UniverSOUL Circus brings diverse culture to the BIG TOP in Baltimore

— If you are ready for a lot of laughter, some mystery, a little history and lots of fun for the whole family, then you won’t want to miss the UniverSOUL Circus Maryland tour.

The secret sauce that makes UniverSOUL a unique family-centered entertainment setting is its mixture of cultural and historic elements and the interaction between performers and audience, said Cedric Walker, founder and president of UniverSOUL Circus.

Rodney Lindsey and son Stephen, age 6, enjoy UniverSOUL circus experience.

Deborah Bailey

Rodney Lindsey and son Stephen, age 6, enjoy UniverSOUL circus experience.

“The audience is definitely part of the show,” said Walker, who got his start in the entertainment business as a production and stage manager and promoter for groups like the Commodores and The Jackson Five.

Walker continued in the entertainment business through the 1990s underwriting and producing stage plays, but yearned to find a home for a family friendly form of entertainment beyond the venue of the theatre.

Lucky Malatsi, ringmaster for UniverSOUL has been with the Circus for 17 years and is the “entertainer in chief” keeping circus audiences laughing and engaged.

“I love what I do. Just to see the smiles on people’s faces; bringing families together; that’s what’s important,” Malatsi said.

The diversity of the UniverSOUL experience, the interaction with the audience and the multi-generational gatherings that flock to the “Big Tent” make the UniverSOUL experience unique, according to Malatsi.

“Seeing all these different generations of families under the big top having a good time being able to enjoy themselves and agree on being together is the heart of what we do. UniverSOUL Circus – first the name sets it apart. Not only do we have soul but we’re very diverse with acts from all over the world – Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, South Africa, Asia, and the United States of America. You’re not going to just sit back and watch the show, you’re the main element of the show,” he said.

Baltimore resident Rodney Lindsey, and his son Stephen, age 6, enjoyed the diversity of the UniverSOUL experience. “I wanted to bring the kids out to have a good time. I wanted to make sure my kids were a part of UniverSOUL. This circus is more about the culture of black people and urban people. They bring all different kinds of races together,” Lindsey said. “This is something that is good for Baltimore and an experience that can bring everybody together and have fun,” he said.

UniverSOUL circus started in 1994 in a parking lot in Fulton County, Georgia. Now it is a national phenomenon, and tours in more than 28 cities nationwide. UniverSOUL Circus will be in Security Square Mall through Sunday June 18, 2017.

Jubilant BCCC graduates determined to pay it forward

— There was a lot of whooping, a little bit of hollering and endless hugs and tears of joy on display at the Lyric Opera House this past weekend. The jubilant sounds were the sweetest music to the ears of the Baltimore City Community College’s 2017 graduating class. The city’s only public community college concluded the college’s 70th anniversary year with graduation ceremonies held in midtown Baltimore.

BCCC’s 2017 graduates range in age from 18 to 70 and hail from 100 countries including: Belarus, the home of class valedictorian Larysa Paliashchuk, who traveled from a small town in the Eastern European country to study at BCCC. Paliashchuk expressed love and gratitude for BCCC and the opportunity it represents for students from many cultures and experiences.

Jasmine Jwanita Alston earned her Associate of Arts Degree in General Studies.

Courtesy Photo/BCCC

Jasmine Jwanita Alston earned her Associate of Arts Degree in General Studies.

“All of us came from different backgrounds, families and upbringings. We all have different stories to share. But today, we’re graduating as one,” Paliashchuk said.

Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, the keynote speaker for the occasion, recounted the tenacity and endurance BCCC graduates displayed to make it successfully to graduation.

“I know that for many of you this has not been easy. Some have struggled, working every day trying to make sure family needs and obligations were met,” Pugh said.

Pugh’s speech was punctuated with “amens” and affirmations of “yes that’s right” from the audience as she encouraged graduates to continue the next chapter of their lives with the same resolve used to juggle multiple priorities and steer through obstacles to arrive at graduation.

“Others slipped into classrooms between getting children off to school and helping them with their homework in the evening and working eight hour shifts. Regardless of your struggle, today you all have arrived at the same place. You may not have come here today at the same pace— but you all are here,” Pugh affirmed.

