CISNTblog

Six years is a long time to commit to mentoring a child.  But that’s the kind of commitment CISNT volunteer mentors possess.  Last Friday, CISNT celebrated another great year of mentoring in our dropout prevention program at Tomas Rivera Elementary School in Denton ISD.  Brenda Bennett, our Campus Manager at Rivera, with the help of our friends from State Farm Insurance, treated the mentors and their students to her annual ice cream party!

CISNT Mentors from the Denton County DA Office, The Village Church, FEMA, UNT, TWU and across north Texas all share one vision - to make a difference in a child’s life at Tomas Rivera.  It was amazing to look across the room and see the vast differences among our mentors - all ages, a variety of walks of life, interesting people who were all deeply admired by the student they mentor. 

Walking around the room it was clear that the relationships that have been built over the year, or over the years, are very important to each student. 

One Brenda Bennett at Tomas Rivera that coaches, supports and encourages 70 volunteer mentors who change 70 lives.  That’s Communities In Schools of North Texas at its best!

Seniors dressed as witches, vampires and pumpkins and CISNT kids playing Pin the Tale on the Mummy - just another CISNT Halloween with our friends at Pinewood Hills!  Tina and the gracious staff and residents at Pinewood Hills gave our Hedrick Elementary School Connections kids a Halloween to remember this afternoon.  Hot dogs, nachos, candy, games, and the best part - getting to trick or treat each resident at Pinewood Hills. CISNT kids and Pinewood seniors playing and eating together.  Smiles and singing on the Pinewood Hills bus all the way back to school!

Students at-risk of dropping out of school have so much to give - so do our seniors in the community.  We’ll go back soon.  Alberto has a chess “rematch”…  Thank you Pinewood Hills for caring so much about the children in our community who need our support to succeed.

Why do we take CISNT kids to a UNT basketball game instead of a Dallas Maverick’s game?  It’s not that we aren’t Mavs Fans For Life!  We love the Mavs!

We take students who are at-risk of failing in school to the University of North Texas coliseum to see Mean Green basketball game because of the awesome experience of taking CISNT students to a university campus.  They think we’re watching basketball - in reality, we’re introducing them to a life changing experience called college…

 Later this year, CISNT will once again take hundreds of our students to Denton to see a UNT basketball game.  Many of our mentors, including our ePals from General Electric, will be joining us.  We need help paying for buses to transport our students.  Can you help?  For less than the cost of 2 floor tickets at The American Airlines Center, nachos and a coke, you can provide a bus for 50 kids to the game!

NorthPoint Christian Church deeply invested in the CISNT Saturday Connections program at Central Elementary school last year.  Returning this school year, NP volunteers are a vital part of the CISNT Connections program success at Central Elementary. 

NP volunteers and CISNT staff recently took our Connections students to the Lewisville Central Fire Station for a tour.  What a great experience for our students!

It’s great to see people make their first connection and find out how easy it is to help kids who are at-risk of dropping out of school.  Last week our dear friends from Pinewood Hills retirement community came out to our Saturday “Connections” mentoring program at Hedrick Elementary School in Lewisville. 

In only a few minutes, two very different generations were building relationships.  It’s relationships that really make the difference.  It’s so simple.  It’s so powerful. The seniors really connected with the kids and the kids really loved meeting the seniors.

 On October 31st, the friendships formed will be renewed when Connections students visit the seniors at Pinewood Hills for a fun afternoon of decorating bags and going “trick or treating” to the guests of Pinewood Hills.