has m
Please Join Us In Celebrating New HCT Executive Board Members! In July we had a changing of the guard on the HCT Board of Directors. Founding board members Lauren Pachkowski and Roger Bodamer stepped down as President and Vice President, while Michael Garb and Jay Strauss stepped up to fill these respective roles. Lauren and Roger joined the Board in November 2011, when Healthy Cities Tutoring became a non-profit, and they have been instrumental to the existence and growth of the organization. We feel fortunate that they will continue as Board Members this year. We look forward to the infusion of new ideas and energy from President Michael Garb and Vice President Jay Strauss. Thank you, Mindy, for your commitment! We also said goodbye to a highly valued board member, Mindy Hill. Mindy has contributed immensely to the organization and her passion and valuable insights will be sorely missed. We wish her well in her new adventures in Colorado. Pictured below, from l to r: Michael Garb, Jay Strauss, Mindy Hill
24th Annual Volunteer Appreciation Event
Our annual volunteer recognition event was unlike any other! Due to the pandemic we were unable to see – and thank – our volunteers in person but we loved the challenge of creating a virtual event to highlight and celebrate our amazing tutors!
We got creative and learned a few new skills for the event! Our staff put together videos, adding music and effects, and kept it to under 35 minutes to avoid Zoom fatigue. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did! Click the link below to view the heartfelt video.
San Carlos Mayor, Ron Collins, helped kick-off our event and we heard from several tutors and their tutees as they shared how tutoring was for them over Zoom. We honored our 5, 10, 15, and 20 year Award recipients, these individuals have contributed greatly to our organization. To watch the Volunteer Appreciation event, click here.
Congratulations! We wish all of our graduating high schools seniors the best of luck as they continue on their educational journey.
We are proud of all the young people who help make our program a success! One third of our volunteer tutors are high school students. They show up week after week to work with their students, every bit as dedicated as our many other volunteers. To recognize their commitment we started a Scholarship Grant Program for high school graduates who have volunteered for 2+ years as a tutor. We were pleased to award grants to: Eimon Amjadi, Maria Casique, Emma Holland, Maya Litvak, Ethan Mayoss, Amy Ruiz, Kelsey Sennet, and Jordan Schwartz.
Thank you to all our volunteers! A very special thanks to Barbara Madden, who has been volunteering with us for 20 years and changing countless lives in the process. Also, a huge thank you to Yvette Royce for 15 years of service; Jo Benson and Gregory Gee for 10 years of service. We couldn’t do this without you!
Give Where You Live Success!
Thanks to the generous outpouring of support from our community our 7th annual Give Where You Live campaign was a success this past May! Your support helped us reach more students and make a difference. You have enabled our staff and tutors to be responsive, adaptive, and to modify our services to meet students needs now and in the future. For that we are very grateful! We want to thank Beth and Mike Hunkapiller for their generous match which DOUBLED the impact of our campaign.
2019/2020 Year in Review
This past year was different from any other in our 24-year history! In March, we completely changed our model to adjust to the campus closures in San Carlos and Redwood City. We stretched and learned, along with the students in our program, as we piloted a “remote tutoring” option, held online trainings for tutors on how to do use different online applications, and established some best practices for working with your student during these difficult times. Over 70 volunteer tutors joined our experiment and we discovered that, though different from what we were used to, it was possible to continue to engage with students and carry out our mission to Reach a Child, Touch a Family, Build a Community.
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign… Thank you to all our wonderful tutors who hosted signs in their front yards last spring. We loved walking through town and seeing them everywhere. If you missed getting one this year, don’t worry, we plan to bring them back next year! (Pictured at right, Andrew Mancini. And below left to right: Jake and Joe Haws; Joyce and Jay Strauss.)
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