Amachi Christmas

We at Amachi want to make sure you know about some great happenings this holiday season.  

First of all, from now through the end of 2012, you can purchase Orange Leaf gift cards and financially support Amachi at the same time.  Simply visit our website:

www.amachiky.com

All the instructions are there.  If you have questions, please give us a call:

859.389.8279

Please make sure you mark your calendar for Friday, December 14.  That evening at 6pm, we'll celebrate our mentors and mentees with a fun filled evening which will include a chili cook-off and karaoke.  You don't want to miss this!  Please call [see number above] or email [mmiddleton@lexlf.org] and let us know you're coming.  

We wish you a merry Christmas season and look forward to hearing from you soon!

 

Amachi Fundraiser

If you've checked your calendar recently, you realize we're in November.  Which means......the Holiday Season is right around the corner.  And speaking of the Holidays, what makes.......

• a great gift for teachers?
• super stocking stuffers for kids?
• a nice treat for yourself after hours of holiday shopping?
• a treat for family in town for Thanksgiving or Christmas?

If you answered Orange Leaf Gift Cards, you are correct!

We've got something going on you won't want to miss - a fundraiser designed to benefit Amachi.  For every $10 Orange Leaf Gift Card you purchase through Amachi, we will receive 25% back.  Details can be found on our website:

www.amachiky.com

If you have questions, be sure and call or email us today:

859.389.8279

dmonck@lexlf.org

Thanks and Happy Orange Leaf[ing]!

You might have heard about recent research indicating that children who learn to read by the time they are in third grade are less likely to take drugs, drop out of school or end up in prison.  You can help us assist children in need of a boost and set their life's course on a different path!

All it takes is a commitment of 90 minutes a week per semester.  Read to Succeed is happening at different host sites around Lexington.  Volunteer "readers" meet weekly with the same child.  After reading one-to-one, volunteers and children join in club time which includes sharing Bible stories, songs and snacks.

If you're interested in more information, please contact Linda Kendrick, our Read to Succeed Team Leader  at 523-2530, or Kendra Osborn, Amachi Program Director at 277-3087.  A Volunteer Training Session will be held on Tuesday, September 11, at 7 p.m. at our Lexington Leadership Foundation office [1750 Alexandria Drive, Suite 4].  Please call and let us know if you plan to attend.

Helping Kids

Believe it or not, it's just about back to school time.   On August 4, Amachi Central Kentucky will be participating in the Back to School Rally at Woodhill Park.  Kids will not only receive backpacks filled with school supplies, there will be opportunities for blood sugar and blood pressure checks, ideas for healthy eating, as well as general info on Paragon Family Practice.

Amachi is collecting individual soaps, toothpaste and socks to pass out at this event. We want kids to get off to a great start this school year, and these items will be a help.  

 Want to be a part?  It's easy, really.  Collect new items and either drop them by our office [1750 Alexandria Drive, Suite 4] or contact us [859.389.8279] and we'll pick them up. 

Thanks for helping kids in our community!

Legends Game

Mentors, 

Are you planning to attend Amachi Night at the Legends?  If so, let Maryssa or Michael know today.  [859.389.8279]

We're looking forward to seeing you!  You'll also be given the opportunity to meet our summer intern, Mikie Benton [there's a note from him below], as well as watch a couple of our mentees throw out the first pitch.  It's going to be a great evening for Amachi.

Dear Mentors, Mentees, and Parents,

My name is Mikie Benton and I'm from Russellville, Kentucky.   I'm a 22 year old student athlete at the University of Kentucky.  I've been a member of UK's football team since 2008 and this fall I'm heading into my senior year.  I am currently doing an internship here at Amachi Central Kentucky, to observe professionals who strive to make children's lives better.  I too, have a great interest in working with children.  While here until the end of July, I will be given opportunities to make calls to parents as well as those of you wanting to be mentors.  This letter is just an introduction as to who I am and my purpose if we happen to come into contact. I hope to speak with all of you soon.

