KidWorks invites young professionals in their 20s and 30s to join with KidWorks to make a positive difference in Orange County.
KidWorks Volunteer Of The Month: Kyle Team
“Ms. Kyle, can you stay a little longer?”
“Ms. Kyle, can you come back again tomorrow?”
Kyle Team, our December “Volunteer of the Month,” gets those questions all the time from the dozens of KidWorks elementary school students who have come to rely on her for homework help and spiritual development since she first began volunteering nearly four years ago.
“Two core principles guide me to do my best with the kids,” Kyle says. “First, I do everything I can to recall all their names and call them by name. That makes such a difference; they know you personally remember them. Second, I’m consistent. Students really appreciate it when you are there on a regular basis. Oftentimes, their lives have many challenges, and they truly appreciate reliability and dependability.”
Kyle is also a member of the KidWorks’ board of directors, where she is highly valued for her strategic thinking skills and long-term vision for our growth and financial sustainability.
Says Lisa Gels, Manager of Partnerships & Donor Relations: “Kyle can always be counted upon to follow-through on her commitments, and she has been very instrumental in bringing new partners and volunteers to KidWorks, and in deepening the involvement of others who are already engaged with us.”
Kyle enjoys her dual role as a board member and tutoring volunteer.
“The contrast is that as a board member you prepare in advance, review agenda items and make certain to be very organized,” she says. “For a tutoring session, I just bring myself, remaining flexible to whatever a particular student may need during the 90 minutes we are together.”
Kyle has been especially effective in developing and strengthening the partnership between KidWorks and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church of Newport Beach, where she is a church leadership elder.
KidWorks is honored to be one of about a dozen ministry partners selected by the church. She works closely on that partnership with Lisa Gels, along with church member Joe Cristina, also a KidWorks volunteer and leader of our Avanti Music program.
Kyle is married to David, a real estate developer. Their children are Jordan, 25, who works in corporate public relations and Brian, 22, who is employed in the computer technology field.
“We love to ski and have probably been on every mountain range in California, Colorado, Utah and Idaho,” Kyle says. As part of her very active church life, Kyle also conducts Bible studies for new or expectant mothers, and invites friends over to her home for Bible lessons and discussions.
We are very grateful for Kyle’s leadership as a member of our board and for her enduring positive impact on every KidWorks student she helps each week. Congratulations on being named December “Volunteer of the Month,” Kyle
By Glenn Leibowitz, volunteer writer
St. Andrew's Comes to KidWorks for a Serve Day!
Thank you St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church for coming to KidWorks for your Serve Day 2016. KidWorks has been a long time ministry partner of St. Andrew's and on Saturday, September 17th, many members of their congregation came to our Dan Donahue Center for a Serve Day.
Volunteers hosted a carnival for our families and participated in reading buddies with our K-5th grade students. Another team of volunteers revamped our storage space to accommodate more instruments for our music program, Avanti.
Avanti leader, Joe Cristina, led a group of volunteers in working directly with our music students and we ever had a parenting workshop.
Here are some photos from our event!
Sails Are Up and Our Kids Are Off!
Summer is coming to a close and what a better way to finish it up than learning how to sail! Our KidWorks youth spent a week in Newport Beach learning to sail; they learned more than how to sail a boat. Sailing empowers youth by teaching them skills like teamwork, leadership, communication, and critical thinking in a fast-paced environment.
Here are some photos of our week on the sea! Big thank you to our instructors for the week, Debbie and Grace. We learned so much from you!
Worship and Concert at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church Feature Our Gifted Musicians
As the pews filled up at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach this past weekend, over 1,200 worshipers were in for a delightful surprise.
They were about to enjoy a Sunday concert and Sunday worship service featuring students from KidWorks’ Avanti program, who joined with Brandon Muchow, St. Andrew’s Minister of Modern Worship & Production, and several other professional studio musicians.
