Chip-in to Combat "Summer Slide"

Summer is a time for adventure and exploration for youth.  Or is it?

 

"For many children, especially children of low-income families, summer is a season of boredom, inactivity and isolation. Kids can't go exploring if their neighborhoods aren't safe. It's hard to play without toys or playgrounds or open spaces.

Dull summers take a steep toll, as researchers have been documenting for more than a century. Deprived of healthy stimulation, millions of low-income kids lose a significant amount of what they learn during the school year. Call it "summer learning loss," as the academics do, or "the summer slide," but by any name summer vacation is among the most pernicious, if least acknowledged causes of achievement gaps in America's schools. Children with access to high-quality experiences keep exercising their minds and bodies at sleep away camp, on family vacations, in museums and libraries and enrichment classes. Meanwhile, children without resources languish on street corners or in front of glowing screens. By the time the bell rings on a new school year, the poorer kids have fallen weeks, if not months, behind."

 

(From "The Case Against Summer Vacation," by David Von Drehle, Time Magazine, July 22, 2010.)

 

At The GreenHouse, we are working hard to combat "the summer slide."  We are providing high-quality experiences (sleep away camp, museums, enrichment classes) to low-income youth who would not otherwise have them.  It's exciting to be part of the solution!

 

And you can be part of the solution, too, by becoming a Summer Sponsor and providing the funding needed for enriching field trips for our youth.  This summer, with your help, we will send 30 elementary students to the Bohart Bug Museum, Jump Sky High, and Raging Waters.  An additional 15 teens will go to Raging Waters and the State Fair.  And three of our teens will have the life-changing opportunity of spending a week at Westminster Woods Christian Camp.

 

To fund all of these opportunities, we need to raise $3000.  Already, through the generosity of our donors, we have raised $1350 (the three trips to Westminster Woods have been completed funded and we've already raised $450 for our elementary and teen field trips)!  That means we have just $1650 left to raise for our summer field trips.

 

All month long, friends of The GreenHouse will "Chip -in" on-line to give towards our summer field trips.  Every gift counts!  When you give $50 or more, you will receive a letter from a child describing the summer adventures they are having at The GreenHouse.  We hope you'll join us in being part of the solution to combat "the summer slide."  Thanks for your support!  Chip-In Now!  (or just click on the Chip-in button on the right side of the blog!)