GETTYSBURG - Kendra Chalmers, vice president of Empowering Darke County Youth, said a year and a half ago, “I want other children to have the same opportunity my children had.”
She recalled her oldest, Kayden, had received tutoring over the summer in 2015, and it had helped him considerably as he was entering third grade. Her daughter, Nevaeh, who was just entering first grade, came home crying that fall…
“Mom, first grade is so hard! I wish I was smart like Kayden,” she said in tears. Kendra got Nevaeh into tutoring that fall and she is now doing well.
Her concern for other children went beyond simply expressing a desire; it became action. Kendra and her husband, Michael, are on the Board of Directors of the 501c3 organization. She got her family involved to hold Empowering’s first bake sale fundraiser at Walmart in March 2016. Since then, Kendra and the couple’s two children, Kayden and Nevaeh, have held bake sales at Rural King and Lavy’s Corner Mart in Gettysburg, and recently a garage sale in Bradford.
Hours of preparation and making “sales” have generated nearly $1,500 in funding for Empowering Darke County Youth’s programs. Thanks to the Chalmers family’s efforts, as well as the dozens of merchants, organizations and individuals who have supported Empowering efforts, more than 120 Darke County children have received help this past school year, just as the Chalmers children – Kayden and Nevaeh – have.
The need, however, is continuous. More than 50 children have been signed up for Summer Tutoring and a new Summer Reading Program, a 16 percent increase over last year. The organization needs financial support and volunteers! Message Empowering Darke County Youth Facebook or email empoweringdarkecountyyouth@gmail.com.
The mission: Empowering Darke County Youth provides After School and Summer Tutoring programs to assist students in the areas of language arts and math with the goal of Strong Students for a Strong Community.
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