Student Success Center Advisor, Tanya Deshields celebrated as intensely as her graduates and their parents when students were called to the stage to receive their degrees.

“To see the success of students who graduate from Baltimore City Community College [is] what we look forward to each year,” Deshields said. “A lot of our students have different struggles, different challenges and to see them make it to the stage to graduate means they are overcomers.”

Ultimately, BCCC graduations are family affairs. For Denise Burrus-Moseley, like many other BCCC graduates, graduation day is as much a milestone achievement for family as it is for the graduate.

Denise’s husband sat quietly on the edge of his chair, waiting for his wife to be called to the stage. Burrus-Moseley suffered a stroke just two weeks before graduation, but Dennis said she insisted on being present for the ceremony. So the family sprang into action to support her on her special day.

“We had to roll her in from the nursing home. She just had to come here,” Moseley said.

Denise, who earned her Associate of Science Degree in Nursing has worked for 32 years as a nurse and was determined to take her love of caring for others to the next level.

“She went through so much to get this degree. She’s done a fine job. She deserves it,” Moseley beamed. “My daughters, her grandchildren and all of her loved ones are so proud to see her here today.”

Like many newly minted BCCC graduates, Regine Gambrell, a Baltimore native is on her way to “paying it forward” for Baltimore, as Mayor Pugh encouraged during her speech. Gambrell, who earned her Associate of Arts in Allied Human Services, hopes to open group homes for children in Baltimore after obtaining her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work.

Exuberant and with degree in hand, Gambrell summed up the pride and possibilities expressed by her fellow BCCC graduates.

“It feels really, really good. It feels like I can do anything,” she said, glowing. “I’m not going to stop because this world really needs me.”

Jubilant BCCC graduates determined to pay it forward

There was a lot of whooping, a little bit of hollering and endless hugs and tears of joy on display at the Lyric Opera House this past weekend. The jubilant sounds were the sweetest music to the ears of the Baltimore City Community College’s 2017 graduating class. The city’s only public community college concluded the college’s 70th anniversary year with graduation ceremonies held in midtown Baltimore.

BCCC’s 2017 graduates range in age from 18 to 70 and hail from 100 countries including: Belarus, the home of class valedictorian Larysa Paliashchuk, who traveled from a small town in the Eastern European country to study at BCCC. Paliashchuk expressed love and gratitude for BCCC and the opportunity it represents for students from many cultures and experiences.

“All of us came from different backgrounds, families and upbringings. We all have different stories to share. But today, we’re graduating as one,” Paliashchuk said.

Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, the keynote speaker for the occasion, recounted the tenacity and endurance BCCC graduates displayed to make it successfully to graduation.

“I know that for many of you this has not been easy. Some have struggled, working every day trying to make sure family needs and obligations were met,” Pugh said.

Pugh’s speech was punctuated with “amens” and affirmations of “yes that’s right” from the audience as she encouraged graduates to continue the next chapter of their lives with the same resolve used to juggle multiple priorities and steer through obstacles to arrive at graduation.

“Others slipped into classrooms between getting children off to school and helping them with their homework in the evening and working eight hour shifts. Regardless of your struggle, today you all have arrived at the same place. You may not have come here today at the same pace— but you all are here,” Pugh affirmed.

Student Success Center Advisor, Tanya Deshields celebrated as intensely as her graduates and their parents when students were called to the stage to receive their degrees.

“To see the success of students who graduate from Baltimore City Community College [is] what we look forward to each year,” Deshields said. “A lot of our students have different struggles, different challenges and to see them make it to the stage to graduate means they are overcomers.”

Ultimately, BCCC graduations are family affairs. For Denise Burrus-Moseley, like many other BCCC graduates, graduation day is as much a milestone achievement for family as it is for the graduate.

Denise’s husband sat quietly on the edge of his chair, waiting for his wife to be called to the stage. Burrus-Moseley suffered a stroke just two weeks before graduation, but Dennis said she insisted on being present for the ceremony. So the family sprang into action to support her on her special day.

“We had to roll her in from the nursing home. She just had to come here,” Moseley said.

