Next Monday is Juneteenth!
Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. On June 19, 1865, enslaved African Americans in Texas were told they were free. Also called Juneteenth National Independence Day, Jubilee Day, Emancipation Day (TX), Freedom Day, and Black Independence Day — on Monday, June 19, 2023, this day will have been observed for 157 years.
Connecticut also made this a state holiday.
We have celebrated and written about Juneteenth many times here through the years, and here, and here is a description of one of our celebrations at the Carver Community Center in 2017.
For generations, Black Americans have recognized the end of one of the darkest chapters in U.S. history with joy in the form of parades, street festivals, musical performances, or cookouts.
The U.S. government was slow to embrace the occasion — it was only in 2021 that President Joe Biden signed a bill passed by Congress to set aside Juneteenth, or June 19th, as a federal holiday.
The national reckoning over race ignited by the 2020 death of George Floyd helped set the stage for Juneteenth to become the first new federal holiday since 1983, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created.
As recently said by Para LaNell Agboga, museum site coordinator at the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center in Austin, Texas: “Our freedoms are fragile, and it doesn’t take much for things to go backward.”
CARVER 9TH ANNUAL GOLF CLASSIC, MONDAY, JUNE 26TH! (Copy)
Carver's 51st Annual Testimonial Dinner Awards and Scholarships
Our young people and their proud families came together last Wednesday evening for our 51st annual Testimonial Dinner at the Carver Community Center. Each year, we recognize our YDP students, and we award financial scholarships to graduating seniors on their way to college and to current college students. This year we awarded 45 graduating seniors and continuing college students with scholarships cumulatively amounting to $140,000. This opportunity for our students is made possible through the support of our incredible donors and program sponsorship from The Connecticut State Department of Education and 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
Rhea Gorham, P-TECH Program Coordinator, and Brian Allert, Chief Program Officer
SEE OUR FACEBOOK ALBUM HERE WITH ALL THE EVENT PHOTOS.
The evening began with a keynote address by P-TECH Program Coordinator, Rhea Gorham followed by dinner for all our awardees and their families.
We recognized our Students of the Year and Most Improved Students of the Year across all grades. See our facebook page for all the smiling faces! We also recognized our incredible 2023 high school and college graduates:
Brian McMahon Seniors: Doulsina Sandoval, Darlah Lapommeray, & Justin Anthony Burrell
BRIEN MCMAHON HIGH SCHOOL YDP Graduates
Ebel Alliance, Justin Anthony Burrell, Autum Candito, Juno Carlson, Andrea Centeno, Ashley Fernandez, Jensley Hernandez, Riya Kalia, Darlah Lapommeray, Hailey Marte, Chloe Mattus, Damarly Mendez, Bianca Nieves, Doulsina Sandoval, Winzer Teel.
Norwalk High Seniors, Fred Luma & Maddox Sutton
NORWALK HIGH SCHOOL YDP Graduates
Kwame Agyeman, Christian Salgado, Deonna Fields, Darwin Gonzalez, Anthony Harris, Kadence Faucher, Josh Olmeada, Fred Luma, Maddox Sutton, Chance Teel, Stephanie Velaquez, Bryana King, Jasdiel Cantarero, Tia Asia Ruffin, Shawn Brown, Jacob Burden.
Carver YDP College Graduates
Lakia Brayboy, Monica Carswell, Eric Day, Isiah Gaddy, Evan Townsend Henry, Dejanah Lorthe, Shike’da Paucer, Carla Romeus.
We are so proud of all our Carver scholars! We cannot wait to see what our graduating and continuing students go on to achieve.
New Canaan Community Foundation renews its support of the Carver community!
And not just us! The New Canaan Community Foundation (NCCF), a non-profit charity organization dedicated to addressing community needs and supporting local nonprofits, just announced the allocation of $712,700 in grants to benefit 92 nonprofit organizations in New Canaan and neighboring communities.
The Foundation celebrated the grant recipients at its awards ceremony on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, at Grace Farms in New Canaan, CT. We were in attendance along with many other nonprofit partners, community volunteers, as well as the Foundation’s donor-advised fundholders, who choose to partner with the Foundation in their family philanthropy.
NCCF's grants are designed to support high-quality and impactful programs and initiatives that make a positive difference in the community. With the guidance of nearly 100 community volunteers, grant-making decisions are based on the needs and interests of New Canaan and its surrounding communities. This year, the NCCF received an unprecedented 117 applications, totaling $1.5 million in requests, highlighting the tremendous need and the competitive nature of the grant process.
Due to the remarkable generosity of the community, the Foundation will continue to provide impactful funding for a diverse range of programs serving the local community. The grants awarded this year align with five key categories: Human Services; Arts, Culture & Community Resources; Youth & Education; Health (including a dedicated focus on behavioral health); and Seniors & Special Needs.
NCCF, formed in 1977, serves as New Canaan’s local partner for advice, leadership and facilitation of charitable giving. The Foundation’s vision strives for a New Canaan that comes together to address both individual and local challenges, enriching the lives of all community members. NCCF works with individuals and organizations to achieve their philanthropic goals through donor-advised funds and other partnerships. Learn more at www.newcanaancf.org
THANK YOU, NCCF!
Deloitte's IMPACT Day at Carver Community Center!
