Author Archives: Flip Rosenberry

The CARE Center Receives National Honor

CARE White House

(CARE Center Executive Director Anne Teschner, Student Tashia Davis, and First Lady Michelle Obama)

MPF grantee The CARE Center was a recent recipient of a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. Big congratulations to all at THE CARE Center for receiving this award presented by Michelle Obama at the White House last week.

You can read more about The CARE Center’s receiving the award here. You can read more about the other programs that received awards here. Finally, you can see a video of the entire presentation here. As you’ll see, there’s some pretty inspiring work being done not only at The CARE Center but all around the country as well.

MPF’s Annual Meeting Elects Three New Directors

For the first eight years of the Mt. Pleasant Fund’s existence, we have had the same four directors serving the organization. At the annual meeting held two weekends ago, the members of the Fund elected three new Directors to join Jimmy Curley, Peggy Rosenberry, Liz Rosenberry, and Flip Rosenberry. They are:

  • Lee Barstow of Amherst. Lee is the Director of Advancement Reporting and Systems at Amherst College. He is also the Interim Minister at the First Congregational Church of Leverett, MA.
  • Caroline Curley of Quincy, Massachusetts. Caroline is Jimmy’s daughter. She recently graduated from the University of Chicago and is an operations analyst with Atlantic Trust Company in Boston.
  • Kelly Keane of Amherst. Kelly is the Coordinator of the Nursing Success Program at Holyoke Community College. She also is the co-Director of Spirit Sports Camp for Girls.

Lee, Caroline, and Kelly were nominated by the current Directors because of the support and interest they have given to the Fund as members. We think they’re going to make a real difference for the Fund, and by obvious extension, our partners.

If you have been having problems reaching us via phone. . .

. . .and we know that some of you have, please accept our apologies. We have been having some pretty complicated voice mail problems on our end that are not yet fixed (but we’re told they will be fixed by Tuesday morning October the 4th). Probably the best way to reach us is through email (mtpleasantfund@verizon.net). . .though be warned that one person had trouble going that route as well! Ah technology. . .

FY11 Partners Selected!

After a typically long and difficult process, the Mt. Pleasant Fund’s Board of Directors recently made its funding decisions for the upcoming fiscal year. The following organizations will be receiving (or have already received) checks from the Fund:

Bridgeway of Lakewood, Colorado is receiving a grant for the sixth consecutive year. Bridgeway is a group home providing support for teen mothers and their children.

Canones Early Childhood Center in Canones, New Mexico received a grant from the Fund in 2007, but as the Fund’s guidelines changed, the Center no longer fit within our specific funding criteria. This year with the shift to considering only those agencies recommended to the board by the membership, Canones was once again eligible (given that one of our members asked that we invite a Letter of Intent). Canones Early Childhood Center provides services to pre-elementary school aged kids in rural northern New Mexico.

The CARE Center of Holyoke, Massachusetts is a school dedicated to supporting teen mothers and their children. This is our 7th year of supporting The CARE Center (our 6th consecutive year).

This is our third consecutive year of supporting Hope House of Arvada, Colorado. Hope House of Colorado is a group home and resource center for teen-aged moms and their children.

STEPPS

STEPPS Sponsors
Mt. Pleasant Fund Board members Jimmy Curley and Flip Rosenberry attended the first STEPPS (Summit for Teen Empowerment, Progress, and Parenting Success) at the end of last month and we both came away impressed with the success of this inaugural effort. The Mt. Pleasant Fund had provided funding to be one of the sponsoring organizations, and it’s fair to say that our financial support was well worth it.

We both came away impressed by the number of participants (both teens and representatives of the agencies that support them).

One of the more notable aspects from our perspective was the number of young fathers that attended. They were active participants in the workshops that we attended.

We certainly hope that this conference becomes an annual event as those we spoke with seemed to be quite pleased to see that there was so much support for them both as individuals and as parents.

You can see more from the conference by clicking here. You can also see many more pictures on Facebook.