Denise, who earned her Associate of Science Degree in Nursing has worked for 32 years as a nurse and was determined to take her love of caring for others to the next level.

“She went through so much to get this degree. She’s done a fine job. She deserves it,” Moseley beamed. “My daughters, her grandchildren and all of her loved ones are so proud to see her here today.”

Like many newly minted BCCC graduates, Regine Gambrell, a Baltimore native is on her way to “paying it forward” for Baltimore, as Mayor Pugh encouraged during her speech. Gambrell, who earned her Associate of Arts in Allied Human Services, hopes to open group homes for children in Baltimore after obtaining her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work.

Exuberant and with degree in hand, Gambrell summed up the pride and possibilities expressed by her fellow BCCC graduates.

“It feels really, really good. It feels like I can do anything,” she said, glowing. “I’m not going to stop because this world really needs me.”

Heart of the School Awards: Night of Celebration for Baltimore City Public Schools Principals

— For many students across Baltimore, May is prom time but thanks to the Fund for Educational Excellence, Baltimore City Public Schools’ principals enjoyed a festive and fun spring celebration of their own.

Ten City Schools’ principals were honored at the Hippodrome during the Second Annual Heart of the Schools Awards on May 22, 2017.

“This special night recognizes our district’s exceptional leaders and highlights ten who have demonstrated exemplary innovation, execution and leadership, building strong school cultures,” said Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools.

John B. King, Jr., CEO of the Education Trust and former U.S. Secretary of Education, encouraged the principals to build foundations of love and hope in the future.

“I want to thank the principals in the room for leading from a place of love,” King said. “For understanding that at the foundations of schools are relationships. You give them that word of encouragement at the end of the day and ensure them you’ll be right there tomorrow to love them and stand for their success.”

Five grand prizewinners, from a diverse array of public schools were selected through an extensive nomination and review process and received a $2500 award to support programs and initiatives.

Tammatha Woodhouse, principal of Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood High School, one of the night’s winners. Marveled in her acceptance speech she said, “this is the first time that an alternative school has been honored.”

Roxanne Forr, principal of Cecil Elementary School, gained credibility in the community and the confidence of a staff that has seen their principal serve the Northeast community, as well as the school for more than a generation. Forr has been Cecil’s principal for nine years but has worked there—her “home away from home”— her entire career.

“I have been fortunate in my tenure at Cecil to have been surrounded by great mentors, teachers who are eager to learn, caring parents, and giving partners all for 30 years,” said Forr.

For Samuel Rather II says serving as principal at Calvin M. Rodwell Elementary School opens up opportunities to defy stereotypes every day.

“Why is it that when I tell people that I work for Baltimore City Public Schools it is naturally assumed that I work with discipline or athletics? I wonder if it’s the same reason that I was written off as a problem student who didn’t care about school,” said Rodwell who is a young African-American male. “You couldn’t have told me as a kid that I would be a teacher, let alone a principal. But something changed.”

Crystal Harden Lindsey, a native Baltimorean was honored for her work to make Green Street Academy a comprehensive, wrap around community school, where everyone in the West Baltimore neighborhood near the school is welcome.

“I believe that strong educators can change the trajectory of students across our nation while simultaneously, transforming communities in impoverished areas,” Lindsey said. “Education can be the currency to defeat poverty.”

Christophe Turk, in his fourth year as principal of George Washington Elementary in Southwest Baltimore shares a love for his students, staff, parents and the community that radiates from the hugs and handshakes he freely gives at school all day. Turk has also served as the leader of the advocacy movement led by principals in City Schools to support additional funding.

“This work consumes a lot and it is serious work. I take it seriously and everyone in this audience takes it very seriously [too],” said Turk. “This is not something that I earned, but something our entire George Washington Elementary School has worked in collaboration to develop.

“This award is the result of great people who take a student first approach and work so incredibly hard because they are fully invested in making a difference each day,” he ended.

Five additional principals were recognized and each was awarded a $1000 educational grant to use for any need in the school. They are: Corey Basmajian, Principal of Windsor Hills Elementary/Middle School; Patricia Burrell, Principal of North Bend Elementary/ Middle School; Amber Kilcoyne, Principal of Medfield eights Elementary School; Danielle Tillman-Cromartie, Principal of Armistead Garden Elementary/Middle School; and Zaharah Valentine, Principal of Baltimore Design School.

