Archive for the ‘education’ Category
August 29th, 2010
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“Michael Jordan and the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats will announce a $250,000 donation Monday to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system to help fund middle-school athletics programs this academic year.
Jordan, an NBA legend who made a fortune with his basketball skills and marketing savvy, bought the Charlotte Bobcats this spring. At the time, he talked of the importance of making the franchise an active contributor within the Charlotte community.”
On July 20, 2010, The Arts & Science Council presented its next vision for a for Mecklenburg County. You can read all the details on their website.
Present were community leaders like Mayor Anthony Foxx, Mary Lou Babb, ASC Immediate Past Present Board Chair, and Marc Manly from Duke Energy, ASC Board Chair. Each spoke of the need for a vibrant and diverse community, engaged in arts and culture.
This year’s priorities
ASC laid out three priorities for the upcoming years:
- Restore education funding
- Develop a new cultural action plan
- Address the future of funding through innovation
Future Initiatives
ASC President Scott Provancher laid out ASC’s vision for the future — the Cultural Action Plan. Provancher highlighted previous plans that included public art, cultural facilitates, educational programs, and tourism efforts. He also gave us a peek into the future by announcing the silent launch of the planning process for the upcoming Cultural Action Plan that will tackle the “new normal” of the economy and new, innovative giving models eluding to a possible “cultural marketplace” or a Match.com of sorts; matching donors to specific projects.
2010-2011 Cultural & Community Investments
ASC’s first round of investments total $8,213,100, with museums, science centers, and historic sites receiving over $4M, performing arts receiving $3.3M, and education and community & diversity projects receiving the remainder.
- 4700 full time jobs in the arts, cultural, science, and history sector
- $157.96 million in local economic activity
- 93.3% of respondents think arts, science and history organizations make a positive contribution to the quality of life in Charlotte-Mecklenburg
- 79.8% of Mecklenburg residents support county funding for programs (UNC Charlotte Urban Institute Report)
- young people who are invoked in cultural programs are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievements
- Charlotte Culture Guide included over 60,000 cultural events in 2009.
Posted in Art, Charity, Economy, Fundraising, Mecklenburg County, Music, Outreach, Performance, Theater, UNC Charlotte, education, photography
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According to Parenting.com, they cite our eight DOE-certified blue ribbon schools, and our 16 NAEYC-accredited preschools.
I wonder if they’ve heard about the dozen-or-so CMS schools being slated for closure?
watch this video in HD on YouTube
The Discovery Place crew have been hard at work retooling and renovating for some 18 months now, and this weekend it all wraps up with the opening of World Alive (an aquarium and rainforest exhibition) and Fantastic Frogs.
Best of all, admission is free! Saturday is for Discovery Place members only, and Sunday is open to the public.
We stopped in a little ways back to check out some of the new additions, including a few of my favorites: a 3,000 rpm gyroscope that you have to feel to believe, a couple Microsoft Surface installations, and a somewhat internet-famous multi-touch sound and music controller called a Reactable, which Discovery Place was lucky enough to snag once the creators started selling them last year.
Check out the video above for our tour, and clips of the new installations. And come on out this weekend, we’ll be there!
Why yes!
The Charlotte Geeks (@cltgeeks) have produced a few PSAs to help support Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (@cmlibrary) in their time of reduced funding. Why ‘Zombies for Libraries’? Because “libraries feed brains and brains feed zombies – so zombies love libraries!”
Check out this post on SaveLibraries.org for more Zombies for Libraries videos. Then when you are done, visit cmlibrary.org to learn more about how you can assist and feed the zombies!
Posted in Charity, City, Feature, Fundraising, Government, Mecklenburg County, Outreach, education
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Why yes!
The Charlotte Geeks (@cltgeeks) have produced a few PSAs to help support Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (@cmlibrary) in their time of reduced funding. Why ‘Zombies for Libraries’? Because “libraries feed brains and brains feed zombies – so zombies love libraries!”
Check out this post on SaveLibraries.org for more Zombies for Libraries videos. Then when you are done, visit cmlibrary.org to learn more about how you can assist and feed the zombies!
Posted in Charity, City, Feature, Fundraising, Government, Mecklenburg County, Outreach, education
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Franklin playing at Dogtopia
As a dog daycare owner I get to meet lots of different breeds of dogs. I was really excited this week when we had a blue pit bull named Franklin come to play with us. Franklin is one of the sweetest, happiest dogs I’ve met since I opened Dogtopia. He’s wonderful in the playrooms with the other dogs and has a great temperament. So I was I was more than a little taken aback when some of the comments I got from friends when I told them about Franklin were along the lines of “Oh my God, I can’t believe you guys let pit bulls play with the other dogs!”
Of course we let pit bulls play with the other dogs. We evaluate each individual dog that comes to Dogtopia based on their temperament. Not every business in Charlotte, or every town in North Carolina agrees with that idea, however.
