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Volunteer Julia Berg shares how CASPER students color and discuss an enchanting spin on an old tale

By Julia Berg

In the K-2 classroom at the Carver Community Center, a couple of girls illustrate rainbows and hearts on the purple and blue construction paper they selected. They draw the rainbow using markers as well as the colored pencils and crayons found in one of their pencil cases. Camilla, sitting beside them, draws a grassy landscape on the orange paper she chose.

Soon after, our program director Waid enters to read aloud a book to the students. He reads one that a student picked out titled “Over the River and Through the Wood,” which is a fun take on the poem of the same name by Lydia Maria Francis Child with fantastical illustrations by David Catrow.

The book tells the story of a family’s trip to their grandparents’ house for Thanksgiving and is primarily written in enclosed rhymes, which he asks the students to identify after each section. After he finishes reading the book, Waid asks each student for one thing they liked about it. The students discuss the rhymes, the snow, the balloons, the gorilla, and the pumpkin pie at the end that caught their eye.

Volunteer Julia Berg tells us lively stories about our summer and after-school students at the Carver Community Center. See more of her stories here.

BoardLead selects Carver as a charity worthy of the best board members

BoardLead is an online platform that introduces executives and employees from its corporate and strategic partner networks to nonprofits seeking board members. They work at the intersection of nonprofits and corporations to connect diverse and talented professionals with nonprofit board service opportunities that make a difference.

With BoardsLead’s assistance, Carver can expand and diversify our board development network by accessing cause-aligned and talented professionals to meet our governance needs. BoardLead significantly reduces the time it takes to find, vet, and elect impact-ready board members.

Corporations gain a trusted partner to support their HR-Talent and CSR teams in all things nonprofit board placement, training, and support. They get the support they need to improve employee retention and satisfaction and accomplish their corporate goals.

Professionals gain leadership experience toward advancing their career goals and connect to new networks while helping advance a cause that’s meaningful to them. BoardLeaders receive robust good governance training at the outset of their tenure and have ongoing access to 1:1 coaching and support.

BoardLead elevates and transforms governance in the social good sector through the collective impact of our BoardLeaders. Every BoardLead candidate is asked to stretch themselves, committing to a high standard of full­ engagement. By meeting this standard of excellence, BoardLeaders demonstrate that they have the dedication required to rise to board leadership positions and increase their impact.

Thank you, BoardLead!

Give to Carver kids on Giving Tuesday, 11/29!

GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of radical generosity. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

From a viral hashtag to a global movement, #GivingTuesday is reimagining a world built upon shared humanity and generosity.

Julia Berg captures the fun our kids have playing games after school at the Carver Community Center

By Julia Berg

After the start of the next round of Sharks and Minnows is announced, the K-5 students line up on the gym wall and make their way past the taggers.

Some students sprint across immediately, some wait for a clear path before they make the dash, and others try to go under the taggers’ radar by walking across.

Skylar, a student from the K-2 group who asked to be the tagger, succeeds in tagging a couple of other students. After the group switches to playing “red light green light” for a bit, the students begin a game of Simon Says, with the counselor giving the directions at first.

The students play a round with the counselor, copying actions such as touching their shoulders and hopping on one foot. A 3-5 group student asks and gets to be the leader of the next round. They work hard at being the leader, allowing students who are eliminated from the game to still play for fun and giving everyone a second chance after it was pointed out that he gave one to one of them. He directs them to make fun moves, such as waving their arms above their head and doing a split to the best of their ability. They play Simon Says, and Geo leads the game until they leave for their next after-school activity at the Carver Community Center.

Volunteer Julia Berg tells us lively stories about our summer and after-school students at the Carver Community Center. See more of her stories here.

Give to Carver kids on Giving Tuesday, 11/29!

GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of radical generosity. GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good. Since then, it has grown into a year-round global movement that inspires millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

From a viral hashtag to a global movement, #GivingTuesday is reimagining a world built upon shared humanity and generosity.

Honoring All Who Served

Today, the country honors those who served and are serving in military. Veterans Day became an official federal holiday in 1938. Also founded in 1938, the Carver community has much to remember and honor today.

Sunday will mark the 40th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. More than 58,000 names of every US service member who died or went missing in the Vietnam War have been read this week leading up to a Veterans Day Observance at the memorial today.

If anyone ever doubts the capacity of our young people today to achieve lasting greatness, let’s remember that the wall, consisting of two 200-foot-long sections of black granite listing the names in chronological order, was designed by then-21-year-old Yale student Maya Lin and cost $8.4M to construct. More than 5 million people each year visit the wall, making it one of the most visited memorials on the National Mall. See some of the items that have been left at the wall.

You can watch Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery here.