“Every day, our principals are building positive environments where students and teachers can thrive,” said Roger Schulman, president and Chief Executive Officer of the Fund for Educational Excellence. “Through the Awards, we’re showing our principals that we support and value the critical role they play in the lives of our students and the success of our city.

The Heart of the School Awards debuted in 2016 to spotlight the pivotal role principals play in the success of their schools and students. The inaugural event was attended by nearly 600 community members and helped raise more than $250,000.

Maryland’s elders embrace spirit of 25th anniversary centenarians’ celebrations

— The skies outside the building were overcast, but the ballroom at Martin’s West in Baltimore was filled with sunshine and blue skies for the 25th Annual Maryland Centenarians Recognition Luncheon on May 11, 2017.

Ninety-six centenarians were honored with an afternoon of festivities with friends and family by the Maryland Centenarians Committee, Inc. More than 500 guests enjoyed an afternoon of presentations, music and a crab cake lunch to honor 96 persons across the state of Maryland celebrating their 100th birthday this year.

Odessa D. Dorkins, founder and chairperson of the event’s host organization, Maryland Centenarians Committee, Inc., reflected on how far the celebration has come since the first luncheon.

“This is an exciting time. In 1993, I did not think we would still be in existenc,e but every year, the centenarians called me and wanted to know when the next event would be,” said Dorkins. “When I started, I only knew one centenarian and the Social Security Administration identified 860 that year (1993). Today, we have way over 1,800 centenarians living in the state of Maryland.

“For me, it’s a small way of saying I am grateful just to be among these great giants. Instead of getting the family together for a funeral, we wanted to see family come together for a celebration There is plenty of joy here, fellowship, friendship and celebration. We couldn’t ask for more.”

Family and friends traveled from across the nation to celebrate Maryland’s centenarians from as far away as California, Texas, and Florida; and in Maryland, from as far west as Hagerstown and down on the Eastern shore from Salisbury.

Several state and local organizations, including AARP (American Association for Retired Persons) served as co-sponsors of the Maryland Centenarians Celebration.

“AARP Maryland is so proud to be part of the Centenarian event. We’ve been here for many years, and we truly value the wisdom, grace and knowledge that the centenarians and their families can transfer to younger generations,” said Mike Kulick, program specialist for AARP of Maryland.

“AARP seeks to disrupt aging and make it known that just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean the possibilities stop. The spirit of celebration here is wonderful,” Kulick added.

Deacon Timothy Greene of the Transformation Church of Jesus Christ invited the entire fellowship to celebrate his special day. More than 100 people from the church wore their Sunday best to the luncheon. All were eager to say a good word about the active, spirited Greene, an organist who still plays the opening hymns on Sunday mornings at the church.

“I’ll be 100 on September14. That’s the big day!” said a spry and playful Greene, who attributes his longevity to good music and hard work.

“I have always been playing the organ in church, and going to work. I was expecting to have a Hammond organ out here for me today,” he jested. “I appreciate all my church members and all my relatives and all my friends..

Lena Mae Floyd rounded up 14 of her 17 children to celebrate with her at the luncheon. Her daughter, caretaker and third oldest child, Ella Parker, remembered the sacrifices her mother made to raise 17 children.

“We’re so proud to be here with her today. It’s been a joy to take care of my mother. I watched her when we were little taking of us. I’ve watched her and my Dad in the cotton field take care of us and do everything they could for us. She and my father always taught us to do the right thing. It’s really good when your parents instill good values in you,” Parker said.

Willie Margo Purdy, honorary chairperson of the Centenarians Celebration, summed up the spirit of the day for herself and fellow centenarians.

“Just being here, that’s the best part of this occasion,” said Purdy, who takes no medication and only uses herbal supplements to remain in good health and maintain radiant skin.

“She takes no medication at all,” said family friend Tanwa M. Suma, about Mrs. Purdy. “When she goes to the doctors, all the doctors surround her with note pads [to] learn from her.”

Baltimore City CARE Services, Beacon Magazine, CCBC Catonsville, and the Maryland Office of the Social Security Administration also served as event co-sponsors.

