Two sessions at The Village Church (first in Flower Mound and the next night in Denton) and then a session at UNT training Education Major students resulted in 70+ new Mentors and Tutors for CISNT students.  As I spoke to the UNT Education students, I couldn't help but feel that we're not only making a difference in the lives of at-risk students, but we're helping UNT produce a more qualified and prepared teacher.  Knowing this is amazingly rewarding!

At The Village Church earlier in the week, Dana Smith, our Director of Community Investments & Volunteerism, and I trained adults who work hard, have families to raise and generally are way too busy to volunteer as a CISNT mentor or tutor.  Yet, they were all eager to hear about CISNT students, their needs and how they can be as effective as possible as quickly as possible.  Seeing their eagerness to want to make a difference was amazingly rewarding!

As I write these thoughts, I see a message coming in from Shannon at the Lewisville Chamber of Commerce.  The message reads, "I have a great lead for a new mentor for you".  Tomorrow, we host our annual Garage Sale Giveaway.  A wonderful program based on a garage sale idea, except our CISNT families get to shop free of charge.  And each family gets to take a book home with them for their CISNT student.  The event was announced at the Flower Mound Rotary on Thursday, the donations have been pouring in.  What a generous community we get to do this wonderful work in.  Knowing the support and partnerships we share is also amazingly rewarding!

This week we opened the mail to find the largest single individual donation in the history of the organization.  It is humbling to think about our friends and partners who care so deeply about the work we do to help children and young people who will not succeed without our help...