In February a Mount Holly man and his greyhound were attacked during a walk by a pit bull, which led him to propose a pit bull ban to the Mount Holly City Council. According to Joe Katon, a Gaston County resident, responsibility for attacks like that fall on the owner’s shoulders, not the dog’s. “We’ll never break through the misconceptions of what pit bulls are” noted Katon. He believes that pit bulls are such a hot topic these days because people own them just to say they have a pit bull and don’t understand the responsibility, training and exercise this high-energy breed requires. In Katon’s blog The Gaston Gallop he states, “Dogs cannot be merely placed in our homes without any expectations, rules, boundaries, exercise, and mental foundation. The result of failing to provide these things to ANY breed creates an animal that is destructive, hyper, and dangerous.” The breed specific legislation is still currently under review by the Mount Holly City Council, but pit bull discrimination continues.
On April 29, a pit bull named Bella escaped from her family’s fenced in yard and was shot and killed by a Cabarrus County Animal Control officer even though she showed no signs of aggression. The animal control officer stated she wasn’t worth his time to catch. The officer was recently cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Department investigation. According to a press release from the Sheriff’s office the investigation “determined that the officer acted appropriately to protect the potential harm presented to the citizens by shooting the pit bull that could not be captured.” Since the shooting Bella’s family has created a non-profit organization called Justice for Bella. The goal of the organization is to seek the termination of the animal control officers involved and increase training for future animal control officers. More than 12,500 people support their cause on Facebook.
Even here in Mecklenburg County our Animal Care & Control office is prohibited from adopting out a dog classified as a pit bull. Luckily they partner with the Humane Society of Charlotte to help find loving, responsible homes for pit bulls brought into the shelter. The Humane Society of Charlotte even held an Adopt-a-Bull Party on April 10 to showcase some of the pit bulls available for adoption, as well as to educate the public about what great companions pit bulls can be and how myths about the breed have been an obstacle to placing them in new forever homes.
The truth of the matter is that breed specific legislation is never going to be the answer to reducing the number of dog attacks that occur or bites that are reported. The answer is stronger enforcement of dangerous animal ordinances, animal license enforcement, spay/neuter legislation, and education about responsible dog ownership that includes training and exercise. Animal Care & Control offers humane education classes for students, businesses and pet owners to learn more about bite prevention, pet ownership and local ordinances.
Franklin playing at Dogtopia
As a dog daycare owner I get to meet lots of different breeds of dogs. I was really excited this week when we had a blue pit bull named Franklin come to play with us. Franklin is one of the sweetest, happiest dogs I’ve met since I opened Dogtopia. He’s wonderful in the playrooms with the other dogs and has a great temperament. So I was I was more than a little taken aback when some of the comments I got from friends when I told them about Franklin were along the lines of “Oh my God, I can’t believe you guys let pit bulls play with the other dogs!”
Of course we let pit bulls play with the other dogs. We evaluate each individual dog that comes to Dogtopia based on their temperament. Not every business in Charlotte, or every town in North Carolina agrees with that idea, however.
In February a Mount Holly man and his greyhound were attacked during a walk by a pit bull, which led him to propose a pit bull ban to the Mount Holly City Council. According to Joe Katon, a Gaston County resident, responsibility for attacks like that fall on the owner’s shoulders, not the dog’s. “We’ll never break through the misconceptions of what pit bulls are” noted Katon. He believes that pit bulls are such a hot topic these days because people own them just to say they have a pit bull and don’t understand the responsibility, training and exercise this high-energy breed requires. In Katon’s blog The Gaston Gallop he states, “Dogs cannot be merely placed in our homes without any expectations, rules, boundaries, exercise, and mental foundation. The result of failing to provide these things to ANY breed creates an animal that is destructive, hyper, and dangerous.” The breed specific legislation is still currently under review by the Mount Holly City Council, but pit bull discrimination continues.
On April 29, a pit bull named Bella escaped from her family’s fenced in yard and was shot and killed by a Cabarrus County Animal Control officer even though she showed no signs of aggression. The animal control officer stated she wasn’t worth his time to catch. The officer was recently cleared of any wrongdoing by an internal Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Department investigation. According to a press release from the Sheriff’s office the investigation “determined that the officer acted appropriately to protect the potential harm presented to the citizens by shooting the pit bull that could not be captured.” Since the shooting Bella’s family has created a non-profit organization called Justice for Bella. The goal of the organization is to seek the termination of the animal control officers involved and increase training for future animal control officers. More than 12,500 people support their cause on Facebook.
Even here in Mecklenburg County our Animal Care & Control office is prohibited from adopting out a dog classified as a pit bull. Luckily they partner with the Humane Society of Charlotte to help find loving, responsible homes for pit bulls brought into the shelter. The Humane Society of Charlotte even held an Adopt-a-Bull Party on April 10 to showcase some of the pit bulls available for adoption, as well as to educate the public about what great companions pit bulls can be and how myths about the breed have been an obstacle to placing them in new forever homes.
The truth of the matter is that breed specific legislation is never going to be the answer to reducing the number of dog attacks that occur or bites that are reported. The answer is stronger enforcement of dangerous animal ordinances, animal license enforcement, spay/neuter legislation, and education about responsible dog ownership that includes training and exercise. Animal Care & Control offers humane education classes for students, businesses and pet owners to learn more about bite prevention, pet ownership and local ordinances.