Sincerely,

Mikie Benton

Final Countdown!

We are counting down the hours until our  
Amachi Disc Golf Scramble begins.  There's still time......  if you'd like to join in on the action.  Check out our website to register, or call us at 859.389.8279.  

You can

play, 

volunteer, 

or just show up for fun!

 Look what's in the registration bag:

   

We hope to see you Saturday!

 

Disc Golf Fundraiser

Get ready for May 12, 2012, when Amachi’s Disc Golf Fundraiser will take place!  There will be food, music, games, and of course, disc golf!

Please begin planning your team.  If you are a mentor, plan to include your mentee on your team, as well as two friends.  If you’re not an Amachi mentor, form a team, or let us place you on one.

This event is intended to raise support for Amachi and help cover our funding gap in 2013.  Please go to our fundraising site,  Razoo, to set up your own page.  Send this link to your friends and family so you can raise support.  Click on the [FUNDRAISE] button under [Join this Team].  If you have any trouble, call us [859.389.8279] and we’ll help you.  Mentors who don’t have photos with their mentee can obtain one from us [just call!].

The day of the event, prizes will be awarded to the team [and individual] who raises the most money, in addition to many other prize-winning categories!

We will let you know when the event page is up on our site so you can register, but in the meantime, mark your calendar for May 12!

Are you planning to come?  We certainly hope so, because it's going to be a great time.  Don't forget to bring your flyer.  If you don't have one, give us a call:  859.389.8279.  We'll get you one.  We can't wait to hear you sing!

Movie Night is coming soon!  We hope you're planning to attend.  If so, please let us know by phoning 859.389.8279.  

It's going to be a great night.

Have you heard the news?  Orange Leaf is . . . . .

• hosting Amachi Central Kentucky for Charity Sunday, August 14
• allowing us to receive a portion of the day's proceeds
• giving us tips from ALL 4 Lexington stores
• yummy and a fun place to treat your mentee to some yogurt 
• the perfect, cool place to discuss the first few days of the new school year

 Hope to see you there!

Our Amachi cookout was a great,

sunshine filled time. 

 

 

Hotdogs and hamburgers, 

               inflatables, friends, family, fun. . .

  

On July 18, we celebrated summer at a 

 
Lexington Legends game. 

It was a good night for baseball, and a super time for our mentors and mentees.

 

What else have you done this summer?  

Send us a [comment] 

 and let us know.

School's out, let's. . . . .

celebrate with a cookout!

[we'll catch a Legend's game later this summer]

Meantime, all mentors, mentees and mentee family members!!!

Before you wear yourself out swimming, and fishing, and camping,
and just having fun, join us on  

Saturday 

[as in this Saturday, June 4]

11:30 am - 1:30 pm

Open Door Church

749 Addison Avenue

Lexington

Food, games, inflatables, and fun!

rsvp to mmiddleton@lexlf.org

 

50-50 Campaign

 

 Want more info?  

Email Brent Burgess or call 859.389.8279

Amachi of Central Kentucky wants you to…

Win a Free Apple iPad!!!

For the first time ever, in the history of the whole world, Amachi of Central Kentucky is holding a contest where you, YES YOU, can win a brand new free Apple iPad.  You ask yourself, “How is this possible?!” Simply by participating in our 50/50 Mentor Recruitment Campaign, you become eligible to win!  What is the 50/50 Mentor Recruitment Campaign? Read on!

50 men for 50 boys in 50 days, that is the goal of the 50/50 Campaign. Amachi currently has approximately 50 boys who are anxiously awaiting an opportunity to have a male mentor who will spend time with them and invest in their lives.  Amachi has an enthusiastic and motivated force of friends and supporters.  We want some of you hard-working and enthusiastic individuals to have an exciting opportunity to serve these children by helping us recruit new male mentors.  

