What's Happening at Our Clubs

EL ZOL REACHES ITS AUDIENCE

"Siento siete punto nueve! El Zol!"

If you've heard this over the radio before, then you're listening to WLZL 107.9 El Zol, one of the more popular FM stations with a predominantly Spanish format and programming. And what better way to reach out to the community than to come to the Culmore Character Club and promote the summer camp and the station as well.

Under a portable tent set up outside the club and with radio music blaring in the background, campers and staff held an impromptu program of games, line dancing and whole lots of fun trying to win prizes given out by the radio station.

The event was organized by the Marketing Communications Department of BGCGW and Culmore was the third club visited but probably the one that most catered to 107.9's demographics. 

Making connections at Celebrate Fairfax

June 8th, 2012 - The weekend of June 8th was a busy one for Fairfax County Region. Board members and staff members joined forces at the Celebrate Fairfax event where we set up a booth in the children's alley.

Club Member wins at the Herndon Science Fair

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, Fairfax County Branches, Herndon branch has a history of hands-on Science classes at the Club. This Summer at Herndon's Summer camp, we will be investigating the physics of toys, and learning about computer programming by teaching computer game design using scratch, a programming language created by the labs at MIT.

 During the last week of the after-school program, Hutchison Elementary school, in which the Herndon Boys & Girls club is located, had its first annual science fair. The club was happy to extend a free week of summer camp to the first place winners, one of whom was a young club member who currently resides in a shelter. We were pleased (but not surprised), that this young club member, widely known for his creativity, had done so well at the fair.  Youth, no matter their circumstances, will rise to the expectations we set for them, and Boys & Girls Club is firmly committed to preparing youth for their futures.  

Connected at Microsoft

Microsoft has partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs in Fairfax County this year by opening the doors to their Microsoft store at Tyson's Corner.

To date, club members from the Culmore, Herndon and Murraygate branches have attended classes on the Introduction to Windows 7, using Windows Live and Windows Mobile, game and moviemaking, and several Power Point workshops. Last month before school ended, trainers from the store dedicated themselves to helping the kids improve their final school Power Point projects.

The Microsoft Store has also hosted at least 2 open mic sessions where kids get to dance and belt out their favorites tunes in front of a live audience.

This summer the Microsoft Store hosted two weeks of multimedia camp for our kids. It has been a fun way to get the kids learning how to use state-of-the-art technology. They used digital video cameras and the Bamboo Wacom Tablet in their multimedia projects they created in class.

As a valuable community partner of Microsoft, the Clubs from Fairfax County not only benefit from the training and resources, but also received two new XBox units for their enjoyment at the club. 

Another successful round of the ICON competition

Saturday, June 9, 2012, five acts from the Fairfax Region clubs moved on to the second round of the annual Icon competition. The program held at the JW Marriot in Washington DC was hosted by no less than Murraygate site director Michael Bruins and featured a total of 40 talented acts.

 

Culmore Character Club's Rachel Kline sang Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and was selected among the top ten performing acts to compete in the finals at the Kennedy Center in October.  This is Rachel's second shot at the finals, narrowly missing last year's cut and hoping to preserve the Club's second 3-year winning streak.

The Culmore Character Club also scored with two wins in the visual

 arts category. 

Brenda Zelaya-Gacia's ceramic dinosaur kettle and Emmanuel Rivera's Mario Bros. themed wallet made out of duct tape got the judges nod. This is another 3 year winning streak for Culmore having won the past two years.

SEMPER FI

About three summers ago, teenage club member Jaime Toyos seemed to be the only camper overjoyed at being with the field trip at the Marine Museum in Triangle, Virginia. 

Fast forward to the summer of 2012, Jaime dropped by the club to say hello and spread the good news that he passed the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test or ASVAB in one take.  This is the first and all important step with realizing Jaime's dream of joining the Marines.  

Jaime had always wanted to join the Marines in high school after being inspired by a career talk at the Jeb Stuart High School.  The speaker, who was a Marine, encouraged him to finish high school first and make sure he still wanted to pursue this dream after he graduated.  As a member of the Boys & Girls Club since he was 12 years old, Jaime has looked up to the Culmore Character Club and its staff as his refuge most especially after his father passed after a lingering bout with cancer. 

After graduating high school, Jaime decided to augment the family income by first working at Safeway and currently at Harris Teeter.   He is now waiting to join the Marine boot camp by January next year or earlier and is excited at going through combat training and learning small arms repair which is his chosen field of specialization. 

Jaime has a younger brother who is equally making waves.  Edgar, last year's president of the teen leadership group Keystone Club is a sophomore in college and a scholar at William & Mary planning to major in Math.  

In the same marine training batch as Jaime are Ricky Delcid and Rustom Pangilinan, who at one time or another have attended the Culmore Character Club.   The Club has kept its faith in these kids to follow their dreams and is only too happy that they are well on their way to realizing this.