Celebrating Faith Network's Fifteenth!

Thank you to every one of our supporters, volunteers, donors, table sponsors, speakers, prayer warriors, and guests for making our 15th Anniversary Gala a success! It was a beautiful, inspiring evening and we surpassed our fundraising goal of $100,000!

In particular, we’d like to salute

• marvelous emcee Donna Somerville for conducting our event smoothly despite technical difficulties; 
• keynote speaker Mayor Libby Schaaf for her time and her message of encouragement to our community;
• 2016 Partners of the Year, the Lowell Berry Foundation and Lawrence Berkeley Lab;
• 2016 Volunteer of the Year Carl Anderson for his 15 successive years of service as a classroom helper and for his quiet, caring, consistent commitment to investing in our kids and supporting our teachers.

Randy Roth and Mayor Libby Schaaf

In addition, we proudly presented three high school seniors with scholarships. The Eddie College Scholarship Fund was created by Todd and Doris Ahlsten for socioeconomically disadvantaged but promising students for the pursuit of post-high-school education. Requirements include participation in our CareerBridge mentoring program for at least two years. Congratulations to Fanae Clark, Ny’Dajah Jackson, and Mickey Sola! We loved getting to know you and we look forward to your future!

Margena and our Eddie College Scholarship recipients

Kudos to our Event Sponsors listed below:

Valedictorian
Branagh Construction
First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
Kensington Veterinary Hospital
Mark & Joanne Perra
Parnassus Investments
Union Bank

Scholar
Todd & Doris Ahlsten
Ken & Stacey Mattson
Dreams Los Cabos Suites Golf Resort & Spa

Student
Kaiser Permanente
PwC

Click on the link to watch Faith Network's 15th Anniversary video.
Click on the link to see more gala photos.

Celebrating on Camera

by Carolyn Piraino, Excel Reading Clinic coordinator

Excitement was already in the air when local news reporter Allen Martin and his cameraman arrived at Laurel Elementary to film our Excel Reading Clinic closing ceremony on Wednesday, May 25. The reason? To get footage of our Succeeding by Reading program in action for their late June TV spot on Faith Network president Randy Roth!

Randy Roth

Randy is the recipient of the Jefferson Award for his distinguished service to the Bay Area community. The San Francisco Bay Area CBS television station KPIX-TV recognizes a “quiet hero” in the community every week with this award. (Read KPIX's article about Randy at kpix.com/hero.)

“We’re going to be on TV!” cried one of the second-graders who was at the clinic that morning. The camera rolled as, one by one, students read aloud stories they had written themselves and received achievement certificates from their tutors, along with words of congratulations and hugs. On this day of celebration, we played Word Bingo and let each student select two to three books to take home and add to their own personal library.

Carolyn Piraino and her student Jonathan

The Excel Reading Clinic has been operating at Laurel Elementary for more than 10 years. It is one of 20 clinics in the Succeeding by Reading program, which seeks to raise each participating student’s reading skills by at least two grade levels by the end of the school year. Volunteers from the Oakland community and as far away as Danville are trained in remedial reading techniques by Faith Network staff, and are later paired with a child (first through third grades) that they will be working with for the entire school year.

Randy’s vision of one-on-one help for Oakland’s students -- not only for reading, but math and science, too -- has been realized through a variety of programs offered by Faith Network for the last 15 years. We who work with Faith Network are grateful to KPIX for recognizing Randy’s contribution to the children of Oakland and other parts of the Bay Area as well. Congratulations, Randy!

The excited students of Laurel Elementary Excel Reading Clinic

This is the second time someone associated with Faith Network has been honored with the Jefferson Award. Last year, volunteers Mark and Joanne Perra, received the Jefferson Award for their advisory role with the newly-launched robotics class at Roosevelt Middle School. Their story is in our November 2015 newsletter.

Hope For Children Now Raffle Tickets

Support Faith Network

and get a chance to win a dream vacation!

(Drawing will be held at the June 4 Gala. Need not be present to win.)

Grand Prize:

3-night stay at all-inclusive resort in Cabos San Lucas

plus a $500 Alaskan Airlines gift card.

