On Thursday, April 28, 15 scholars from the DREAM Alive program visited American Structurepoint to learn about careers in engineering and architecture. Led by Brandon Hoopingarner and Brandon Farley, American Structurepoint volunteers coached and advised as the students used LEGOS to design and build a bus stop shelter for the Town of Speedway that would meet their specifications. Brittany Heidenreich played the role of town manager, giving out information both informally as she walked around the room and in a formal meeting. After the scholars worked in teams to build race-themed, sustainable bus shelters that would protect the maximum possible number of people from the elements, Liz Kokosinski presented information on different kinds of engineering and design careers and the economic benefits of getting a college education. Meanwhile, some of the staff judged the scholars’ entries, then wrapped up the event by announcing the winners and debriefing the scholars on how submittals could have been improved. The DREAM Alive leaders were very impressed with the presentation, noting that our event kept seventh and eighth graders, who had already had a busy day at school, focused and on-task for almost 2 hours. Many thanks to Rick Blevins, Antra Boyd, Loren Shores, Derek Urban, Matt Nichols, and Nick Alexander for their help in preparing and leading this event. Previous years’ presentations have resulted in summer interns from the DREAM Alive program as scholars’ interests were sparked, and we hope to see some of this year’s group back again in a few years for their own internships.

50 @ 50 Update:

We had ten new participants sign up for payroll contributions for the Community Service Project. That’s great progress, but we need many more to get us to our goal. Participating is easy and almost painless – see Michele Collins or Ben Braun for details.

Where Your Contributions Go

In April, the committee made the following distributions:

• $5,000  Dream Alive contribution for Q2
• $500 Mid-Ohio Food Bank contribution coinciding w/ Columbus Day of Service
• $500 Gleaners Food Bank contribution coinciding w/ Indy Day of Service
• $1,000 Morning Light contribution in support of their mission to care for the terminally ill and seniors in need of health, wellness and end-of-life care
• $500 LifeCare Alliance in support of our weekly Meals on Wheels deliveries by Columbus staff members