"I think our lane average of 80-something was a few standard deviations below the national average...but I felt honored that we were blessed with the only pink shirt."

Ronnie grew up in a small town, and thanks to a great public education, had an early appreciation for good teachers.  “I was spoiled with great teaching,” he says. “I remember we did this simulation of the French Revolution – which means so much more when you’re actually playing the roles of the Bourgeoisie vs. the Emperor, and you’re getting guillotined.”

After studying engineering and applied math at Cornell, he entered a career in finance in New York. The international flavor of the city suits him, especially when it comes to very difficult task of choosing a favorite restaurant. “Spice Market…no, no, no, wait…how about La Esquina? Well, what category of restaurant are we talking about here?”

His free time is filled with friends, sports like soccer (“It’s the world sport. You don’t have to have a genetic edge to play.”) and a travel schedule that puts even the most determined jetsetters to shame. “I’m trying to see the world,” he says. We know what you’re thinking: “Come on, the world? Where’s the man traveled in the last twelve months?”

“Ummmm…Paris, Prague, London, Anguilla, Colorado…”

He then launches into an explanation of how to maximize your time at Machu Picchu, the merits of having oxygen pumped into your room at high altitude, and the presence of guinea pig on local Peruvian menus (“I just couldn’t do it.”) The trick, he says, is balancing your touring with a more low-key approach. “I really try to do both,” he says. “I try to experience new places as a tourist. But I also really appreciate being immersed in the culture, getting a real feel for the people and how they live. And I try to fit in to the extent that I can.”

Ronnie’s always been a good friend to CFK, but we were completely blown away last fall when he told us he’d be establishing his own fundraising page for the Bowl for Kids campaign. Twenty-four hours after setting up a page (with a Jackson Pollack as a headshot), he’d raised $1,500. By the end of the week he was nearing five grand. “I just have a lot of really generous friends and co-workers,” he says, as though that were sufficient explanation for the quantum leap in donations we saw that week.

“Sometimes you just have to ask yourself, ‘well, what’s important?’ And when people realize that so close to home in New York there are schools that don’t have tutoring, or music and art programs that could really shape lives in important ways – that makes it an easy sell. This is a really tangible way to effect change and see change and do it at a critical stage in someone’s life.”

So why exactly was he the only one lucky enough to have a pink shirt at this year’s Bowl for Kids?

Isn’t it obvious yet?

Because he’s Ronnie.

Meanwhile, the fifth-graders are gearing up for the trifecta of all educational experiences – self-expression, local history, and world connections. For the next 12 weeks, they’ll be honing their artistic skills and getting their hands dirty with a social studies-based art project designed by the Children’s Museum of the Arts (CMA). As early as 1838– 25 years before Lincoln freed all slaves during the Civil War–a colony of free black families owned the land surrounding the school. The community was called Weeksville, after James Weeks, and at its height was home to 700 families. Today, four of the original houses are still standing only a few blocks from the school…a perfect excuse for a art/history mashup if ever we heard one.

This spring, with the help of some awesome friends at CMA, the 5th graders will be completing a multi-media project to document their incredibly historic and unique neighborhood. At CFK, we love it when we can find new and creative ways to make our students’ textbooks come to life, and what better way to learn about black history and the Civil War era than by painting, sketching, and building a model of the structures and sites that are literally in their own backyards? Their one-of-a-kind works will be on display to the public at CMA early this summer – and we’ll be first in line to check them out.

Somewhere in the fourth grade at P.S. 243, the next Steve Jobs or Robert Johnston has just been voted class president, and at P.S. 73 a budding Maya Angelou is turning in her latest book report. In a Kindergarten class at P.S. 160, the next Sonia Sotomayor is putting together her favorite puzzle, and at P.S. 154 the next Tina Fey and Winton Marsalis are preparing for the spring talent show. At CFK we are committed to helping each of these future superstars develop the confidence to achieve their fullest potential.

Although it may not seem inherently obvious, Steve, Robert, Maya, Sonia, Tina, and Winton all share a very valuable skill… they are excellent critical thinkers. They are problem solvers and analysts. They are capable of making complex choices and decisions. They ask meaningful questions. And they understand how seemingly diverse ideas relate to one another and are interconnected. If our kids really are going to grow up to fulfill their destinies and influence the world, they too are going to need all of these skills.

