Hark!: The Holiday Spirit Has Arrived.

It can be hard to catch the Holiday Spirit in Florida.

If it's not freezing (which for Floridians...that could mean a frigid 50 degrees), then it's common to hear "It doesn't really feel like the holidays".

This melancholy feeling plagued our staff and many of us shook it off as "just another year".

And then...a holiday miracle happened:

The News-Press ran a story on one of our Q families that is homeless. The story gave an inside look of two boys, a mother, and a young girl who humbly requested the reunion of her parents for Christmas. When further pushed to describe a more tangible Christmas wish, she simply requested a pencil. 

Courtesy of www.news-press.com 

A pencil. 

This story brought to tears to many of the readers that read this Christmas wish, including our staff members. 

We were overwhelmed with emotion because we were reminded of the realities that many of our children face. Daily, we see these children. We hug them, we teach them, we redirect them, we protect them...we love them. For many of the students we serve, Quality Life Center is a safe haven. It is a place to be a child. 

Behind their smiles, these children are often facing hardships. Often times, it is hard for us to even fathom what our kids could and are facing. 

That's why this holiday season was incredibly special to us. 

There was a plethora of love from the community. Donors not only wanted to give to the family, but also to our children. Our children received toys, school supplies...even gingerbread kits! We are thankful for all of the companies and organizations that contributed to both the Ruwinski family and the rest of the Quality Life Center kids! 

Did we mention our teens also conducted a toy drive for Golisano Children's Hospital? As people were giving to Quality Life Center's children, Quality Life Center children were thinking of how they could do their part in giving back. It was truly beautiful to watch our children create, plan and implement this project. 

A sense of love is felt throughout "The Q" on a daily basis. But today, it was overwhelming. 

As we welcomed students to the Holiday Room...

 As we celebrated the accomplishments of those children who exceeded their Read-A-Thon goal...

As we watched overwhelmed students make careful present decisions...

And as we watched students leave with smiles that spanned from cheek to cheek...

 

We couldn't help but welcome the Holiday Spirit into Quality Life Center today. 

The holidays for us are less about receiving and more about giving. It is about giving our time, our efforts and our love to the children whom we serve. 

This holiday season and every day, we give children the gift of opportunity. 


The gift of opportunity allows children to develop self-confidence, discover their inner strengths and use them to enhance the community. We see this through our teens in our Teen Program, who used their individual strengths to create, plan and implement a toy drive for Golisano Children's Hospital. They made us very proud! 

So...

Although there's no Winter Wonderland here...

We are still celebrating the joy of community and the joy of giving, as we celebrate the Holiday Season. 

Happy Holidays!




Contributor: Shari Armstrong
sarmstrong@qlcswfl.org

Quality Life Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization transforming the community by developing the potential of at-risk youth, and instilling values of discipline, integrity and self-sufficiency. To learn more about Quality Life Center, to sign up for the next tour date, or to make a donation, call 239.334.2797 or visit http://www.qualitylifecenter.org.

"No one person, group or agency can do it alone."

Einstein and Mandela

Albert Einstein didn't speak until he was four years old and didn't read until age seven. 
His teachers believed he was mentally handicapped. 

But Einstein just had a different way of thinking. 

He went on to win the Nobel Prize in physics.


We are proud of the children in our program at Quality Life Center. We push them. We know
they are beautiful, smart and talented, each in their own way. We are proud to note their gains:

· 86% of Quality Life Center summer camp children and youth increased their math skills or maintained an A or B grade level.

· 88% of Quality Life Center summer camp children and youth increased their reading skills or maintained an A or B grade level.

· 83% of youth who completed the afterschool and/or summer camp program increased their knowledge and demonstration of positive behavior, leadership and social skills.

We try to remember children learn differently – Einstein thought in pictures - when one
approach does not work, we need to try another. We hope they know that when we correct
them, it comes from a place of love and compassion. We want them to be strong, confident adults who are comfortable in any situation, and among any person they encounter.

A wise person once said one should strive to have strength and confidence in order to “walk in the world without fear, so your mind is free to learn new things.” Ok, QLC Executive Director/Black Belt Muhammed said that during a martial arts class. But the idea translates to a variety of contexts.


Exposure. Demystifying the world. How else will a child know if she or he has a passion for business, inventing, finance, science, communication, fighting for justice?

That child walking down the street may be the next Oprah Winfrey, the next Chris Gardner, the next Nelson Mandela.

Every child must be nurtured, to be allowed to find their interests and pursue them.

Nelson Mandela’s father died when he was 9 years old. He was expelled from college for
fighting a system he believed was wrong.


We owe it to our children to work together to make opportunities a possibility. 

In some ways, our community has made great strides. In other ways, the needle has not moved. Our children need more – and higher quality – education. Our community needs more resources: more and better job opportunities. The long-term health of our citizens needs to be a priority.

No one person, group or agency can do it alone.











Quality Life Center is hosting a free Kwanzaa celebration on December 27th. Everyone is invited. 

One of the principles of Kwanzaa is Umoja  (Unity). 
We are all connected. Like a tree, we may only see the other leaves on our branch on a daily basis, but we are connected to the same trunk, and we are all nurtured from the same roots. Our health and well-being is interconnected.

Exercise your strength. Your contribution is important. You can participate in so many ways:

-Volunteer at your child’s school
- Prioritize reading to or with your children for 20 minutes daily
- Assist your elderly neighbor
- Walk dogs 
- Socialize cats at the nearest shelter
- Offer to help a cause you believe in. 