Runner Up Prizes:

Pebble Beach Vacation Home
3-night stay for up to 6 guests at a vacation home just off 17-Mile Drive

Yountville Casita in Napa
2-night stay for 2 at a private Yountville Casita
PLUS dinner for 2 at the award-winning FARM at the Carneros Inn

Hornblower Cruise

Brunch or dinner for 4 people

Raffle Tickets Prices

$10 for 1 ticket

$25 for 3 tickets

$50 for 7 tickets

For more details on raffle prizes and restrictions, please visit
www.faith-network.com/raffle.

To purchase tickets, call our office at (510) 836-5100 or mail in the order form.

Future Scientists go to BLAZES

Ruby Bridges Elementary fifth-graders recently journeyed to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to conduct science experiments in conjunction with the lab’s Berkeley Lab Adventure Zone in Elementary Science (BLAZES) program. Each student, wearing a white lab coat, participated in hands-on activities titled Finding Elements on the Periodic Table, What Conducts Electricity and When Do Substances Change from One State of Matter to Another.

Students were attentive and engaged as they first hypothesized and then tested various materials to see which objects conduct electricity, what happens when a small piece of dry ice is dropped into a flask with 150 ml of water, what happens when a balloon is immersed in liquid nitrogen, and which metal conducts heat the fastest. They were not shy about asking questions and interacting with Berkeley Lab engineers and scientists. Truly these at-promise students are our hope for the future! And it was great to see fifth-grade teacher Heather Figueroa flanked by inquisitive parent chaperones.

Faith Network is honored to be one of Berkeley Lab’s community partners, offering visits to the lab to 16 Oakland classes, plus bus transportation!

The mission of Berkeley Lab includes inspiring and preparing the next generation of scientists, engineers and technicians.

President's Corner: Kerry Gough

I’m happy to announce that Kerry Gough has joined Faith Network’s Board of Directors. A retired civil rights attorney, Kerry’s interest in civil rights began when, as a young soldier, he blew the whistle on the Army’s collaboration with racist Monterey Peninsula landlords who refused to rent to African American armed forces personnel. That experience sparked his passion for civil rights, which led to a summer as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1965, employment by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division on assignment to southeastern Mississippi, and 42 years as a civil rights attorney in Oakland.

Upon his retirement on April 15, 2008, Kerry joined forces with Global Strategies for HIV Prevention, and less than a month later, went to Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo for a two-week exploration into how victims of sexual assault could be assisted legally. This led to a six-week stint in Goma the following year and eventually to the establishment of some legal clinics staffed by third-year Congolese law students supervised by Congolese attorneys.
Kerry received his Juris Doctorate degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, U.C. Berkeley, in 1966. His community service background includes a stint on the Global Strategies Board of Directors; President of the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County; President of Allied Fellowship Service, a half-way house for ex-offenders; and advisory board member for Project Sentinel, a nonprofit that investigates, mediates and litigates housing discrimination cases.

Welcome aboard, Kerry Gough!

For the children,
Randy

Volunteer Spotlight: Dennis Burke

A remarkable thing called connection happens when you find a way to combine
your talents with volunteering! This is what Dennis Burke discovered when he
began volunteering through Faith Network.

After he retired from the world of business and finance, Dennis wanted to find a way to contribute to his community. So in 2012 Dennis emailed Faith Network president Randy Roth about his desire to help kids with their math skills. At this time, Faith Network didn't have a math tutoring program. But one thing led to the next and, within weeks, Dennis was paired with two students who were struggling with math.

Four years later, Dennis is still giving to the community through Faith Network’s two-year-old math tutoring program established under Science Horizons. Every week this school year at Burkhalter Elementary, Dennis goes over division, multiplication, decimals, and word problems with Aaron and Amaia. But his favorite moments are when they all feel comfortable enough to open up to each other and share what’s going on in each other’s lives.

As Dennis sees it, “For me, math has always been one of my great loves. It seems to be a point where I can connect with kids, not just about math, but through listening and encouraging.”

Hope for Children Now Benefit Gala

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

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Can't attend the Gala but want to make a difference? Contribute

to our $100,000 fundraising goal by clicking here.