Here’s how the national Partnership for 21st Century Skills defines it. Students who demonstrate high levels of critical thinking can….

• Exercise sound reasoning in understanding
• Make complex choices and decisions
• Understand the interconnections among systems
• Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions
• Frame, analyze and synthesize information in order to solve problems and answer questions

All of our programs at CFK help to develop our students’ critical thinking abilities in one way or another. Here are a few examples.

Arts – The visual art students describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate the museum’s works of art as well as their own. When learning to read music our violinists and pianists are decoding complex systems of symbols and translating them into beautiful sounds.

Literacy – In order to write their articles, students in our newspaper club are learning to analyze and evaluate alternating points of view, and they are interpreting information and drawing conclusions based on the best analysis.

Healthy Living – During FAN4Kids, students are drawing inferences between eating healthier and living a longer happier life. And even at recess, when they are playing games to keep up their fitness levels, they are quickly solving problems and making decisions that affect their performance.

We believe in little Steve, Robert, Maya, Sonia, Tina, and Winton, and we are committed to providing them with every opportunity we can to help them reach their fullest potentials. Their futures are absolutely (prepare yourself, now) critical.

Adorable 4yr old Pre-K students learning their A-B-C’s.

Books in which you are the main character!

F is for Flower!

CFK volunteers sharing their time and talents with our kids.

Dedicated families having fun together.

Everyone gets his/her very own ABC book.

Families reading together, always a good time.

Grins and smiles fill the room.

Helping each other learn the alphabet.

I  love Pearson ABC Book Days!

Join us for volunteer opportunities all year long.

Kat is actually spelled with a C.

Learning your letters is a good thing.

Making reading fun and easy.

Now!  This year’s Pearson ABC Book Days are happening this week — be sure to catch us next year.

Oh, how I wish I had a Pearson ABC Book Day when I was little.

Pearson Foundation.  Thank you for your support!

Quiet….shhhh….I’m learning to read.

Reading is fundamental.

Sticker books are my favorite!

Taking pictures to share with our friends and family.

University of Virginia, here I come. (Wahoowa!)

Victory is upon us, only four letter left…

Z is for Zebra!

We love our CFK partner schools!

X is the third least common in the English language, did you know that?

Young children can sing their A-B-Cs.

Zero letters left, can you believe it?!  Success.

This could not have been more evident than when The Penguin Party, CFK Junior Council’s inaugural black tie event, sold out in 27 hours. On Friday, February 24th, 500 young, affluent professionals and budding NYC socialites will gather together at the Bowery Hotel to support two CFK partner elementary schools – P.S. 243 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and P.S. 73 in the South Bronx.  We are so grateful for the evening’s sponsors: Jefferson’s Bourbon, Sugarleaf Vineyards, and Andrew Kaftan Photography.

If you were lucky enough to snag a ticket to this season’s most exclusive gathering and are in need of dapper suit, you might also want to check out what our good friends over at Alton Lane are up to. They’re supporting CFK with generous donations for the entire month of February. If you’ve been waiting for the perfect excuse to splurge on a little formal wear, you have it. Just mention the code “Change” during your appointment, and they’ll send $100 our way.

In terms of ticket sales The Penguin Party is by far the most successful event our Junior Council has thrown to date, even with a ticket price close to triple digits. The evening will feature a full open bar, live music by the East Coast Band, and tons of dancing. Junior Council Co-Chair, Andrew Maxwell, states, “I am excited about the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received to The Penguin Party. I think it’ll be a fun night filled with philanthropy and friends, and it will serve as an awesome introduction to the organization for those first-time CFK- event attendees. We could potentially recruit some great new members to serve on the Junior Council.”

We’re looking forward to partying with the penguins!  Thank you to our generous sponsors:

Well, actually, yes. That would be a man in a tux who just scored $100 for a children’s charity.

Even if you weren’t able to sneak into the Penguin Party this year, you can still be the greatest date ever when you place an order through Alton Lane in the month of February. They’ll be sending $100 our way for every custom suit, tuxedo, or overcoat purchased – just mention the code “Change” during your appointment.

