Holiday Toy Drive

The Masquerade Theatre joins CIS for a Holiday Toy Drive. Please bring an unwrapped new toy/gift card to one of the Masquerade Theatre's perfomances of the Musical "A Christmas Carol."

Performances are as follows:

November 20, Friday, 8 p.m.

November 21, Saturday, 8 p.m.

November 22, Sunday, 2 p.m.

November 27, Friday, 8 p.m.

November 28, Saturday, 8 p.m.

November 29, Sunday, 2 p.m.

2nd Annual Holiday Card Contest Winners

This year is Communities In Schools Houston's (CIS) 2nd Annual Holiday Card Contest and we are excited to announce that we will have a select number of cards available for sale. The contest was open to elementary, middle and high school CIS students. We picked two elementary and two middle school students as our winners. Winners receive a $15 gift card and their art will be made into our annual CIS Holiday Card which gets sent out to over 500 partners , and will be available to others to order. The winners can also be found on http://www.cantdoitalone.org/, CIS' MySpace & Facebook pages. Congratulations to the following winners:

Artwork by: Mitzy, McNamara Elementary School

Artwork by: Mike, JR Harris Elementary School

Artwork by: Benjamin, Dowling Middle School

Artwork by: Jorge, Dowling Middle School

Welcome Back!

On the first day of school Atherton Elementary students got a nice surprise after lunch. Every student received school supplies specific to their grade level and took pictures with the CIS Smart Car. The school supplies were donated by the Christian Community Service Center and were given out with the help of CIS Project Manager, Karren Edwards and school principal Dr. Lemons. We hope everyone at Atherton had a great first day of school!

The Smart Car also made a visit to Frost Elementary on the first week of school to welcome the new principal, Ms. Christine Winn. A few students got the chance to take pictures with the Smart Car as well as receive some essential school supplies. CIS welcomes Ms. Winn to Frost Elementary. CIS thanks Dr. Lemons and Ms. Winn for welcoming CIS onto their campuses!

Back To School Happy Hour

Help us stuff the smart car!!!

Join CIS from 5:30-7 p.m. on Thursday, August 20th
at The Coffee Groundz for a Back to School Happy Hour.

CIS can't do it alone! Help our students start the school year with the supplies they need. Help us stuff the smart car by bringing a donation of school supplies
and you will be entered in a drawing to win 2 Astros tickets for the Sept. 13th game.

CIS Night at the Alley Theatre

CIS Houston invites you to join us at "CIS Night at the Alley Theatre." Come see Sherlock Holmes and The Crucifer of Blood at the Alley Theatre for three nights in July and take advantage of our special ticket offer.

DATE: Wednesday, July 15 (Opening Night)
Thursday, July 16
Sunday, July 19
TIME: 7:30 p.m. for all nights
LOCATION: 615 Texas Avenue Houston, TX 77002
COST: Ticket prices range from $19-$49, which is a discount of 10%-16%.

Two murders and a treasure of jewels lead to a blood oath and an uncanny mystery that the master detective must solve before more fall victim. Amid fog-shrouded London, Holmes and Watson confront danger and an ingenious villain intent on making a curse come true. This exotic and thrilling mystery driven by greed, deceit and murder is recommended for teens and adults.

To seal the deal, purchase your tickets in person, online at www.alleytheatre.org or call 713-228-8421. Please enter promotion code: CANTDOITALONE. Please do the following to purchase online.

• Go to www.alleytheatre.org
• Click (Buy Tickets) in the upper left corner
• Click (Click here for promotions)
• Input (CANTDOITALONE) in the (Enter Promotion Code) field; then click GO
• Pick a date; click on the title
• Register/Create an account
• Enter the number of tickets; then ADD TO CART
  

CIS Day at the Ballpark

The Houston Astros are honored to host Communities In Schools Day at the Ballpark on Sunday, September 13th. Celebrate this special night by inviting family and friends for a night to remember!

This day game will take place between the Astros & Pirates at 1:05 p.m. There is special pricing ranging from $12-$39. Log on to https://oss.ticketmaster.com/html/go.htmI?l=EN&t=astros&o=6051771&g=14 *Create an Account and use Special Password CISH to make your purchase.

For more information and to view the flyer click the "Download Resources" button at the bottom right hand corner of our home page.

Can't Do It Alone PSA

Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) has a new television Public Service Announcement (PSA). This PSA is centered around our Can't Do It Alone campaign, which discusses that schools, parents and teachers can not do it alone. Below is the public service announcement created by Love Advertising, and featuring our students from Lamar High School and three of our wonderful area superintendents. The spot will begin airing soon, as will Spanish and radio versions.

Communities In Schools Houston Observes

Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) is part of the Community of Respect initiative, a No Place for Hate program of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Community of Respect was developed for organizations to engender respect for individual and group differences while challenging prejudice and discrimination.

CIS will be conducting activities throughout the year to celebrate different heritages and backgrounds. On the 19th of this month, we observe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. King was the chief spokesman of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968.

