Mi Vida Dinner Rally at Kindred Elementary Draws Record Crowd
The Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, Communities in Schools, and MATT.org hosted their second Mi Vida • My Life • Our Community dinner rally at Kindred Elementary, located in San Antonio’s South-San school district. Kindred joins Briscoe Academy as the second school to participate in the pilot program, which encourages parent/family involvement in the lives of young girls in the San Antonio area.
With attendance reaching an all-time high, the rally proved a rousing success. Of the 137 students and parents in attendance, 31 girls registered to become Girl Scouts and 22 parents registered to volunteer.
Three volunteer training sessions have been scheduled to accommodate all the volunteers registered that evening. After adult training, troops will be formed and leaders will be put in place. There are enough girls to form 3 troops at Kindred, a school where no troops existed before.
Principal Montez thanked MATT.org for choosing Kindred to be a part of this program, and explained, “Being a Girl Scout is a very exciting opportunity. You will have new friends and new memories.”
Patricia Diaz-Dennis, National Chair of Girl Scouts of the USA, addressed the crowd in both English and Spanish as she explained the decision to call the program Mi Vida, or My Life. “Our children are our lives. What wouldn’t we do for them?” she asked.
“Girl Scouts make our world a better place, helping families and communities” Diaz-Dennis continued. “Mi Vida gives them the possibility to dream and create the lives they want.”
15-year-old Krystal Diaz, the current reigning Miss Recreation 2007, spoke eloquently about how being a Girl Scout for the past six years had shaped her. As her proud mom and sister looked on, Diaz spoke to the crowd. “I’m here to motivate you young ladies, motivate you (too) parents,” she said. “You’re not going to want to leave Girl Scouts…the opportunities are endless.”
Then came the eagerly-awaited group activity. Erika Sauseda-Gutierrez, the Mi Vida Project Coordinator at the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas, invited the girls to create home-made Christmas cards to send to soldiers serving our country in Iraq, a projects the girls clearly relished as they worked together in their school cafeteria.
The “Mi Vida” pilot project is the first-ever collaborative recruiting effort, of this scale, for the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. Donations for the program can be made to the “Mi Vida • My Life • Our Community” fund, c/o MATT.org Foundation, 329 Old Guilbeau Street, San Antonio, TX 78204 or call 210-270-0300.
|
|
