The Holiday Season at Martha's Table

The Holiday Season is a very special time of year at Martha's Table. The community is focused on helping those in need over the holidays. Even in these rough economic times, we have had an overwhelming amount of support with people contacting us to volunteer and donate in unique ways.
Local neighbors and businesses have helped in many different ways this year and holiday season. 1000's of volunteers have volunteered their time. Staff from PricewaterhouseCoopers volunteer at Martha's Table every Thursday and really helped out during our Winter Holiday Community Dinner and Pantry Thursday's this year. Many individuals have energized their offices to coordinate food drives for Martha's Table's emergency food services. Schools and churches have been collecting hats, gloves, scarves and coats for our clothing distribution center, Martha's Outfitters. Many families are volunteering in their homes by making peanut butter & jelly sandwiches or meat & cheese sandwiches and bringing them into Martha's Table.

Our Children's programs are also celebrating this holiday season. Just last night they performed a play, Christmas Around the World, for their Christmas Pageant.

Recently, Office of Human Resources Management, Benefits, Medical and Worklife Division came to Martha's Table with gifts for all the children in our Daycare program. Pictured above, the children are having an early Christmas thanks to all the generous staff.

The Washington Post put out an article today, highlighting corporations that stepped up to help the neediest in a rough 2009. Note the photo: a longtime volunteer, Linda, sorts linens in Martha's Outfitters.
The Washington Post

We thank everyone who has participated in helping the community this year. Even though so many have generously donated we still need help. We are always in need of non-perishable food items. There is a list posted on our website in the wishlist section. wwwmarthastable.org

We are also in need of volunteer drivers for McKenna's Wagon. Every evening, McKenna's Wagon rolls out to 3 different locations around DC. We could not do this without the help of our dedicated volunteer drivers. Drivers must make a 6 month commitment and have a valid drivers license. The vans leave at 5pm and return around 6:30.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer driver, please contact:
Kimberly Lyons
Development and Volunteer Manager
Martha's Table
202.328.6608 x 232
klyons@marthastable.org

"writing takes the boring out of Sundays"

Friday was the First Annual Career Day for the Elementary and Bridge Programs at Martha's Table. We had guests from all different types of careers from a lawyer, a banker, a writer to firefighters. I met with a 3 children from the Elementary and Bridge Program to discuss their favorite part of career day. Pictured is Alexander, Bryan and Liliana, here Liliana is describing her story Ghost Haunting.

They all expressed that they love to write, so I asked them a simple question...
Why do you write?

"I write to encourage myself to be the best I can be and to express my feelings. I also write to inspire people to do good things. I write when I am lonely and have nothing to do. Also the reason I write is to make people laugh".

- Alexander Perkins, age 9, 3rd grade. Author of the story, The Enormous Monster.

"The reason I write is to express my feelings. Many of my stories are based on true stories. My stories are a memory of my great-grandmother, elderly people talk about their experiences. I tell stories in honor of them. The ghost stories are very fast to write, and the story forms in my head as if it was waiting for me. In my way I think that writing takes the boring out of Sundays. Novels are my way of taking time to create many characters that are my inventions."

- Liliana Campos, age 10, 4th grade. Author of the story, Ghost Haunting.


The children were also very excited about seeing the firetruck and meeting firefighters.

Thanks to all the professionals that took time out of their busy schedule to show the children their potential.

This is for all the Mother's out there!

Martha's Table honored our Daycare and After-School program mothers this past Friday. The celebration included skits, songs and poems.
Here is a song that Classroom A (pre-school) performed for the mothers.


Liliana Campos in our bridge program recited this poem to all the mothers during our luncheon.

Someone

By: Elizabeth Jones
Someone meets me every day when I com in from school or play
Someone smiles and hugs me tight
Someone prays with me at night
Someone has a great big jar where all the nicest cookies are
Someone hears when call
Someone helps me when I fall
Someone always has a kiss -
Now who could be as nice as this?

Who could it be? I am sure you know
It is my mother who loves me so.

Rubber eggs, moldy bread, exploding volcanoes, crystals and more!

One of the great things about working at Martha's Table is the fact that I never know what the day will bring. Tuesday, I happened to be a judge for our 1st Annual Science Fair here at Martha's Table. As a judge for the science fair I evaluated over 16 science projects and found that the kids had outdone themselves. All of them had hypothesized, researched, tested and concluded their own project. They were willing and excited to explain their experiments to us and that was the best part. At each project they were waiting patiently to explain exactly how they had come to their conclusion.

Some projects stood out:

• There was the Lemon Battery, apparently lemons can power a light bulb for 5 days! I found out that the secret ingredient was citrus.
• Ellese was very proud of her "Amazing Egg". Now I know that if you submerge an egg in vinegar it will pop from the acid and when submerged in oil, it turns into rubber!
• One student explained that the fizz in soda had to do with the amount of phosphoric acid. Cola's fizz more than Ginger Ale.

Please check out the slide show above to see photos of this event. I am so proud of the Children and Bridge programs for researching and displaying their projects so well.

Good Job!

Kim

Puppet Show!!

Today the Children and Bridge Program enjoyed a special guest from the Blue Sky Puppet Theatre. Here are some pics and clips from this afternoon.

When the Cops Come a Knockin'

The children in our after-school programs are on spring break! That means all day programming at Martha's Table. Today the kids put their dancing shoes on and rocked out to the DC Police Department band "When the Cops Come a Knockin'"
Check out some of the dance moves below

"I Know I Can Change"

Last month the Elementary and Bridge After-School Programs put on a Black History Month Performance. We captured the kids from the Elementary program perform a step routine in honor of the first our 44th President, Barack Obama.