What’ s news in NORWIN
Car Cruise
Be sure to join in on the Irwin-North Huntingdon Norwin Hills Car Cruise, scheduled for Sept. 3 from 5:30 to 9:30 p. m. at Excela Square and Norwin Hills Shopping Center. This big car cruise will feature Rock and Roll Oldies by Jeff Allen and many of the WLSW 103.9 FM personalities. For more information, contact Gary at 724.875.9722.
BEVERLY’ S BIRTHDAYS LAUNCHES CLASSROOM CHEER KIT PROGRAM AT PITTSBURGH SCHOOLS
There are 3,000 identified schoolaged homeless children in southwestern Pennsylvania who are consistently deprived of everyday necessities. Due to their family’ s personal and financial instabilities, these children don’ t normally get to celebrate milestones in their lives such as birthdays. To guarantee that every child receives a birthday celebration, Beverly’ s Birthdays, a North Huntingdon-based nonprofit, creates birthday party cheer for homeless children in the Pittsburgh region.
For families facing financial hardship, or even teachers and school districts with limited resources, school birthday celebrations can be especially difficult. Through the Classroom Cheer Kit Program, Beverly’ s Birthdays, in collaboration with The Education Partnership, is able to provide resources to classrooms to ensure that every child has a special birthday experience.
The Education Partnership is a Pittsburghbased non-profit organization that provides
school supplies to underfunded schools whose students are from low-income families. Beverly’ s Birthdays and The Education Partnership are currently working with 50 schools throughout the Greater Pittsburgh area to fulfill about 400 Classroom Cheer Kits to be dispersed throughout the schools. Each kit serves 30 children and is equipped with all of the items a teacher would need to make classroom birthday celebrations special: birthday themed pencils, stickers, crowns, bracelets, certificates, stampers, certificates and a birthday wall calendar to track each student’ s birthday.
“ We’ re thrilled to launch the Classroom Cheer Kit Program as it really expands on our mission and allows us to reach even more children,” says Megs Yunn, Executive Director of Beverly’ s Birthdays.“ This program
is a perfect fit for our corporate supporters. A company can partner with a school to provide all the Classroom Cheer Kits for the year, touching the lives of so many kids who otherwise wouldn’ t have been acknowledged on their special day. We’ re currently looking for businesses to support this particular program as it’ s a great corporate community initiative.”
Beverly’ s Birthdays formed with the mission of ensuring that every child feels the joy and recognition of celebrating their one special day each year. Now in its fourth year, Beverly’ s Birthdays expects to hold enough parties in 2016 that they will serve more than 2,000 birthday boys and girls along with their guests.
For more information on Beverly’ s Birthdays and the Classroom Cheer Kit Program, visit beverlysbirthdays. org.
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art to Participate in Blue Star Museums
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art announced the launch of Blue Star Museums, a collaboration among the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense and more than 2,000 museums across America to offer free admission to the nation’ s active duty military personnel including National Guard and Reserve and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2016. Free admission for military and their families as well as for veterans is always offered at The Westmoreland, and the museum’ s annual participation in the Blue Star Museums program helps to make this fact more known to the general public.
Leadership support for Blue Star Families programming and promotional materials has been provided by MetLife Foundation. The program also provides families an opportunity to enjoy the nation’ s cultural heritage and learn more about their new communities after a military move. The complete list of participating museums is available at arts. gov / bluestarmuseums.
“ We are happy to be a part of the Blue Star Museums program and to always offer free admission for our military and their families,” says Judith H. O’ Toole, The Richard M. Scaife Director / CEO of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art.“ This important initiative gives military families its opportunity to visit cultural institutions across America at no charge in recognition of their service and the sacrifices they make."
This year, more than 2,000( and counting) museums in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa are taking part in the initiative. Museums are welcome to join Blue Star Museums throughout the summer. The effort to recruit museums has involved partnerships with the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of Art Museum Directors, the Association of Children’ s Museums, the American Association of State and Local History and the Association of Science- Technology Centers. This year’ s Blue Star Museums represent not just fine arts
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