CIS encourages everyone to appreciate all kinds of diversity and to stand up against all forms of prejudice and discrimination so that we can help create a world that is a "Community of Respect."

by - Heather Martin, Development Associate

CIS Celebrates 30 Years

To start off the new year, Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) celebrates its 3oth Anniversary. CIS began in 1979 with one program in the Acres Homes community at MC Williams Middle School. Today, we are gearing up to celebrate 30 years of serving Houston's at-risk youth on 115 campuses in five school districts. CIS can't do it alone and we would like to thank and acknowledge more than 300 partners who help make our services possible. We would also like to thank all the teachers, parents, and volunteers who support us in helping kids stay in school and prepare for life.

As CIS commemorates its thirtieth year of serving Houston's youth, we look back and reflect on all that has taken place over the past three decades. We want to thank you all for taking part in this journey with us and invite you to celebrate with us. If you have a special CIS memory, please share it with us! You can submit your CIS story by clicking on the Contact Us link on our website www.cishouston.org. Thank you so much for your contributions to CIS. We are looking forward to a year full of memories, celebrations and service!

River Oaks & Texans Event

Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) students at Foster Elementary were grateful for their relationships with both the Houston Texans and River Oaks Baptist School this holiday season. Both long-time partners of CIS, these organizations went above and beyond to make sure those kids had everything they wanted and needed.

The Texans donated brand new bicycles to all of the Foster CIS first and second graders, and spent a few minutes talking, playing, and posing for pictures with the kids. The 8th grade class at River Oaks Baptist really wanted a more hands-on experience where they really got to interact with the kids, so they invited them all over to the school for lunch and a Christmas party where they all received gifts.

CIS would like to thank the Texans and River Oaks Baptist for all of their support!

To view pictures from the events, please visit www.cantdoitalone.org.

Raise the Boot & Santa Sacks Success

This weekend Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) held its Third Annual "Raise the Boot" Drive with the help of the Community Volunteer Fire Department. The fundraiser took place from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008 at the intersection of Bellaire Blvd. & Hwy. 6.

With the help of this fundraiser, CIS was able to raise more than $11,000 to provide gifts for over 750 at-risk youth in the Alief ISD area. CIS could not have done it without the help of our volunteers. There were close to 40 fire fighters and nine CIS staff to help with donations. CIS would also like to acknowledge the following for their support: Nicole Broadhurst and the Domino's Pizza on Bellaire for donating 10 pizzas for the VFD lunch, DiMassi's Mediterranean Buffet on Bellaire and Hwy 6 for donating to the VFD Raise the Boot Drive and to all the people passing by that day that donated.

Also thanks to everyone that made a donation to Santa Sacks, CIS was able to make their goal of providing over 2,000 students with at least one gift this holiday season. A special thanks to American Art Resources, Paul Friedman, M.D. and Nancy Flores, Lowes, The Platform Group Gallery, and Pat Sullivan and his group.

by - Heather Martin, Development Associate

Campaign for a White House Office on Children and Youth

The children of today are the future of tomorrow! It is very important that children have someone to guide them and prepare them for life. The mission of Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) is to help kids stay in school and prepare for life. It is time for others to get involved in supporting our nation's young people because their future is your future too.

Last week, Connect for Kids (CFK) had a special edition newsletter that raised the question of what will the transition of the new president mean for children and youth. This edition discussed an effort to ensure that children and youth issues remain a focal point of the new administration. This effort is called a White House Office for Children and Youth.

You can learn more about this initiative by going to http://whitehouseofficeonchildrenandyouth.org/.

by - Heather Martin, Development Associate

Third Annual "Raise the Boot" Drive

This year Communities In Schools Houston (CIS) is teaming up with the Community Volunteer Fire Department (CVFD) for the Third Annual "Raise the Boot" Drive fundraiser. This fundraiser supports CIS' 11th Annual Santa Sacks project, which provides more than 2,000 at-risk CIS students with at least one gift for the holidays.

CIS and CVFD staff will be at the intersection of Highway 6 & Bellaire Blvd taking donations this Saturday, Dec. 13 from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Every year, thousands of children in the Houston area do not receive anything during the holiday season. The goal of the “Raise the Boot” drive is to help reach CIS’ goal of providing over 2,000 students with gifts.

We hope that everyone will come out and support CIS and the kids of Houston!



by - Heather Martin, Development Associate

It's that time of year again

It's that time of year again where the end of the year is nearing and so is Christmas. This is the busiest time of year for CIS. We are working on our 2007/2008 Annual Report as well as receiving donations for our annual "Santa Sacks" project. This year marks our 11th year of making sure our CIS students receive at least one gift this holiday season. This year our goal is to have gifts for 2,000 children.

Today I will be working on gathering recent success stories to share in our Annual Report and hopefully going shopping to buy items for our "Santa Sacks" project.

What are you doing today to help your cause?


Heather Martin

Back to Blogging

CIS has returned to blogging! Yes, it has been a while. Actually, it's been a whole year! We hope that with this blog we can have a discussion with our community about different ways to help the ones we serve. I hope that you will share with us what you are doing to help your cause and any ideas that you may have for us.

So today I am working on our monthly e-newsletter, which this month is dedicated to giving thanks to all of our supporters. CIS can't do it alone! With the help of our supporters, we are able to help kids stay in school and prepare for life. As I learned yesterday at the 2008 Power Tools for Nonprofits annual conference, our donors should be our primary customer. CIS hopes that all our supporters know how much we appreciate them.

What are you doing today to help your cause?