Local participant in JHU Innovation Lab wins $25k prize

— Shantell Roberts was awarded $25,000 from Johns Hopkins University Innovation Labs to advance her concept to keep babies safe. Roberts’ Portable Alternative Crib won the accolades of her peers and will soon be on its way into homes in Baltimore and surrounding counties.

Roberts’ Portable Alternative Crib is based on a “baby box” concept, which originated in Finland in the 1930s. Today, it is a small, portable box issued by the government filled with newborn baby items and a mattress on the bottom to ensure each child in Finland gets an equal start. The Baby Box has become a rite of passage in Finnish culture. It is used as a crib for traveling mothers or for who don’t own one.

“I in no way imagined that I would have been selected as the ultimate winner. It’s still settling in,” said Roberts.

In fact, Roberts had already settled on finding a way to distribute her Portable Alternative Crib to mothers across Baltimore when she entered the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab, six months ago. She had the passion and the drive to save the lives of babies in Baltimore and beyond, but she just needed the opportunity.

In 2011, while Roberts was working at Morgan State University’s Student Affairs Office nurturing the dreams of college students, she suffered a tragic loss. Her one-year-old daughter Tyler died from pneumonia. Although devastated, Roberts lived through the experience with the resolve to do what she could to ensure other mothers never go through the experience of losing an infant suddenly.

Roberts turned grief into determination and joined the Board of the Center for Infant Child Loss. But Roberts was not done yet. A friend saw a listing for a job that she thought was perfect for Roberts with the B’more for Babies Healthy Babies Initiative. Roberts successfully interviewed and joined the staff of B’more for Healthy Babies as the Safe Sleep coordinator. Once again, Roberts wasn’t done yet.

Roberts attended a boot camp sponsored by the Social Innovation Lab in September 2016. She thought about the Baby Box presentation and decided to submit her application to the Hopkins Social Innovation Lab based on the Finnish box for babies that now captivated her. So, she decided to take a shot. Roberts was invited back to give a presentation and was ultimately invited to transform her vision of ending Sudden Infant Death Syndrome by distributing Baby Boxes to every mother who needed one. For the next six months, Roberts worked closely with a cohort of nine other social entrepreneurs from Hopkins and the Baltimore area and Lab Director, Darius Graham.

“Shantell’s work [with] the Portable Alternative Crib is inspiring, and a great example of what we strive to do at the Social Innovation Lab— identify passionate people with personal and professional experience with a pressing social issue, and help them transform that passion and experience into a viable, impactful venture,” Graham said.

After conducting interviews with individuals and participating in focus groups, Roberts decided to change the name of the Baby Box to the Portable Alternative Crib and received the feedback and resources she needed from the Innovation Lab to start “Touching Young Lives,” the not-for profit organization that will benefit from sales of the Portable Alternative Crib. Roberts still wasn’t done yet.

“The structure and accountability he (Darius Graham) gave me in the program was like no other. I had more structure in this program that I had in college,” Roberts said laughing. “There are opportunities that I am almost sure I wouldn’t have been afforded if I had not been part of the social innovation lab and that Darius prepared me to participate in.”

One of the many opportunities Roberts recalled was attending the Unite for Sight Global Health and Innovation Conference, which was held at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut in April.

“I went to Yale to talk about my Portable Alternative Crib and to talk about safe sleep in Baltimore City,” Roberts said, crediting the Social Innovation Lab for preparing and positioning her to take full advantage of the experience.

The unexpected gift Roberts received from the Hopkins Social Innovation Lab was the overwhelming affirmation of her peers. At this year’s closing ceremony, Roberts discovered that she won the Social Innovation Lab’s first ever peer-based prize of $25,000 to start her venture. Roberts’ advice to other social entrepreneurs is to “start by starting.”

“Do something every single day to get you one step closer to achieving your dream. Volunteer, look-up opportunities, go to events, send e-mails, ask questions. Just start by starting!” Roberts isn’t done yet. She is busy looking for an institution or an interested “angel” to make the Portable Alternative Crib available on a large scale here in Baltimore.

