9/19: And so it begins!

We started our ‘official’ new year as Cabrini Connections Writing Group, Wednesday September 19, 2007. And we couldn’t be more excited! First we regret to announce that our beloved Meg has moved to Arizona. We were sad to see her go, but we’re so proud of her and will keep in touch.

This year we’re changing things up a bit. At our first meeting we passed out new notebooks and plenty of stickers and gems to decorate with. While the ladies were decorating the books we talked about goals we’d like to achieve for the year. They jotted down their goals and we discovered we have some motivated individuals on our hands! Tajeria would like to start applying for college scholarships, Eboni would like to score a 25 or higher on her ACT test, LaFaye would like to not only have an A+ average but would also like to finish writing her story! Mercedes and Namieka would like to stay focused on school, while Vontesha would love to learn a little Spanish!

This year the notebooks are serving a higher purpose. At the end of each group the notebooks will be collected for Jen and Shannyn to review and positively reinforce the girls with comments and feedback. We also write the girls our own notes and they write back to us! We’ve also implemented a reward system. Points are rewarded for attendance, activity completion, and group participation. At the end of each week, we’ll tally up the points and determine a writer of the week! And at the end of each quarter we’ll have a pizza party and let the girls ‘shop’ with their points. For example, if you have 200 points you can trade them in for a Target Gift Card or Museum Tickets. The girls loved the idea and we can’t wait to see them rack up those points!