"Coming Together, Growing Together"

On June 12, 2008, Cabrini Connections hosted the Annual Year-End Dinner event in which parents, students, volunteers, staff, board members, alumni of the program, donors, and guests together celebrated the 2007-2008 school year and provided positive momentum as we head into the 2008-2009 year! The theme of the event was created by one of students(Nemieka Horton), and the theme of "Coming Together, Growing Together" was perfect for the what took place during the event and what we hope will continue to take place as a result of the event and the Cabrini Connections' program.

The idea of "Coming Together" was definitely evident at the Year-End Dinner. This event created an opportunity for parents, students, volunteers, staff, board members, donors, and guests alike to come together an not only celebrate the all of the accomplishments the have taken place throughout the year, but to also begin discussion about how to build upon those accomplishments within the program for the years to come. Connecting people to resources is one of the many missions that we attempt to carry out with the work that we do, and the Year-End Dinner was a great display of the result of a completion of that mission because this event connected parents to their student's tutors, board members to donors, donors to the students, staff to parents and so on.

The idea of "Growing Together" was evident at the Year-End Dinner as well and we hope that this growing together process continues. Everyone in attendance had the opportunity to hear from various students, parents, staff, and volunteers speak about their personal experiences with the program or the various ways in which they are connected to the program, and those powerful speeches were not only learning opportunities I personally feel as though those speeches brought everyone in the room closer to the understanding of the mission and the purpose of the Cabrini Connections' existence! The information that was provided, the feelings and emotions that were displayed, and the stories that were shared provided everyone in attendance the opportunity to 'share' in those experiences together.

With me being fairly new to the program and continuing the process of learning the history of the program, at the Year-End Dinner I personally was able to see the 'power' of the program. I witnessed laughter, hugs, sobbing, tears, smiles, and many more positive embraces at the event because of the power of the Cabrini Connections' program and what this program means to so many people. I hope that the people in attendance not only have similar thoughts, but will go one step further and share those thoughts with others so that more and more people will find ways to take part in the Cabrini Connections' program. So at this same time and place next year there will be double or triple the number of attendees at the Cabrini Connection Year-End Dinner sharing in the vision of this year's theme, "Coming Together, Growing Together"

EL Da' Sheon Nix
Administrative Coordinator