Why I Should Be President...

Ms. Anna from the Yellow Team (2nd graders with a few 3rd graders) at By The Hand posted this...I thought it was very entertaining. :)

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This month's literacy lesson theme (based off of the LEAP curriculum for after-school programs) is government and community. This week my 2nd/3rd graders were working on mini speeches to read to their team, and then they were supposed to vote on a "President" of the Yellow Team based on the speeches. Here's some of my favorites (with most spelling/grammar fixed):

"If I was president I would give the whole world cookies and milk"-- no name

"Why I Should be President: First, I would help my country. Then, I would clean my town. Finally, [I would] help people get off the street. Because I can get people off the street. And keep people safe. And have pizza day. Vote for me!" -- Tyevell

"Why I Should be President: First, I would clean the whole world. Then I would clean my town. Finally I would let people love everyone." -- Unique

"I should be President because I love Jesus and my country and team and Anna" -- Jamari

"Why I Should be President: First I would help my country, Then I would help the poor people. Finally I will get a big house." -- Justice

"Why I Should be President: First I will save Chicago. Then I will try to get people off of the street. Finally I will take a Nap. Thank you for listening to my speech." -- Shamar

*** And my all-time favorites:

"I promise I will make the day fun. I promise I will speak for people. If I was president I will give people food. I'll teach you Spanish. I will help people. I love people. My mom is going to be President. She is a good girl. My dad can be President. He is a good man. The end. By by. Have a nice day. Good job."-- Eddie

"I should be president of the Yellow Team because I am brave and not scared of anything, not even werewolves. So that's why I should be president of the Yellow Team. 1. I'm a girl. 2. I don't be bad. 3. I'll teach you Spanish. Gracias. Thank you for listening to my speech and vote for me."--- Nesitia

By The Hand needs your help!

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all, thank you so much for your continued prayer and financial support for By The Hand. God has blessed us through so many different people who have supported By The Hand in numerous ways.

With that said, I'm asking for your help in obtaining some supplies for our kids.

Every week, we have something called the "club store". Students earn points throughout the week by saying their memory verse, attending the club, doing homework, etc. They then spend these points on little toys and things at the club store. Unfortunately, we have not been able to offer the kids very much with the store, because we've had to cut down on the budget. We would love to make the club store really special for the kids so that we can reward them for their hard work.

If you would like to donate, we are in need of donations for our club store. Usually, we order little trinkety things from places like Oriental Trading and put those things in the store. It's just small toys and games and other things that would be fun for elementary school students to earn. There are a few ways you can donate. You can donate money and designate that it is meant to go towards the club store or you can order club store items yourself and just have them sent to By The Hand. Make sure that it's clear that you are meaning to donate to the club store so that the items go to the right place.

You can sent items to our director and the address you can use is:

Attn. Sarah James

C/O By The Hand Club for Kids

1000 N. Sedgwick

Chicago, IL 60610

If you live in the Chicago area and prefer to just give donations to me, I can make sure that they get to By The Hand.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you so much for your support and generosity!

Love,

Sarah

Pictures from Winning the Fall Fundraising Drive

Dreona and Janiece with a filled coin jug

The Green Team!

More Christmas in the City pictures

Cleara with her new coat

Makiya with her new clothes from Old Navy

Reggie and Jumar on the bus

L-R: Reggie, Jumar, Justin, Derris

Above everyone is Kavar

Pictures from By The Hand

Here are some pictures from work. Most of these are from our Christmas in the City event.

Checking out the window displays downtown

Catching snowflakes

Catching snowflakes again

New clothes from Old Navy

Hanging out at McDonalds

Some of my boys at McDonalds

My boys with one of our new volunteers, Sarah

Makiya and Sherine, my girls

Jumar in his new coat, donated by members of Willow Creek Community Church

A long overdue update

Dear Friends and Family,

I have not been very good lately about updating the blog, but I am finally getting around to it! We are back in the swing of things at By The Hand after Christmas break. The first couple weeks have been busy and rather crazy, but the staff and kids are getting back into the routine. The next few months follow a much more normal schedule for our programming (until we approach the spring benefit on April 8th--then it gets crazy again).

Thanks to your prayer and financial support, my team (the Green Team) raised the most money out of all the By The Hand teams in the Fall Fundraising Drive! Thanks so much! We are excited and I'm very proud of the students for working hard to donate out of their own pockets. They also earned money by doing their homework and completing writing assignments while at the program. Our team gets a gift card to go out as a team and do something fun (like go see a movie).

During programming time the last couple weeks, we've been working a lot on reading and writing skills, as well as preparing for the ISAT tests. My culture elective is finishing up talking about Mexico. In Bible study and chapel, we are going through the Old Testament. Last week, we talked about the Fall and Adam and Eve sinning. This week, we're talking about Noah's ark. Please pray for chapel and Bible study especially, as we really want to pour into our students the Word of God.

On a different note, my "Q" student has not been in the program for the last couple months because we really were not sure what to do with him. However, after meeting with his counselor making some changes, and coming up with some new ideas on how to help him, we've asked him to return tomorrow. PLEASE pray for this, because we really want him back, but at the same time, he is a difficult student and I'm honestly a bit nervous about having him in the classroom. Also pray that God gives my director, his counselor, and me wisdom as far as whether or not we continue to work with him in the program, or we try to find somewhere else for him to go that may be a better fit for him.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

Love,

Sarah

P.S. On a totally different note, you may know that Colson and I are engaged. You can view our wedding website HERE.

We're getting married!

This post is LONG overdue, but Colson and I got engaged on December 12, 2009! We're really excited! Eventually (hopefully) I'll post some pictures of the engagement day. For now, you can visit our wedding website for more information:

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/SarahAndersen&ColsonHauser