It is hard to believe that I am in week ten of ten of my summer fellowship with the Columbus Early Learning Centers. Although the fact that I will be continuing as a part-time volunteer coordinator might be contributing to this feeling of disbelief, time definitely flew at the CELC this summer.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had scheduled several large groups to come in to the CELC for service projects later this summer. Since many of these will not be coming in until after the completion of the fellowship, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the work that these groups will be doing. Later this week for my last blog post, you all can look forward to reading about the work of a couple of our individual volunteers.

John Glenn Civic Leadership Council (August 23^rd)-The John Glenn Civic Leadership Council will be bringing approximately forty volunteers for a volunteer day in late August. Since there are so many volunteers coming with this organization, they will be working on a variety of projects throughout the center. They will be painting an accent wall in our new triple office, designing new bulletin boards for each of our classrooms, giving our kitchen a makeover, and moving items out of a storage room to make space for a new teacher resource room.  This organization will also be partnering with the CELC throughout the academic year to work on numeracy in each of the classrooms.

Community Commitment 2015 (August 29^th)- For the first time we are partnering with Pay It Forward at Ohio State to bring Community Commitment 2015 to the Columbus Early Learning Centers. Volunteers will complete the storage room project that the John Glenn Civic Leadership Council is starting so that we can begin work on our new teacher resource room. In addition, they will be laying a fresh coat of mulch on our preschool and toddler playgrounds and creating enrollment packets for fall 2015.

United Way Columbus Volunteer Challenge (September 9^th)- Every year, the United Way of Central Ohio hosts a weeklong event of service called the Columbus Volunteer Challenge in which they pair business and leadership groups with nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies throughout Central Ohio. Once again this year, we will be partnering with the United Way for Columbus Volunteer Challenge. However, this year, rather than having a business or leadership group serve at our center, the CELC will host the United Way’s Leadership Givers for an evening service project. These volunteers will be making improvements to our literacy center, decorating nap boxes, and painting an accent wall in each of our classrooms.

As you can see, these volunteers will have the opportunity to have a meaningful and visual impact on the organization. Stay tuned later this week to hear about the projects of our individual volunteers.