We are deeply honored and grateful for Carver to be consistently chosen as a site for Deloitte’s IMPACT Day! Today, Norwalk’s Mayor Rilling and Carver Board President Phil Butterfield welcomed the IMPACT Day team of Deloitte volunteers to the Carver Community Center.
Watch our THANK YOU VIDEO!
Every year, volunteers from Deloitte’s Stamford office devote their IMPACT Day activities to refurbishing, organizing, and beautifying the Carver Community Center. The Deloitte team helps us organize closet space, repaints furniture and walls, and goes to work throughout the community center grounds to help us get ready for our summer programs. Their hard work transforms our space and we’re grateful to them for the gracious volunteering they do each year.
Many, many thanks to Deloitte and their employees for generously volunteering their time and support each year at Carver! Learn more about the many priceless contributions Deloitte makes to the community all year long here:
Their focus on education, helping students on their path to college readiness
Their commitment to workforce development, helping prepare youth, the workforce, and employers in a new economy
How Deloitte comes together in new and unique ways—with their clients, their network of alliances, and each other—to help address countless issues arising from the pandemic.
stepup, Deloitte’s largest professional skills-based volunteering program. More than 700+ Deloitte professionals volunteer their services year-round to help empower 100+ nonprofits across the nation by supporting their efforts to answer strategic questions and solve complex challenges.
Their MADE (Make Accounting Diverse and Equitable) commitment to fuel racial and ethnic diversity in accounting and tax
Deloitte’s purpose is to make an impact that matters by creating trust and confidence in a more equitable society. Thank you, Deloitte, for your year-round commitment to collectively making an #ImpactThatMatters in the communities where your employees live and work!
Carver's 51st Annual Testimonial Dinner Awards and Scholarships, this Wednesday, 6-8PM!
Our young people and their proud families and teachers will gather on Wednesday, June 7th, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., in the Richard Whitcomb Gymnasium at the Carver Community Center, for our 51st Annual Testimonial Dinner. We will celebrate the academic accomplishments of our students, and we award financial scholarships to our seniors graduating high school and our college students currently pursuing their undergraduate degrees. We hope that you can join us!
Carver's Child of America honoree, Danielle Robinson, in the news about her work at Diageo leading the way for corporate America supporting HBCUs
See the videos, photos, and all the details about our 2023 Child of America gala here.
…At the beverage company Diageo North America, the employee resource group for African Americans shaped a program that has provided almost $12 million to HBCUs, said Danielle Robinson, head of community engagement and partnerships for Diageo. The money has gone toward scholarships at 29 schools to lessen the debt burden on Black graduates.
“We talked about a lot of different things, but one of the things that kept coming up was the generational wealth gap,” Robinson said.
See the entire 6/1/2023 article via the link to the right.
U.S. Companies, Nudged by Black Employees, Have Stepped Up Donations to HBCUs
…Historically Black colleges and universities, which had seen giving from foundations decline in recent decades, lately are benefiting from an increase in gifts, particularly from corporations and corporate foundations. Some have received a new look from companies amid the reckoning over racial injustice spurred by the killing of George Floyd. But the colleges also have been pitching themselves, emphasizing their ability to deliver returns on the investment in student mobility.
Another factor in the giving by corporations has been the influence of their Black employees.
At the beverage company Diageo North America, the employee resource group for African Americans shaped a program that has provided almost $12 million to HBCUs, said Danielle Robinson, head of community engagement and partnerships for Diageo. The money has gone toward scholarships at 29 schools to lessen the debt burden on Black graduates.
“We talked about a lot of different things, but one of the things that kept coming up was the generational wealth gap,” Robinson said.
The giving to HBCUs is a new trend for corporations, which had largely ignored them before 2020, said Marybeth Gasman, a Rutgers University professor who researches HBCUs. Increasingly, HBCUs have been using the language of business to argue they not only have a high need but also are a good investment, she said.
HBCUs often have smaller endowments and lower levels of public funding than other universities. A report released in May found foundation support of HBCUs declined 30 percent from 2002 to 2019. Data is incomplete for more recent years, but HBCUs have been reporting a sustained increase lately in donations from corporations as well as philanthropic foundations….
This article is part of a partnership the Chronicle has forged with the Associated Press and the Conversation to expand coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The three organizations receive support for this work from the Lilly Endowment. The AP is solely responsible for the content in this article.
The annual Norwalk Public Schools K-12 Art Show will open on Wednesday, June 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Norwalk Art Space
The annual Norwalk Public Schools K-12 Art Show will open on Wednesday, June 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Norwalk Art Space. Student artwork will be on display through Sunday, June 11.
Admission is free and open to the public. See below for the Norwalk Art Space hours of operation.
Wednesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
2022-2023 School Year Coming to a Close
Norwalk Public Schools closes out the 2022-23 school year saying farewell to Cranbury School, participating in Fairfield County’s annual Pride in the Park event, and celebrating graduations!
Cranbury Elementary invites the community on Saturday, June 10, to say goodbye to the school building that opened in 1959. Students and staff will move into their new building this fall. The new Cranbury Elementary School is a 62,288-square-foot building built in the field directly west of the existing school. The city last built a new school in 1971, when Norwalk High School, Jefferson Elementary, and Marvin Elementary were constructed.
Later on Saturday, June 10th, Norwalk Public Schools will celebrate and support the LGBTQIA+ community at the annual Pride in the Park event at Veterans Park.
For a complete list of high school graduations and middle school promotions, click here: https://bit.ly/3nfdaxG