Santa Crawl 2011

If you were wandering around lower Manhattan last Saturday looking for holiday gifts, you may have instead found holiday cheer – in the form of 40 strapping, young Santas caroling and merry-making their way through New York City.  Santa Crawl is an annual all-male bar crawl that requires participants to sport the quintessential suit, hat, and white beard all day long; and this year, the guys teamed up with Change for Kids to raise funds for our four partner elementary schools.

CFK caught up with Junior Council Co-Chair Andrew Maxwell (who, we have to admit, looks dashing in red) to recap the day’s festivities.

Q: Why did you participate in this year’s Santa Crawl?

A: What better way to enjoy the holidays than dressed in a Santa costume, singing “Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer” while going from bar to bar with a bunch of your friends?  Add that to the fact that we were raising funds for CFK, and there was no way I was going to miss it.

Q: How many bars did you all visit?

A: Six in total – Puck Fair Bar, Bleecker Street Bar, Amity Hall, Off The Wagon, Barrow Street Alehouse, and Village Tavern.

Q: Describe your outfit for us.

A: A full Santa costume is required – I spiced mine up a little bit with a pair of Knockaround sunglasses and some Superman Mardi Gras beads – and, of course, the prerequisite Change for Kids button and hat!

Q: What was your favorite part of the day?

Washington Square Park

A: The best part of the day was definitely singing carols in Washington Square Park.  Our entire group walked out into the middle of the fountain area, which was dry due to the winter season, and took requests from the crowd as we all belted out Christmas tunes in unison.  It was really cool to sing carols that the kids in the crowd wanted to hear.  By the end of our sing-a-long, there was a large crowd gathered around, and we took pictures with lots of different groups.

Q: Wow, sounds like a fun day!  Did you eat anything in between the bars and carols?!

A: Between Barrow Street Alehouse and Village Tavern, a few Santas picked up pizza – so we munched on that while we walked and caroled.  After it was all over, I went home and snacked on a monster burrito from Dos Toros. I almost slept in my Santa costume but thought it’d be better to fold it up, place it in the closet and save it for next year!

At the end of the day, there was one more amazing surprise…. Variety had a special bag full of presents for all of our students! Everybody went home with a brand new DVD to watch with their families over the holidays. Awesome!

Special thanks to the team at Varsity Bus Company Andrea and Andy, for providing our transportation for the day! We would have never made it to the party without them. We are so grateful to have such amazing friends, earlier this year Alison (Andy’s wife) hosted our summer Shop for Kids. Also a big shout-out to Ms. O’Doherty who organized the trip and Mr. Jones who came along to help chaperone.

*Variety Children’s Charity is the lead program sponsor for the Bronx Museum Art Partnership. Thanks to their support, the entire 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades at PS 73 travel to the Museum multiple times a semester to explore the collections and create their own original masterpieces. Pictures of their incredible artwork will be coming soon…

Clink through to check out the official Bowl for Kids slideshow

Which is about $41,000 more than we were able to pull in for Bowl for Kids 2010. Woohoo! Applause, applause! If you celebrated with a few too many Trips to the Principal’s Office (our signature Tom Collins, remember??), you can relive all your half-hazy memories by checking out the photos here. Most importantly, though, you should know that it’s not just our amazing student musicians who benefit from this event every year. Every single one of our programs is in the midst of expansion right now, and it’s because of people like you that our students will continue to receive the kinds of programs that foster creativity and confidence to achieve.

Photobooth Fun!

As always, major thanks go to our fabulous corporate sponsors for filling up lanes, providing cool swag, and generally making things go. To our top auction bidders for the night – Kevin and Christy Hammond, Jay Schecter and Ronnie Jaber – a very special round of (electronic) applause. Sorry you can’t hear us, but drinks are on us next time you’re in the neighborhood. Thanks as well to the winning bowl-off team, whose massive and highly unusual bowling skills allowed the the librarians of P.S. 243 to hand-select 250 books from 1,600 Random House gems. We’re pretty sure that never before in the history of the game have bowling wrong-handed or after spinning in circles had such a profound effect on a school community.

And never in the history of our organization have we had such a great time visiting with our fellow CFK community members. Thanks for making this year such a wild success. We wish you every good thing in the holiday season and in the coming year. Cheers to you!