It will make you feel better, and you will be contributing to a stronger, healthier community that we can all take pride in.

Albert Einstein and Nelson Mandela faced challenges. But they both had families and communities who supported them. It gave them the strength to stand tall, believe in themselves, and soar.

Who will you help rise?

Contributor: Jan Sommer
jsommer@qlcswfl.org

Quality Life Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization transforming the community by developing the potential of at-risk youth, and instilling values of discipline, integrity and self-sufficiency. To learn more about Quality Life Center, to sign up for the next tour date, or to make a donation, call 239.334.2797 or visit http://www.qualitylifecenter.org.

Conservation 20/20 Controversy Spurs Good Deed by Dunbar Teens

Youth in Quality Life Center’s Teen program joined forces with Edison Sailing Center to build skills while helping the environment on Veteran’s Day.

Recognizing the passion of those behind Conservation 20/20, Quality Life Center students did their part to enhance the environment by conducting a trash clean-up on Caloosahatchee River islands on Veteran’s Day. 

Teens from Quality Life Center’s LITE program, which stands for Leaders in Training of Excellence, attended a meeting of the Lee County Commissioners earlier this year which discussed funding for youth programs.  The possibility of utilizing funds from Conservation 20/20 was discussed (and ultimately rejected). It got the students thinking about how they can do their part to improve the environment.  Through the generosity of the Edison Sailing Center, the students soon received their answer.

The director of the Edison Sailing Center, Ross Webb, along with members of his team have been instrumental in providing sailing opportunities to students of Quality Life Center for nearly two years. As students learn to kayak, sail and powerboat, they are also able to overcome their fears, increase their self-confidence and learn to work as a team.

Students paddled kayaks provided by ESC out to the islands between the Edison and Midpoint bridges where they gathered everything from old crab traps to cigarette butts and a whole lot of plastic.  

 Four hours later they paddled back to the sailing school with bags of trash and a sense of accomplishment.

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Quality Life Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization transforming the community by developing the potential of at-risk youth, and instilling values of discipline, integrity and self-sufficiency. To learn more about Quality Life Center, to sign up for the next tour date, or to make a donation, call 239.334.2797 or visit http://www.qualitylifecenter.org.

Open House 2013

From friends of "The Q" to first-time visitors, Quality Life Center of Southwest Florida, Inc.was the place to be on Wednesday, November 6, 2013. 

To tell the truth...we were proud. The work that our staff put into this event was truly evident. 

Further, our teen students made us so proud. 

There is truly something special about children -perhaps we should respectfully call them 'teenagers'- who can capture the attention of business people from a simple "Good Evening" and self-introduction. Our students exhibited such confidence and riveting conversation that we could not help but mumble to each other "Did you see __? They're doing great!". 
This feeling of pride stems from the joy that we experience when we realize our work is assisting these children in resisting "the odds".

 We believe that equipping our students with academic, artistic and social skills heightens their chances of success and decreases the likelihood of them becoming another "statistic". 


The transformational work that we are doing within the community is vital. From a very early age, we are teaching children how to be self-sufficient. It is a collective effort that requires staff who operate at a level of excellence, students who are willing to be challenged and a community that believes in its children. 

Our Open House gave the public and ourselves as staff a chance to marvel at the work being done. It became even clearer to us just how important this building -this catalyst of change- is to the enhancement of the Dunbar community. 


As we aim to attain the necessary funds needed to sustain our programs, we are grateful for this moment of encouragement. Thank you to all of the friends -old and new- of "The Q" who came out to celebrate our ten year anniversary within our building and our 22+ years of service in the Dunbar community. 

Your support is what will take us into another 22 more years of transformation. 

Quality Life Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization transforming the community by developing the potential of at-risk youth, and instilling values of discipline, integrity and self-sufficiency. To learn more about Quality Life Center, to sign up for the next tour date, or to make a donation, call 239.334.2797 or visit http://www.qualitylifecenter.org.

Overcoming a Fear: A Message from a QLC LITE Teen Student

A QLC L.I.T.E Program Teen wrote this about her camping experience. It's a great read!

Nobody could understand why I was crying. 

Within 15 minutes, my emotions had circulated among fear, self-confidence and accomplishment. 

I was filled with fear when I first saw the rock-climbing wall at camp. But, I had to do it. 

Once I had my gear on, I started climbing. It only took about 10 seconds before fear took over my thoughts. “I can’t do this!”, I yelled down to my instructors. “YES YOU CAN!”, they yelled back. 

I started climbing – one foot, one arm, one foot, one arm. My instructors gave me no time to consider the fear that wanted to take over my body. “Keep going, Khadijah! Lift that left arm and pull your body up. “ Just a few minutes later, I pulled my body up only to find that I had reached the top. I looked down and could not believe how quickly I got to the top! But, I still wasted no time in getting back down. I don’t remember much about coming back down except for when my feet touched the ground. Immediately, I felt tears roll down my face. The instructors embraced me. “You did it! Great, great job”. I just kept crying. Had I really just proven to myself that I could overcome a fear? Yes, I did! I was so proud of myself!

Every day we face fear and every day we must decide if we are going to allow it to conquer us.  I also realized that a good support team does not hurt either. My counselors helped me to believe that I could make it. They believed in me which made me believe in me.

Regardless of what your fear is, please know that you are bigger than it. If you’re looking for support, then please know that I believe in you – just how my counselors at Quality Life Center and the instructors at Boys Scouts of America believed in me.

More camping pictures can be found here.