It’s simple: Whoever recruits the most active new male mentors in the 50 days between June 1^st & July 20^th will win a FREE APPLE iPAD!  Our goal is to receive 50 new active male mentors in the 50 days of the campaign.  These wonderful Amachi children will have the opportunity to spend time with a positive person in their lives, and you will have the opportunity to win. 

More details will be sent out regarding the rules of the campaign in the very near future. In the meantime, if you are interested in being involved in the 50/50 Mentor Recruitment Campaign, please e-mail Amachi’s Mentor Recruiter, Brent Burgess, at bburgess@lexlf.org or contact him by phone at 859-389-8279 to enter the contest. Don’t miss the fun!

here's a deal for YOU!

Fro-Jo's Self Serve Frozen Yogurt will be doing an "Anniversary Thursday" 

rather than our "Wacky Wednesday" to celebrate Fro-Jo's 6 month Anniversary and Commerce Lexington membership. Yogurt is half-price all day and between 3:30 - 6:00 small yogurt cups with toppings for only $1.00. Come join us for the ribbon cutting at 4:00 and have some great tasting yogurt.

 

 

When a young person 

is matched to a caring adult mentor

a new path is revealed 

that can change 

his or her life.

What a girl wants, what a girl needs

On Saturday, April 30, girls in our community will be presented an opportunity.  An opportunity to [be bold].  While it might seem that girls today are all too often empowered to

be bold, go wild, do something crazy, etc. . . . . .

this opportunity affords a positive spin.  The purpose of the Be Bold Workshop is to empower girls and young women through building up their self esteem and encouraging goals and achievable dreams.  They'll discuss love, dating, sex, marriage, goal setting, and self image.  The workshop is open to girls ages 9 through 18.  

We believe this workshop is timely.  If you Google American girl, the first thing to pop up is the American Girl web page, featuring dolls, books, a magazine and more.  According to their website:

"You are great just the way you are!"  

That's the message American Girl magazine delivers to over 500,000 girls every month.

But is that what American girls believe?

 "One danger of online blogs and social networking sites is that your daughter may not be expressing what she really feels.  She may instead be writing what she thinks will entertain or impress her peers who read it." (1)

Regarding their looks. . .What are today's girls thinking?

• 11,889 13-19 year-olds received Botox injections in 2009, up 2 percent from 2008.  (2)
• By the time your 10-year-old is 50, she'll have spent nearly $300,000 on just her hair and face.  (3)
• Eight - to 12-year-olds in this country already spend more that $40 million a month on beauty products, and teens spend another $100 million.  (4)

Does all this emphasis on beauty make for a healthier girl?

"Recent studies suggest that as many as one in five girls between 10 and 18 years of age are now cutting themselves with razor blades or burning themselves with matches, etc." (5)

Girls and fashion?
What are girls facing at the mall?  Check out this article:  Parents, don't dress your girls like tramps.  It's pretty insightful.

Young women in the entertainment field?

The current Billboard Top 100 #1 song is by Rihanna.  It's title?  "S&M".  You can Google the lyrics.  And coming in at #16 is P!nk's "F**kin' Perfect". 

"We are gradually penetrating the highest levels of the work force.  We get to go to college and play sports and be secretary of state.  But to look around, you'd think all any of us [girls] want to do is rip off our clothes and shake it." (6)

Disheartening information?  

 What's the future like for our 
     American girls?

"Clearly, we need to find other ways of showing girls that we care about them, even if they don't take off their clothes.  And as I've learned from my friends, who are truly good, it is never too late to show that you believe in someone.  Growth is always possible." (7)

Hopefully we really do believe in our girls.  
Maggie Middleton, one of our Match Specialists, will be on sight at the workshop.  She'll act as a confidante for any of the girls who want someone to talk with.  Amachi will also have an informational table set up.  Bring your mentee, bring your daughter, help impact the life of a girl.  Call us for more information:  859.389.8279, or check out out this link:  Be Bold!

(1) From Girls on the Edge, written by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D.