The Social Innovation Lab is a six-month program, which offers comprehensive support for individuals and teams in developing and scaling social enterprises culminating in a Pitch Day where participants may showcase their projects and rally community support. Since 2011, the lab has supported 62 ventures, raised more than $13 million and hired more than 269 employees.

The McKean Miracle: New park opens in Easterwood Neighborhood

The Easterwood/Sandtown Park and Playground located at 1500 N. McKean Avenue was created after the demolition of buildings in fall 2016 through Maryland’s Project C.O.R.E. Initiative. (Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise) is a multi-year partnership between the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore supporting blight removal and redevelopment in Baltimore City. (Above) Robin Ayele, her daughter Nadia (right) and her seven-year-old son David (left) look on as a police officer from the 7th District engages Michael Cooper (seated right) in a game of chess on Saturday, April 15, 2017.

Art installation encourages reflection about Segregation Era, 21st Century Race Relations

An alternate reality that was once the center of summer fun and recreation for Baltimore’s black population, Pool #2, which operated as a segregated pool in the “historically black” section of Druid Hill Park from 1926 to 1956, is temporarily the site of an art installation and exhibit, featuring the work of the city’s most imaginative artists.

“Everyday Utopias,” an exhibition coordinated by Curator Sheena M. Morrison, brings together ten of the area’s contemporary artistic talents to interpret through art how Druid Hill’s once segregated Pool #2 and the history and trajectory surrounding that facility represent the “everyday” successes and struggles of civic life.

“From the initial campaign to construct the city’s first public pool for black people to the resolute activism that led to its eventual closure, Pool No. 2 reflects the pragmatism of an “everyday utopia” a term coined to define those creative practices that we engage in daily to find new and better ways to improve our lives and the world,” said Morrison.

Known as the Colored Pool by local residents in the 1950s, Pool #2 was constructed in response to a 1953 drowning accident involving a young African American boy in the Patapsco River.

“The tragedy revealed the difficult circumstances for many African Americans looking for a place to swim in Baltimore. The boy lived near Clifton Park but swam in a dangerous river due to his exclusion from the park’s whites-only pool,” according to the Explore Baltimore Heritage website.

Baltimore sound artist and Maryland Institute College of Art graduate, Andrew Keiper created Summer Sonar, a sound installation to bring an awareness of water and its many personal and social meanings.

“The surface of water can figure as the threshold of conscious awareness and in the water below, swims our dreams, aspirations and fantasies,” Keiper said.“Desegregation filled this pool,” Keiper added referring to the ultimate closure and filling of Pool #2, “but did it bury white supremacy?”

After the Patapsco River drowning, the Baltimore NAACP subsequently mounted a successful campaign that closed the pool the same year it was opened. The pool lay dormant until local artist and 2016 MacArthur Genius Fellow Joyce J. Scott won a commission to transform the once “Colored Pool” into a memorial.

“How do we make this area useful and beautiful, and harken back to the pool era?” Joyce said when reflecting on how she would approach the work of memorializing the pool. The result was filling in the pool and creating a lawn. Scott kept the original metal diving board, chair, ladders and boys changing room to pay homage to the pool’s original patrons.

“I, Colored,” a mural and photographic collage with hand painted flags is the work of artist and photographer, Tiffany Jones. The multi-dimensional collage and flag installation is meant to encourage visitors to recognize that in spite of the hardships of Jim Crow life in the 1950’s, African Americans still enjoyed rich, full cultural lives.

“We tend to forget that African Americans continued to live incredible, textured, multi-faceted lives during the Jim Crow era,” Jones said. “There was laughter and celebration.”

Other artists who are part of the exhibition, include: Billy Colbert, Sutton Demlong, Fluid Movement, Lauren R. Lyde, Antonio McAfee, Edward-Victor Sanchez, and Michael Trueblood.

Until the Everyday Utopias exhibit, Scott’s original work stood alone. Through May 7, 2017, Joyce Scott’s lawn-filled Pool #2 at Druid Hill Park is alive with the art of Everyday Utopias.

Al Roker helps bring ‘crab walk’ title back to Baltimore

What would college basketball season be without March Madness and Al Roker’s zany weather antics?

