Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 15 November 2001 — Page 10

The Muncie Times, November 15, 2001, page 10

MOM FROM PAGE 1 handle was based, Dollison said, on looking at current enrollment plus the number of students on the waiting list. MOM also has to consider safety and fire code regulations in arriving at optimum enrollment. Once the structure is completed and the old building is refurbished, MOM will occupy about 8,100 square feet. In addition to its Highland Avenue headquarters, MOM also runs satellite tutoring facilities at Buley, Ross and South Madison community centers. MOM is also exploring the possibility of starting anotner satellite center at Longfellow Elementary School. There will be a lab. housing 16 student computers and a 17th one for the teacher, in a new, state-of-the art facility. “The media lab will be open to students and their parents, because today being

read, said Juanita Crider, MOMs program coordinator. The MOM center will also, said Dollison, be available for Whitely community group meetings. The groups will be invited to make donations for use of the building. In addition to the main building, there will also be outdoor facilities for students. One of these will be an outdoor classroom that will include a small fish pond, a water garden and flowers. Crider said the students will help design and develop the outdoor classroom’s horticultural elements, with help from the Minnetrista Cultural Center. One of the classrooms will be equipped with an island to be used for science and cooking by the students. “We want to keep this (MOM) building in the community. We want this to be based in this community because we think this is the kind of thing that the neighborhood can be proud of. We want to leave this as an asset to the community” Dollison said. “People want something like this here. They come in and tell us they hope we will never leave Whitely. "They claim ownership of the facility. They come in and say they want to donate money to make this building a reality. They are proud that it will remain in their

community. “The Whitely Neighborhood Association is glad that we’re staying. In, fact they have been holding their meetings here.” The fund raising campaign has been on hiatus because of a United Way-imposed blackout. United Way member agencies, including MOM, must suspend fundraising activities until Nov. 16 when the blackout period ends. MOM hopes to go flat out after that date, with its capital campaign, to try and reach its goals by early 2002. As of late October, MOM had raised about $250,000 in cash, checks and pledges toward the $600,000 needed for the building’s completion. This includes ftmds ftom the estate of the late Bernard Freund, who died just over 2 months ago and who was a MOM board member. When Freund was still alive, he and his son gave MOM a Texas condo. Sale of that condo, raised $50,000 toward the building and an additional $3,000 toward the endowment fund. Dollison said although the endowment would start with $100,000, over time the goal

is to raise it to $500,000. MOM seeks to provide tutorial assistance to those students identified as being under-served and at risk so they can have a better chance of succeeding in school. The students attend 3-hour tutoring and enrichment sessions on Highland Avenue or at the Buley, Ross and South Madison satellite centers. MOM provides what amounts to a safe haven for those children with problems in school or at home, so they can have a better chance of succeeding in their studies. According to a MOM statement: “Students who have made it from under-served, at-risk classes nearly always give credit to a teacher, counselor or some other individual who took an interest in them as individual. MOM works to influence the lives of youth by implementing the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets, specifically in the areas of support. “For that reason, caring staff and tutors are there for children who don’t know where they will sleep

tonight, if their parents will be there when they return home or if their parents will pick them up from tutoring, or if they will be safe that night from abuse of drugged or drunken parents or extended family living in the home. ‘Tor those children whose parents may be more concerned about where they will get their next supply of drugs than if their children are safe, Building the Future, Youth by Youth, Brick by Brick, a capital campaign for the Motivate Our Minds Inc. building addition, MOM provides a safe haven to do homework and have a snack, free of violence and neglect, even if only for the 3 hours directly after school, where research has shown that children, if left alone, most often get into trouble. “These are children who are falling through he cracks of the education system where students are given computer time when they have completed their homework on time and who present no behavioral

problems, a criteria not fitting most of MOM students. These are children who can’t read, but have somehow made it to the sixth grade of school, while failing academically in nearly every subject. “These are children with low self-esteem, who have already resigned themselves to their place in generational poverty. In their minds, there is an attitude that fate determines how their lives will turn out and no realization that education and hard work are the key to a better life. “Unfortunately for these youths, what with Muncie Schools referring students to MOM and our word-of-mouth walk-ins, the enrollment has grown to a stage that we must place families on a waiting list. A larger building is not a luxury, but a necessity in order to offer these essentials to our,under-served youth.” To reach MOM, phone (765) 289-1990 or send Email messages to: [email protected] m/