(2) Kathryn Stamoulis, Ph.D.From Psychology Today

(3) From Generation Diva, an article in Newsweek

(4) ibid

(5) Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D.

(6) From Female Chauvinist Pigs:  Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, by Ariel Levy

(7) From The Good Girl Revolution, by Wendy Shalit

 

April Showers....

...Bring lots of fun!

Can you believe it's already April? It's Spring, and that means one sure thing for Amachi...lots of opportunities to have fun with your mentees! We are literally showered with lots of fun things. For information or to RSVP for any of the following, please call our office at 859-389-8279. Here's what's going on:

Upcoming Amachi Events:

1. Saturday, April 16th: Low Ropes Course (for middle and high school mentees and their mentors), 10 am-2 pm. This will be a really fun day of being outside, playing games, creative activities, and bonding with your mentees. You don't want to miss this!

2. Saturday, April 16th: Bunny Blast Party (for elementary aged mentees and their mentors) This will be a FREE and FUN event! Bring your mentees to Woodhill Park from 12-2 for a day of food, games, and lots of other fun activities!

3. Tuesday, April 26th: Mentor Development Forum, 6:30-9:00 pm. PLEASE make plans to attend this if at all possible. All mentors are invited to join us for an evening with Enterchange and Dr. Chris Kiesling. We will be learning about stages of youth development (and how understanding this will help you as you mentor). The evening will also include small group time, where you will have the opportunity to get to know and learn from other mentors.

4. Saturday, April 23rd: Community Easter Egg Festival (hosted by Vineyard Community Church) at Dixie Park, 11:00 am-1:30 pm. Members of Amachi staff will be there, and this will be a fun day of food, games, inflatables, and an easter egg hunt!


Other opportunities for you and your mentees:

1. Saturday, April 30th: Be Bold Workshop for girls ages 9-18, 8 am-5 pm. This will be a fantastic opportunity for our female mentees. This will be an all day workshop focusing on confidence and self esteem for young women.

2. Living Arts and Science Center-their April Discovery Night is coming up this Thursday. It looks really fun! Check out the website:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/12e6db8b9d1f4062

3. The Carnegie Center hosts "family nights" once per month. This month's night will be on the 15th and will be all about music! check out the site for more info:

http://carnegieliteracy.org/youth-and-family/family-fun-and-learning-nights/

4. Also, be sure to check out the community calendar from Lexington Family Magazine:

http://lexingtonfamily.com/calendar/calendar.pdf

5. Sunday, April 10th: YMCA Healthy Kids Day Fun Fest, 2-5 pm., UK Nutter Field House. Free games, activities, inflatables, relays for all ages! Check out ymcaofcentralyky.org for more info.


6. Saturday, April 9th: Kite Festival, Noon-4 pm., Jacobson Park. Check out the website for more info:

http://www.lexingtonky.gov/index.aspx?page=24

Power Tools for a Power Purpose

Honestly, when it comes to power tools, I’m not sure what the appropriate age is for use by a child.  My nephew, Joshua, is six years old and he has some toy power tools; you know, the kind that spin and make noise like a real drill. Only with his the drill bit is just a smooth piece of plastic that would break apart long before it would ever break skin.  He loves them.  But he can’t build anything with them, nothing real anyways.  But on Saturday I had the privilege of seeing several kids holding real power tools, the kind that can break through wood, and from what I could tell every one of those kids was having an amazing time.

I walked into Home Depot on Harrodsburg Road at 10am on Saturday. As a team member for Amachi, I was hoping to catch a few photographs of the mentors and mentees as they worked together on their projects.  The project was to build cornhole boards.  Quite honestly, in my mind the project seemed a bit advanced for some of our younger kids.  But I had underestimated Home Depot. And quite honestly I had underestimated our mentors and their kids!  