Roker recently brought sunny weather and a helping hand to students, faculty, staff and alumni at Loyola University of Maryland’s Baltimore campus where the world’s record for crab walking during Al Roker’s weather broadcast on the North Baltimore campus, recently.

Roker was in town for “Rokerthon 3: Storing Into the Madness,” the third year of a national initiative of fun and celebration launched by NBC to partner Roker with college students across the nation during the NCAA’s Basketball Championship in the name of school spirit at campus across the nation.

Loyola used the event to break the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most people participate in a two-minute crab walk, which was scheduled during Roker’s 8 a.m. weather segment on the “Today Show”. Four hundred and ninety-four members of the Loyola family got down on all fours for two minutes to bring the crab walking record to Maryland— where some say it rightfully belongs. Northwestern University formerly held the crab walking record.

“I think this is just a wonderful thing that our school is able to do,” said JoJo Brame, a junior psychology major, originally from Connecticut.
Brame chose Loyola not only because of the school’s reputation but because she was attracted to the community oriented spirit of Baltimore.

“I love the city of Baltimore, I love the vibe. I think there is a great sense of community here,” Brame said as she cheered on the crab walkers who gathered to break the world record. Loyola was one of only five U.S. colleges and universities chosen to participate in Rokerthon 3.

PNC Foundation, DonorsChoose.org bring spring sunshine to Harlem Park Head Start

Adrienne Kearney-Clemons will be able to spruce up her classroom at Catholic Charities’ Head Start – Harlem Park Elementary School without going into her own pockets this spring, thanks to a new initiative launched this week by PNC Foundation and DonorsChoose.org.

Like all caring teachers, Kearney-Clemons purchases needed supplies for students that just aren’t in the budget of schools serving low-income communities.

While K-12 schools have turned to crowd sourced funding at sites such as DonorsChoose.org to raise money for school supplies, pre-schools and programs like Head Start were not eligible to post requests on the popular crowdfunding site.

Thanks to PNC Foundation, all that changed this week. Laura L. Gamble, PNC Bank Regional President for Greater Maryland announced the PNC Foundation’s “Grow Up Great” program has reached an agreement with DonorsChoose.org to include requests from early childhood education teachers, including Head Start classroom teachers.

“PNC will match, dollar-for-dollar, every preschool donation made to schools on DonorsChoose.org in the locations where the bank has offices,” said Gamble, when announcing the foundation’s $5 million gift to fund pre-school requests on the crowdsourced site.

“This is a great way for all of us to call attention to the value of investing in early childhood education,” Gamble said. “A dollar invested in early childhood education is the best investment. It’s irreparable.”

As part of the announcement event, Catholic Charities Head Start teachers and students at Harlem Park Elementary School received T-shirts, books, gift cards, puppet kits, piggy banks, lunch bags and an iPad. The children were also serenaded with a performance by the Opera Bears, a local group dedicated to ensuring Opera is accessible to children.

The day was a game changer for Kearney-Clemons, her new co-instructor Shannon Bishop, and the entire Catholic Charities Head Start staff.

“These are my babies. I have a passion for them,” said Kerney-Clemons who first connected with Head Start when her own children were enrolled in the program and has now served on the Head Start staff for more than 20 years.

“It’s the first time I’ve witnessed anything of this magnitude,” said Kearney-Clemons. I’m very excited and looking forward to participating in the DonorsChoose.org option created by PNC. I’m one of those teachers who puts a lot of money and time into creating a classroom experience for my children.”

Since the “Grow Up Great” program was founded, PNC employees have logged more than 652,000 hours for the initiative through a progressive policy that allows 40 hours of paid time off each year to volunteer. Volunteers have collected more than 930,000 books, art supplies, hats, mittens and other items that have been donated for use in classrooms or for the personal well-being of preschool students.

Christine Flores, second year employee with PNC’s Wealth management team is excited about having a little seniority with the bank and is venturing out beyond corporate headquarters to serve the community.“This is my second year at PNC. I’ve always been interested in helping out with kids and the community,” Flores said.

PNC Grow Up Great is a $350 million, multi-year, bilingual initiative that began in 2004 to help prepare children from birth to age five for success in school and life