NOTRE DAME CONCESSIONS!!!

G-OO-D-J-O-B, GOOD JOB SAMI !

This year I started with a brand new House of H.OPE. All the girls were unfamiliar with the concepts and life lessons they would be introduced to. Things like sacrifice and putting others first... These were concepts that I figured would take 6th graders at least a couple years to begin to understand.  Sami Andrews has been an exception to my thinking.  At the very start of the school year I had them all write down something they struggled with.  Sami wrote down sharing with her sisters.

Then I gave Sami her first challenge; I told her she would have to share her most prized possession with her little sister. She was very apprehensive but she still completed the challenge.  Afterward, she expressed that it made her feel good and that she would like to do it again.           

Fast forward to what is now the end of the school year... Sami has been working very hard over the past several months to earn points by serving her neighbors, stepping up among her peers, doing reports, getting good grades, and making high honor roll! It definitely has not been easy to earn her points, but she had accumulated over 2000 points.  Sami had wanted an mp3 player so as soon as we got one, we gave her the option of cashing in her points for it! She gladly accepted the offer but what she did next was almost unheard of, even for most adults.  Adding to it, she didn't even tell us what she did.

Her older sister Ashley had been wanting an mp3 player as well but she didn't have the money to buy one. Sami decided to selflessly give her sister her brand new mp3 player!  That was definitely one of the proudest moments I've had this entire year. What I thought would take years happened in just a matter of months. It wasn’t about telling her what I thought she should do, she did it completely on her own.  

This shows exactly what we at Sonnyvilla are about... We’re not interested in behavior modification but rather transformed lives.  It is one thing for kids to do things just because we said, to get points, or know we are watching them.   But transformation occurs when they have experienced that there is joy in being selfless, sacrificial and putting others before themselves! – Danielle (House Parent)

Gurley Leep Hometeam Hero Award

"We are truly honored and humbled to have received this award from Gurley Leep and WSBT. After knowing and believing that the Good Hand of our Lord is upon us, we realize the fruits of our labor would not be possible without the many individuals like you who believe in our mission. It is because of faithful and committed friends that we are blessed to continue the great cause to build hope for youth in Keller Park. We wish to say a huge thank you to all of you who have sacrificed to give!” – The Martino Family!

House of H.O.P.E.

The Girls House of H.O.P.E. has spent the majority of the winter season serving their neighbors. From shoveling snow and delivering hot pizza’s to hungry families, to preparing and delivering many Christmas cards, presents, and food boxes for their neighbors; this Christmas season was certainly different than any other the girls had experienced. Sami, 12, described it as, “I like being Santa for a day because we get to give people stuff. I like seeing the faces of people when they see the gifts. It makes me feel like I want to keep giving. I like hearing what people say about the gifts.  This is a chance for us to be able to care about giving instead of receiving.”   Tonisha, 13, said, “It was fun to get and give; I had a lot of fun in House of H.O.P.E. giving people presents for their families, and we got presents too! I had a lot of fun and I just want to say thank you for all the things that I got!”  Sonnyvilla youth and their entire families were also surprised by being on the receiving end this Christmas thanks to our Hope for the Holidays Sponsors!  In addition to the giving, our girls spent the month learning about how the choices they are making now will determine where they end up in life.  Each of the girls spent time thinking about what their dreams are and where they will take them in life.  The girls made a list of the negative habits in their lives that they want to change. By the end of the month the girls excitedly crossed off almost all the habits they had been focusing on!  The girls celebrated the end of the month by going snowboarding and tubing with their friends at George Wilson Park! 

Feeding Hungry Families!

Being an approved agency with the Food Bank of Northern Indiana has been of tremendous help this cold winter season. Hundreds of donated Little Caesars pizzas have been providing meals for countless families in the community each week.  Every Monday, Sonnyvilla House of H.O.P.E. youth pass pizza’s out to their neighborhood and peers, dozens are dropped off at The Crossing School to provide meals for students and their families, Southgate Church Men’s Group take the pizza’s to bus stops all around South Bend to provide warm food on cold nights, and Southgate church also uses many in their food pantry to provide meals for even more families!  This wouldn’t be possible without the generosity of Dan Hancock of Little Caesars in Plymouth, IN and the hard work of Sonnyvilla Board Member Dave Melander, who coordinated the process.  Thanks to these partnerships, dozens of youth and their families will eat hot, quality pizza this winter! season!

