The Coweta Community Foundation has announced the members of its newly formed Community Service Team. These ninth- and tenth-graders will learn about the nonprofits in Coweta County, choose two to work with, and possibly sit on local nonprofit boards by the time they are juniors and seniors in high school.
Students named to the team for 2015-2016 include Elizabeth Alexander, Newnan High School ninth-grader; Joon Baek, East Coweta High School ninth-grader; Gracie Bolton, Landmark Christian School ninth-grader; Megan Czerwinski, Northgate High School ninth-grader; Chloe Epstein, East Coweta High School ninth-grader; Mia Fisher, Northgate High School ninth-grader; Sam Hyunh, East Coweta High School tenth-grader; Emelie Laughner, Northgate High School ninth-grader; Mary Nichols Lollis, Landmark Christian School ninth-grader; Michelle McGrath, Northgate High School ninth-grader; Will Oliver, Landmark Christian School ninth-grader; Meredith Rielly, Northgate High School ninth-grader; Ryan Spicer-Gordon, East Coweta High School ninth-grader; Tyiena Stafford, East Coweta High School ninth-grader; Ashley Stephens, Northgate High School tenth-grader; Silvia Thompson, Northgate High School ninth-grader; Alani Wight, East Coweta High School tenth-grader; and Cameron Williams, Northgate High School ninth-grader.
Students and parents gathered Nov. 3 at Central Educational Center to learn about the group’s plans for the year and what will be expected of them as team members.
“You’re going to get to do some pretty exciting things,” said Ginger Jackson Queener, board chair of the Foundation. “You guys have the ability to change lives.”
Retired local educator Cynthia Bennett is leading the group and explained that the teens will be operating as a board and forming relationships with local nonprofits. The hope is that these young leaders will have the opportunity to sit on a local nonprofit board by the time they are juniors or seniors in high school.
“So we’re going to teach you how to act like nonprofit board members,” Bennett said.
Also at the meeting, the youth got to hear from Bobby Welch, executive director of Rutledge Center, Inc., the local nonprofit that serves developmentally delayed adults. Rutledge provides office space for the Coweta Community Foundation at its facility on Hospital Road.
Central Educational Center CEO Mark Whitlock and Dr. Steve Humphrey spoke to the students about the dual enrollment possibilities available to them through CEC, and Humphrey noted that the Community Service Team students may be eligible for work-based learning credit in the future.
The Coweta Community Foundation is a publicly supported 501(c)3 organization that helps focus local philanthropy on the community’s changing needs. The Foundation manages individual gifts and bequests as an endowed pool of assets, distributing grants to a wide variety of organizations that enhance and support the quality of life in Coweta County, while maintaining the charitable intent of the donors. For more information, call the Foundation at 770-253-1833.
