A few housekeeping items staff related to discussions at the meeting…

1.  The golf volunteer meeting will be held Tuesday the 23rd 6pm at 4310 Tillson Rd. Wilmington, NC 28412 in the Ashley Park neighborhood off of St. Andrews Drive which is off of 17th Street.  Your help in our efforts to secure Tee/Green sponsors and raffle prizes will greatly improve our overall success.

2.  Remember Golf Participants are needed.  Our website now has a page for the tournament where the registration form is able to be downloaded.  Payment is easy through Paypal by selecting the Donate Now button.

3.  I created a compilation of articles that have recently appeared in several NC papers regarding a recent decision by Judge Manning to require all at-risk children pre-school enrollment regardless of the GOP budget cuts.  Politically it was orchestrated by Gov. Perdue’s office, based on a 90’s legal action.  The GOP Senate is fighting it.  Ironically it has added a new set of costs with the creation of a new division to manage the mandate and application process.  Where will it all lead?  Not sure, but NC is being monitored at the national level at PRE-K Now and Early Education Watch.   Judge Manning’s Mandate Articles  It does confirm our mission in the community can fill some of the gap that will likely be the fallout from this all.  Raising the dollars to do it is the task.

4.  Of all the articles I have been reading, the one by James Heckman included in this compilation of articles really resonates with me on the intangible long-term benefit of investing in our children in pre-school.  Like most of us who had stay at home moms, no 150 channels of TV, no Wii or Xbox, smaller classrooms in Kindergarten and a focus on teaching quality as we grew up as baby boomers, Pre-School wasn’t even around.  Heck, for me Kindergarten wasn’t even mandatory.  But times are different, the lives of young families is different.  James’s “soft skills” analysis is very interesting related to future job training.

Enjoy the weekend…Joan