212° Leadership

Under the leadership direction of Ron King, 212° Leadership is inspiring our youth’s culture beyond the small boundaries of our neighborhood. Whether it’s Saturday morning Rising Star’s sessions at Southgate, 212° family time at our homes throughout the neighborhood, the basement of 1726 Sherman Ave., or small breakout sessions at local gyms, classrooms, school cafeterias, etc.; 212° Leadership is turning up the heat all over our city by going the extra degree!  A true teacher at heart, Ron’s methods of educating youth by pulling out of them their inherent greatness has given 212° youth a “New Code” to live by.  Sadly believing the lie society places on at-risk youth, one of our focuses lately has been on youth tearing off these false labels.  We believe that they are “Greater than the words they hear, greater than the things they fear, it’s not clear now, but one day they’ll be able to break free and tear of the LABEL!”  To join the movement, first ask yourself… Can you take the HEAT?  

Hope for the Holidays Recap!

Christmas 2010 was our 2nd Annual Hope for the Holidays.  Thanks to the extremely generous hearts of donors and volunteers, we were able to provide Christmas gifts and food for needy families in South Bend!   Sonnyvilla staff and caring volunteers broke out into teams and spent an entire afternoon shopping together. The next day, we held a special dinner party for all donors, youth, and volunteers at The Oaks at Southpaw. In the gorgeous mansion decorated for the holidays, Sonnyvilla youth and volunteers wrapped each present as well as organized food boxes.  The youth also made Christmas Cards and decorated cookies for each family thinking they were doing all the work for other people in their neighborhood! Wow were they surprised the next day to find out that they would actually be included in getting gifts and food for their own families as well!  The night ended with an amazing family dinner, fun, and games! 

Hope for the Holidays!!!

DONATIONS CAN ALSO BE MAILED TO SONNYVILLA P.O. BOX 717 SOUTH BEND IN 46624.

Legacy Partners Present 212° Leadership Program

If there is one thing we have studied with our emerging youth leaders, it is that there is always room for continual growth! We therefore seek to partner with many different organizations and programs because we believe that our youth will not receive EVERYTHING they need for character and leadership development in one place! With this at the forefront, we are proud to endorse Americas Rising Stars curriculum this upcoming winter. Classes will be composed of 3-4 hours and will be held twice monthly for a total of 7 sessions.  The Rising Stars curriculum will enhance going the ‘extra degree’ in the 212° Principle that is often the difference between a common student and a rare 212° Leader!  A few of the topics we will be discussing are as follows: Attitude is Everything, Goal Setting for Success, Turning Solutions into Action, Leading Others, Establishing Priorities, etc.

With over 20 students on our radar for this exciting opportunity in the rare 212° process, the upfront investment of $500 per student found us searching for $10,000 to invest in the future leaders of our community. Yet we have been blessed again and are honored to announce the very generous donations by 2 businesses in our community of $5,000 each to fully fund this initiative.  

This is going to be another great asset for our youth, they will be able to earn money towards housing and college scholarships as well as summer camp, and most importantly they get a chance to become the successful leaders God created them to be! 

Fall Party and Retreat!

In October, Sonnyvilla laid a very important piece in its future foundation. We held our first 212° Retreat to honor our 212 Intern Leaders (2^nd level in the 212° leadership process)! All 8 interns along with 5 Adult Life Coaches headed out Sunday evening October 31^st to The Oaks at SouthPaw Farms, in South Bend. This 75 acre farm that was once a famous Cubs baseball pitcher’s home, is now being used to serve Non-Profits as a business retreat facility! We enjoyed playing on the basketball courts, the playgrounds, roasting hotdogs around a campfire, and enjoyed the breathtaking view overlooking the Olympic size swimming pool, with built in hot tub and Waterfall, not to mention the Amazing 4 level home itself!  We believe that if we expose our youth to “world class” environments, we can in turn, expect “world class” behavior and performance. They felt like royalty for the next 24 hours as we stayed the night in this wonderful and peaceful place

The retreat wasn’t all glamour, fun and games though. We had lecture time, with hard lessons for the youth to internalize. We had personal quiet and reflection time, did team building exercises, ate wonderful meals, laughed and cried together. It was a great 1^st retreat!

The retreats are where we hope to promote the possibilities (1^st level) to interns! We promoted 3 possibilities to interns at this past retreat! What a huge ceremony time this is for our youth, and it is celebrated with their closest team members and leaders around them! We thank God for great partners that can team up with Sonnyvilla in many different ways to reach our youth!