Home Depot had laid out for us six different sets of cornhole board pieces.  These pieces were so well-made, well-organized, and well-presented that I imagined they had ordered some kits.  Later in the morning one of their staff informed me that an employee of Home Depot had put in sixteen hours of work diligently cutting every pre-fabricated piece for our project.  Sixteen hours of time just to provide an opportunity for our kids? I was moved.  Whoever that staff member is for Home Depot, they need to be a mentor with that kind of passion! We, after all, only require one hour per week!  Once our mentor matches started working together to build their boards, the staff of Home Depot watched the project take place with joy and excitement.  I was really touched by the effort that these wonderful workers put in this project for our mentors and kids.  It wasn’t just pieces of wood that were provided by their business, there was love and care provided as well.

For three hours I watched several of our mentor matches work together to build some really cool looking cornhole boards.  They picked out some wild colors too.  University of Kentucky blue and white seemed to be the dominant theme, which is no big surprise given the excitement of March Madness!  As a new staff member, this was the first time I have had the opportunity to see our mentors work with their mentees.   I saw power in the relationship between those mentor matches for those three hours.  The kids didn’t just watch their mentors build something.  The result of the project was a cool looking cornhole board.  But there was another result as well.  While wood, nails, and paint were merging together to form a great finished project, a relationship was being built that seemed of much greater value.  Forgive me for sounding a little too Tim Allen (any Home Improvement fans out there?), but when boys and men get together and build something, I see something stronger being built than what can be done with tools and wood.  I see strength and value being built in affirmation.  I see the confidence of a boy growing as he accomplishes a task with someone that he looks up to.  I see a man proudly transferring knowledge to a child of great worth.  The power is in more than the tools.  I believe what our mentors and mentees are truly building together is something very strong.

- Brent Burgess, Amachi Mentor Recruiter

               

               

Originally posted on Ashley Kasten's blog

To celebrate #2 of the 4 part CPA exam I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the night with the lovely Miss Adrielle. We got free tickets to the UK gymnastics meet and it was the breast cancer awareness night so everyone there was donning pink! So, honestly at first you could tell that Adrielle wasn't that excited about going. But once we were there and the meet started the first thing she said to me was "I didn't really know what gymnastics was like, I had no idea how cool this was. Can we go every week?!" Haha I was like seeeeee I told you gymnastics are awesome. Later she said, "I'm going to ask my mom to buy me a leotard, they are so cool!". My 9 year old mentee is the best!

Side rant: I have been obsessed with watching gymnastics since the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. It is definitely my favorite event to watch and I am amazed at what these girls can do with their bodies. If only I had kept up with gymnastics beyond the backhand sprang haha.

Everyone remember Kerri Strug?!

Back to Adrielle. So we had a great time. Adrielle had a few dollars to spend on food and she got popcorn. She was hilarious too. She kept telling me how salty it was but continued to eat the whole thing, silly girl!

One thing that was super precious of her tonight unfortunately happened when one of UK's gymnasts hurt herself during the floor routine. It was after a long sequence of tumbling and she just collapsed onto the ground grabbing her leg (my friend who is friends with the girl informed me afterwards, that they think she tore her ACL :( ) The whole crowd went silent and I think Adrielle screamed when it happened. She kept saying she was so sad and that she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight knowing Whitney (the gymnast) was hurt. Then she told me "I'm going to send her flowers and chocolates and a teddy bear to make her feel better." I suggested that she should pray for Whitney. Her response

"I  can't pray for her, I'm not very good at it."

Saddest, yet most precious thing I have heard her say. I tried to encourage her to do it. But who knows. At least I planted that thought/idea in her head.

UK ended up winning the meet which allowed for a happy ending and as we were driving home Adrielle noticed that the street we were on was called Rose street, which was the last name of the gymnast that got hurt. She said something to the effect of "well maybe it'll make her feel better knowing that she has a street named after her. " AWWW! :)

What a fun night, I can always count on Adrielle to make me feel good. OH and you know what else she did?!? While we were sitting and watching the meet she played with my hair, on her own without prompting, for like 5 minutes and it was wonderful. She said she loves playing with peoples hair, so she's definitely a keeper!!