Dear Friends, Benefactors, Partners and Quiet Corner Neighbors,
Happy summer days to you and your wonderful families from the NOW staff, our family of youth volunteers and the entire board of directors.
We hope this newsletter finds you enjoying the beauty and tranquility of this beautiful Connecticut summer weather. We are busier than ever this month serving area children with top-drawer and affordable access to youth sports training, nutrition and fitness education and providing 18 acres of pristine and fabulous playing fields in both Canterbury and East Putnam, CT.
Permit me to share a few recent highlights and our amazing, upcoming calendar of events for July through September, 2014.
- Our financial health continues to be strong and steady, we remain solidly in the black. Jeff Rawson and his Fundraising CMTE report that we are on pace to record revenues again this fiscal year. Pillar and sign donors have re-upped with confidence, even gusto, and we have added a number of new company matching gifts to our portfolio. We are well on our way to 100{935c65a732af2bdfdcd0903b52ce42ca7e95cf00c7f9fc1a7b4e2b425875eda7} board giving again this year
- Our website is the envy of the Quiet Corner non-profit world in our neck-of-the-woods thanks to Josh Longiaru and his team.
- Thanks to Earl Rosebrooks and his team our Facebook page has thousands of look-ins and likes, join us! The photos are wonderful and really “show and tell” our NOW story
- Thanks to Julie Quinn and her CMTE our “Flock a Friend” fundraiser has jump-started 2014 fund-raising in a super fun and friendly way, creating energy and smiles all around the greater Putnam area
- Our Programming CMTE Chair Earl Rosebrooks has announced an ambitious and exciting Summer-Fall Season complete with Little League, Basketball, Running, Football, Cheerleading, Soccer, Tennis and Field Hockey Camps and Clinics!
- We have already served over 750 children this year at our Blackwell and Logee Park athletic complexes!
- We have run or co-sponsored camps and clinics at many area schools, including: Woodstock Academy, Putnam Science Academy, Tourtellotte Memorial HS, Marianapolis Prep and Pomfret School
- In our first-of-its kind scholarship program, the NOW “We Pay You Play” Initiative, we have already awarded $1,934.00 to date directly to more than 45 qualified families, helping eighty-five 4-14 year-olds to join a team, learn a sport, and play a new game by the rules and with integrity!
- We have hired a new director of outreach, and recently welcomed Nichole Hubert to the NOW team. We are excited for her to help in extending both the depth and the breadth of our service mission, vision and values even more deeply and widely into the communities and constituencies we serve, particularly with our NOW Nutrition and Fitness education modules
- And in the “it’s all about what have you done for me lately” bucket, listen to this – July: Running Clinics, Football and Soccer Camps, August: Tennis and Field Hockey camps and September Road Race and TASTE Gala, that’s a WOW!
Kindly check our website for additional details and registration information. And please know that we invite you as donor, partner, participant and volunteer to stay involved. We do what we do only WITH YOU and alongside you! We hope to see you and yours very soon at an upcoming NOW event!
Finally, a brief and heartfelt “thanks” to our all-volunteer and unpaid Board of Directors for their continuing contribution of time, talent and treasure, as well as their deep devotion to the children and families we serve. They are steady and passionate non-profit stewards.
So in conclusion, it’s a “steady as she goes” summer for NOW shipmates and partners and we are sailing ahead to many exciting days making a difference in the life of each and every child we serve. We have set course to insure that each and every child’s access to athletics, nutrition and fitness for a lifetime of “wellness” and happiness is truly our “reason for being.”
Yours in service to children, and thanking you in advance for all you do, I remain very truly,
Keith O’Hara
NOW President