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Purity Miss Martha's Ice Cream Crankin'

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Community & Neighborhood

February newsletter contents:
5 Top Floor students earn full scholarships to UT-Knoxville
Read and Eat program with Second Harvest to be expanded
New video captures the essence of East End Prep's approach
Promise Neighborhood community-wide survey scheduled in March
Miss Martha's Ice Cream Crankin' & Summer Social is June 10, 2012

5 Top Floor students earn full scholarships to UT-Knoxville

Martha O'Bryan Center celebrates with five students from Top Floor @ Stratford who have been extended full, four-year scholarships to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. We're particularly proud of three students who grew up in Cayce Place, where these students and their families have been served by MOBC's highway of services: Ananza Guzman, Iqra Hussein and Awes Hussein. 
 
Top Floor, which opened at Stratford High School in November 2010, offers ACT prep, college guidance, drop-in homework help, tutoring, and a safe, fun, and welcoming environment. Last year, more than 200 students  participated in Top Floor programs. Of those students, 98.6% raised their grades in a core academic class, ACT scores improved an average 2.8 points, and all 66 senior participants graduated.
 
This year, we are building on that success with a goal of making the path easier for future generations of students to follow. As part of her personal statement, Iqra reflected on the meaning of education. She wrote: "My parents started educating me from the moment I was born. They named me Iqra, which is an Arabic command that means, 'To read.' Because of the sacrifices my parents have made for me I view education from a unique perspective. To me education is a need, not a want. Education is leaving friends and family members. To me education is learning two new languages. To me education is living in the most dangerous place in East Nashville. To me education is attending the most dangerous school in the district. In spite of all the obstacles I have faced in order to get an education, I know it is worth it."  

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Read and Eat program with Second Harvest to be expanded

Every Friday loads of fresh produce, from zucchini to grapefruit, are delivered to Martha O'Bryan Center for children of the Early Learning Center to take home. Yeama Sow, Martha O'Bryan's Literacy Coach, creates take-home worksheets with information and recipes about the fresh produce of the week. This program, called "Read and Eat," is important because most of our children live in a designated food desert, with limited access to fresh produce. 

Additionally, Martha O'Bryan Center will plant vegetables in garden plots outside the ELC classrooms. Children, their families and teachers in the ELC will start and maintain gardens from seed. Second Harvest will provide the needed seeds, buckets, trowels, and soil.

Martha O'Bryan Center is grateful to Second Harvest for a strong partnership that helps nourish not only the bodies of our children and families, but also their minds.

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New video captures essence of East End Prep's approach

Meet staff, students and parents on the front line of education reform in Nashville in a new video for East End Preparatory School, a K-5 public charter school and an educational outreach of the Martha O'Bryan Center. East End Prep's focus is to prepare students for college at an early age. We are grateful to Journal Communications for donating time and talent to produce this video.   

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Volunteers needed for community-wide survey

Martha O’Bryan Center was the only organization in Tennessee (and one of only 15 in the nation) to receive a Promise Neighborhood planning grant.  This initiative holds the opportunity to transform our city and you can be part of this historic work.
 
Martha O'Bryan Center, as lead agency for the Nashville Promise Neighborhood, is partnering with Vanderbilt University to launch a community-wide, door-to-door survey of 500 homes in the Stratford cluster (East Nashville community). The survey is scheduled for Friday afternoons, all day Saturday and Sunday afternoons on the weekends of March 16-18 and March 23-25. The survey is designed to answer a variety of questions about neighborhoods and families that will inform our planning decisions for the Promise Neighborhood, a revolutionary strategy to improve schools and communities. 
 
We are developing survey teams to accomplish this big task. As a volunteer on a survey team, you will join trained survey staff in the field, pass out small gifts to the children you meet during the door-to-door survey, and provide general support at each stop along the way. Community residents can help guide survey team members who are not familiar with our neighborhoods. We are providing all of our survey teams with snacks, drinks and a T-shirt to wear in the community. We are asking volunteers to consider committing to at least 4 hours in the field.
 
If you are interested in being a volunteer, please complete our online volunteer form.

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2012 Purity Miss Martha's Ice Cream Crankin' & Summer Social

Join us for the 27th Purity Miss Martha's Ice Cream Crankin' & Summer Social to sample hundreds of gallons of homemade ice cream in dozens of flavors. Proceeds benefit Martha O'Bryan Center. Buy tickets now.

  • When: 3-5 p.m. Sunday, June 10
  • Where: on the lawn at First Presbyterian Church on Franklin Road in Nashville. Map your route.
  • Admission: $10 for adults, $8 for children.

Buy tickets now.

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