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Community Outreach
ALA Tulsa supports ALA's mission of
representing professional legal management and managers to the legal
community and to the community at large.
"Fall Festival Fun!"
The Tulsa ALA Chapter chose to provide a fall
festival for the children of the Laura Dester Center (Department of Human
Services), which is a 24-hour stopping point between troubled homes and
foster care. For Halloween, we provided an avenue for them to create
decorations while providing some camaraderie with our members and their
peers by providing several games and a photo opp! We set up craft areas for
the children’s involvement. Craft stations offered Dryer Sheet Ghosts & Cat
Bags, Halloween Banners, Q-tip Skeletons, Sparkling Spiders, Pumpkin
Garland, Wooden Cats and Jack-o-lantern painting and Pumpkin and Cookie
Decorating. One of our members owns a Harley Davidson motorcycle which he
brought and allowed the children to have their pictures taken on or with.
The children (of all ages) hopped on the Harley and received a Polaroid
picture of themselves “riding” on the bike. Games consisted of musical
chairs (using “Halloween” type music), and a bean bag toss. Prizes were
awarded to all participants. A highlight for all of the children was face
painting by a member’s husband. He created a piece of art on each child’s
face! One of our business partners provided bags filled with candy and
various trinkets. The children used these bags to hold their finished craft
items too.
ALA Tulsa received a
certificate for its participation in ALA's
8th Annual Community Challenge Weekend - October 2006.
Christmas Families
Every year, ALA Tulsa adopts families at
Christmas. These families are typically chosen through a school-related
situation. We provide support to families who find themselves in difficult
situations during the holidays by shopping for, wrapping and delivering
Christmas presents.
Past Years' Community Outreach:
Operation "Welcome to Tulsa"
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ALA Tulsa once again joined with other ALA chapters
across the U.S. and around the world and participated in ALA's annual
Community Challenge Weekend. In the past, we have been involved in a
variety of activities; yard work for the elderly, collecting "HUGS" (hats,
underwear, gloves and socks) for school children and various projects at
Anderson Elementary including last year's project of painting a mural.
This year's project, Operation "Welcome to Tulsa" supported victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
With the devastation left by the hurricanes so
prevalent on all of our minds, the goal of the Community Outreach Committee
was to help welcome, through emotional, financial and physical support,
displaced families into the Tulsa community. The committee selected
two families and provided them with warm clothing, cleaning supplies, a
computer, furniture and a gift certificate for other needed household items
as well as an ear to listen when needed. Although still undecided as
to whether or not Tulsa will remain their permanent home, both families have
expressed their gratitude and amazement at all of the help from ALA Tulsa
and support from the entire Tulsa community.
ALA Tulsa received a
letter and
certificate for its participation in ALA's
7th Annual Community Challenge Weekend - October 2005.
Anderson Elementary School - Beginning in 2001, ALA Tulsa
adopted the second grade class at Anderson, an at-risk school in Tulsa.
In the following years, we continued this partnership and moved with the children as they changed
grades. Throughout these years, 2001-2005, ALA Tulsa enjoyed working with Anderson
in a variety of ways: (1) facilitating donations of
warm clothing and school supplies, hosting class parties, rewarding school
attendance, providing Christmas "grab bags" and Summer Fun Notebooks for
each child in the adopted grade and painting a large mural in the school's
hallway;
(2) providing a channel through which various law firms could make direct
contributions to the school (computers, desks and supplies); and (3)
providing additional hands-on educational opportunities, i.e., mobile
aquarium visit and planting flowers in school flower bed.
Anderson is considered a "low-performing"
school in the state because more than 30 percent of its students have scored
below satisfactory levels in reading, English and math in the past years.
However, in September of 2004, the Oklahoma State Department of Education
released its Academic Performance Index scores stating that Anderson was one
of the two schools showing "the greatest improvements among elementary
schools. The API score for Anderson is 1,016, compared to 360 last year."
(See Ex. 1.)
In June of 2005, our adopted class graduated from
Anderson Elementary and we wish the best to each one as they continue their
education.
Photos
2006 Fall Festival Fun!
2005 Anderson Elementary Graduation
2004 Anderson Elementary Community
Challenge Weekend
2004 Anderson Elementary Perfect
Attendance Awards
2003 Anderson Elementary Community Challenge Weekend
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