It all came together thanks to the efforts of KidWorks’ volunteer Joe Cristina, who began a KidWorks music program in 2012 called Avanti Music. In Joe, the students learn from a professional musician with 37 years of experience in composition, arranging, orchestration and production.
“The ‘KidWorks/Avanti Music Concert’ was a bilingual presentation, and therefore was a true bridge-builder since residents from Newport Beach and Santa Ana worshipped together,” Joe says.
There are 18 KidWorks students currently participating in the Avanti program. Those who performed at the St. Andrews concert included Lilian Ramirez (vocals) Liliana Ledezma (vocals and flute), Melisa Luis (piano), Julie Cons (violin) and Luis Lopez (guitar).
The second event was held in the church chapel, and was equally well received. Lilian Ramirez joined Brandon Muchow and Hector Rivera on vocals. Emily Barrios, 12-years-old, recently joined Avanti, and she joined in on percussion and vocals.
David Benavides, Executive Director, KidWorks & Councilmember, City of Santa Ana, also spoke to the congregation, sharing KidWorks’ story.
Dan Wendell, Minister of Missions & Outreach at St. Andrews says he is delighted with the result: “Having the students up front, leading through worship was a beautiful example of extending the family and valuing them as part of our community. I was particularly encouraged to learn that as a result of Avanti’s work, Lilian Ramirez, one of the vocalists, will be leaving for San Francisco State University to study music in just a few weeks. The ministry is changing lives."
Lilian and our Avanti students are equally grateful to Joe and the staff at St. Andrews for providing them with such a special opportunity to perform.
"I couldn't get this experience anywhere else than KidWorks and Avanti,” she says.
Knowing Joe’s commitment to Avanti and our students, we can’t help but say, “Encore!” to him and “Bravo!” to St. Andrews for providing such an extraordinary opportunity.
“I just wanted to celebrate a great collaboration between Gather and Send in featuring the students of Avanti/Kidworks at the 5:30 and 11:11 services. Having the students up front, leading through worship was a beautiful example of extending the family and valuing them as part of our community. I was particularly encouraged to learn that as a result of Avanti’s work, one of the vocalists will be leaving for San Francisco State to study music in just a few weeks. The ministry is changing lives.”
By Glenn Leibowitz, Volunteer Content Writer
KidWorks’ Halls Are Alive With the Beautiful Sound of Our Students’ Music!
“Music has always been part of my life, and as I grew older I decided to make it my career,” says Shellsea, a 17-year-old high school senior and KidWorks’ student.
Shellsea’s dream is well on its way to becoming true.
She is one of 18 youth who participate in a KidWorks program called Avanti, founded in 2012 by volunteer Joe Cristina. In Joe, the students learn from a professional musician with 37 years of experience in composition, arranging, orchestration and production.
Joe and KidWorks also thank St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach for their strong support of our music program.
“Avanti is designed to guide serious, college-bound students to reach their artistic goals by gaining performance and theoretical experience by working with music industry professionals,” Joe explains.
Avanti offers performance experience and college preparatory music classes, along with exposure to music genres that include pop, rock, jazz, sacred, classical, Latin and world music.
Lilian is an 18-year-old high school senior enrolled in Avanti. She shares Shellsea’s goal of becoming a musician.
“Avanti has given me access to so many things I never had access to before,” she says. “I am getting so much help with my musical future!”
Liliana, a 17-year-old high school student and KidWorks youth adds: “I could not afford such musical training on my own. Avanti has given me more than just the material instruments to pursue music. I have also been given the opportunity to perform what I love and to express myself.”
The students also get a chance to build their musical confidence in front of live audiences. They've performed at Steamers Jazz Club, Village of Hope, Santa Ana street fairs and St. Andrew’s Church.
We are so grateful to Joe and St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church for helping our youth to develop their God-given talent for music.
By Glenn Leibowitz, KidWorks Community Volunteer and Content Writer