Against The Grain

Before you get worried that we have seen aliens, this was an amazing invasion.  Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY had a retreat in Nashville May 16 - 18 for their 20 something group and sent 100 volunteers to Franklin to serve the community.  Saturday, from 9 - 12 they cleaned houses, organized, re-arranged furniture, landscaped and completely cleaned out the tutoring center.  In total, there were 19 projects that were completed on Saturday.  We love picnics, so at 12:30 we met with our friends from S.E.C.C. and the moms they had just served in Strahl Park and spent 2 hours eating and playing games.  It was an amazing privilege to introduce people with a heart to serve to people with a need.  The interaction between the two groups was awesome.  As one of our kids (Princess - a five year old young lady that has been a part of AtG for 4 years) said after everyone left "Miss Meredith, out of everything we have done…this was the best ever".  We want to send out a special thank-you to our friends from Louisville for making this work day a complete success.

The school year is ending and Reach & Teach is preparing to shift from the school-year tutoring to the 5 week summer program.  To celebrate the kids efforts throughtout the school year we had a picnic.  On May 5, the children of Reach & Teach and their parents joined AtG staff and volunteers for a great time of food and fun in Strahl Park.  We had a great time…eating, playing games and getting to know some of the parents that we don't normally get to spend time with.  There were over 150 people in that park. 
Remembering back to June of 2003, this is the same park that AtG met with 8 single moms and presented the vision for AtG.  Those 8 moms have grown to over 200 moms we have served and over 50 moms that we are currently working with.  This have grown from 23 kids to over 100 coming to the tutoring program, there are several other kids that we work with outside of the tutoring program through one-on-one coaching.  It has been an amazing ride and we look forward to the next 5 years to see what the future holds.