News From Our House

Greetings!

Happy October! To the baseball fans, Red October was fun, until it wasn't. We were thankful to have lots of fun during our in-house United Way Carnival of PURPOSE. Several staff members won a variety of great prizes, and a few even won a day off! Our thanks to Wanda Barrett from United Way for Joining us.

Click the winners and organizers to see more of the fun

Now that our staff have given, we're gearing up for your support for our Fall Campaign. We're thrilled to share that the Jessie Ball duPont Fund will be doing a 1:1 direct match throughout November and December for all online donations of up to $500 each, and a total match of $12,500. There is no limit to the number of donations per individual.

With this being our 140^th year of service, we are asking for your support to help us raise $140,000 for the campaign. In the coming weeks, our campaign materials will highlight, Anthony (one of our many Success Stories). He is a senior at William Penn High School, and one of our Youth Leaders. Anthony is truly growing success!

Please read on for more Success Stories, along with highlights from the last Open Streets event and Westside Farmers Market of the year; hear from some volunteers who helped prepare more than 1,000 poinsettias for our upcoming Annual Sale, as well as other events and activities.

Sincerely,

Paul F. Calistro, Jr.

Executive Director

Success Stories

Congratulations to two of our family members, Sarah Lester (President & CEO, Cornerstone West CDC/West Side Grows Together), and our Board Member, Ivan Thomas (Executive Director, DETV), for being selected among the Inaugural Catalysts Together Class, through the Longwood Foundation.

We congratulate Chris Boozer (one of our current Launcher students), who recently won the 11th Annual Emerging Enterprise Center - Startup Business Incubator Swim with the Sharks pitch competition, for his company, The Trash Porters, along with the $10,000 Grand Prize, provided by New Castle County's Office of Economic Development’s NCC Innovates!

Check out Launcher's October newsletter and how they are supporting business growth.

Volunteers In Our House

Our thanks to a few lucky volunteers (Patty Nerwinski, Suzanne Long, Pete LeRoy, and Ujjval Shah) for playing a new game we like to call, "Ring Around the Poinsettias!"

They donated time at our Bright Spot Farm and placed plastic rings around 1,400 poinsettias, so the flowers will sprout straight and tall. Click the group photo to hear from a few of our volunteers.

We will soon begin taking orders for our stock of 3,000 poinsettias (November 6th online, and November 27th in-person). Not only will we have these beautiful plants in traditional red and white, but also in specialty colors like Princettia Dark Pink, Christmas Mouse Red, Marblestar, Ice Crystal Tapestry, Viking Cinnamon.

West Side Grows Together: Our monthly Open Streets event concluded the season with a fun-filled event on Baynard Blvd. The community enjoyed a half-mile stretch of activities, which included a variety of vendors, entertainment, health-screenings, food trucks, and plenty of people riding bicycles or walking their dogs while enjoying a a beautiful, crisp, fall afternoon. Click the video to take a walk down the Open Street.

Our weekly Westside Farmers Market at Cool Spring Park wrapped up its season of weekly events with a spectacular finale, "Local is Better: Craft & Vintage Market" hosted in-part by our friends Lucky Shot Coffee Company. Click the sign to see the photo gallery.

View WSGT's newsletter and discover more events and activities.

Stand By Me: Parents and students at Mount Pleasant High School learned about paying for college, financial aid, and the upcoming FAFSA deadline.

Youth Development Department (YDD): Members of our Above 'Xpectations' (AX) Track Team toured Villanova University (possibly their future alma mater). Click the photo to hear their thoughts on the experience, as well as Coach Antwain's perspective on the importance of such visits.

Since 2017, AX has visited 110 colleges / universities in 23 states & Washington D.C.

Education & Employment Department (EED): Students in our GED program recently visited Washington D.C. and explored the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, and saw Henry the elephant, among other sites. The goal is to to provide more of these out-of-class opportunities, to further enrich their education journey.