On November 15th, CSFP will hold its 7th annual city-wide distribution of its scholarship applications. To mark the occasion, an event will be held from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM at The Academy of Natural Sciences. This year applications are available for 1,500 new, four-year K- 8th grade scholarship awards to Philadelphia area low-income students. CSFP currently has 2,100 families with children in kindergarten through eighth grade who are receiving an average of $1,100 per child per year.

"I am excited to announce that given the extraordinary support of our local community of donors, CSFP is able to offer 1,500 new, four- year scholarships this coming school year," says Evie McNiff, CSFP President of the CSFP Board. She added: "With more than 75,000 qualified applicants seeking Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia scholarships, the need for this program is critical, and we couldn't do it without the commitment and generosity of corporations such as Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Wawa, ACE-INA, Urban Outfitters, PNC, Airgas, Mellon, SAP, Capegemini and PECO and Aramark."

"We are thrilled to be here with our new partner and friend, Mike O'Neill, Chairman of BLOCS. The ultimate success in any community, particularly one as critical as urban education, rests in the strength, vision and commitment of its leaders in securing resources to meet the challenges." Ms. McNiff continued: "CSFP believes that our children are best served when these challenges are met through creative alliances between like minded community members. Through this partnership, CSFP and BLOCS will illustrate the enormous impact that these quality, early educational opportunities have on the lives of poor Philadelphia students. Our goal is a simple one. We would like to open the school doors to thousands more Philadelphia children and begin to meet the overwhelming demand that we experience each year when distributing our lottery applications."

CSFP looks forward to working with BLOCS and others within the Philadelphia educational community to support opportunities for families and children to succeed.

Family Weekend at the Academy

Children's Scholarship Fund Philadelphia, in partnership with The Academy of Natural Sciences, held its third "Family Weekend at the Academy", March 1-2, 2008. With the continued generous support from Brown Brothers Harriman and a grant through the Academy, and partial funding from CSFP, families gained admission for only $1.00 per person (adult admission is normally$10.00). More than 500 CSFP students and parents joined us for the weekend activities, which included small reptile workshops, the butterfly exhibit and special animal shows.

2007 Award Ceremony

CSFP conducted its sixth annual award ceremony on June 19, 2007. This event served as our official "welcome" to our newest 1,000 scholarship award recipients. The ceremony was held at Drexel University and Dr. Constantine Papadakis, President of Drexel University provided the opening remarks. Additionally, we presented this year's "CSFP 2007 Citizen of the Year" to James E. Nevels, President and CEO of the Swarthmore Group and Chairman of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission. Verizon Wireless was the recipient of "CSFP's Corporate Citizen of the Year." Christine Baron, President of Verizon Wireless, Philadelphia Tri-State Region, accepted this honor. The Phillie Phanatic was on hand to present a variety of student awards for achievement, art and writing, as well as our teacher awards. Congratulations to all!

March 3-4, 2007 CSFP Weekend at The Academy of Natural Sciences.

More than 400 CSFP family members participated in our second annual Weekend at the Academy. Participants enjoyed free, small group science workshops, as well as complete access to the museum's exhibits, including the "Butterfly Special Exhibit" and numerous demonstrations. A special thanks to our friends at Brown Brothers Harriman for underwriting this event!

Benefit Party Hosted by Urban Outfitters -- Saturday, October 28, 2006

The event was an enormous success. More than 500 people joined us that evening. Participants enjoyed great food by Frog Commissary, incredible music by The School of Rock, and they were able to celebrate CSFP in an incredible venue. Thanks to the vision and talent of Dick and Meg Hayne, Urban Outfitters transformed the former ship building facility to an unique, innovative, yet functional corporate headquarters. CSFP was delighted and honored to have had the opportunity to celebrate Urban's official opening of its corporate campus the night of October 28th.

With the support, time and help of Dick and Meg Hayne, our dance committee, Kathy Patty of TableArt, as well as Urban Outfitters talented staff, including Meredith Boice, Katie Hartsough and Carrie Yotter - CSFP was able to raise more than $475,000!!! This money will be used fund 1,000 new, four-year low-income scholarships to be issued in 2007.

We want to thank all of our corporate dance sponsors: Urban Outfitters, Maverick Capital, Verizon Wireless, SAP America, Capgemini, PNC, Ace-Ina, Comcast , Mass Marketing Insurance Group, Cigna, AmerisourceBergen, IGN Foundation, Aramark, Wawa, Philadelphia Phillies, Drexel University, Mellon Financial, Merck & Co., Sovereign Bank, Macyís, Citizens Bank, Airgas, Beneficial Savings Bank, Charming Shoppes, Harold Katz Foundation, Internet Capital Group, Lincoln Mortgage, Philadelphia Industrial lDevelopment Corporation and Wakefield-Cushman.

A special thanks to our many friends throughout Philadelphia that help make this event possible, including the following University of Pennsylvania graduate student volunteers: Lee Shaker, Joung Lee, Ariel Cernin, Chris Penckowski, Jamie Ford, Jeannette Brugger, Susana Ramirez, Bridget Kelly, Ian Musselman, Marie Hildebrandt, Suzie Lee and Wenny Lin.

Finally, we want to also thank our dedicated benefit dance committee for their help in organizing this great event.

Benefit Dance Committee:

JUNE 21, 2006
CSFP held its Fifth Annual Student Recognition and Award Ceremony. Geoffrey Canada, President and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone was presented the CSFP Citizen of the Year Award. More than 600 families, students, and teachers were present at this ceremony. Also, CSFP issued its 500 new, four-year awards to its newest members of the CSFP scholarship family. Special congratulations goes to the following winners:

2005-2006 CSFP Student Award for Outstanding Contributions to School Through Service, Leadership and Academic Achievement:

Nathaly Bravo, 2nd Grade ñ St. Veronica School
Kamal Gatewood, 4th Grade ñ Spruce Hill Christian School
Lenny Ramos, 5th Grade- Visitation B.V.M. School


2005-2006 CSFP Student Award for Outstanding Contributions to School Through Service, Leadership and Academic Achievement:

Nathaly Bravo, 2nd Grade ñ St. Veronica School
Kamal Gatewood, 4th Grade ñ Spruce Hill Christian School
Lenny Ramos, 5th Grade- Visitation B.V.M. School


Student Achievement Award for Outstanding Effort and Overall Academic Improvement:

James OíConnor, 3rd Grade ñ St. Casimir School
Ryan Meehan, 5th Grade ñ St. Anne School
Danielle Wojcik, 4th Grade- Nativity B.V.M. School
Angela Himenez, 8th Grade- Holy Spirit School


ESSAY Contest Winners:

Grades 6th-8th

Anh Nguyen, 8th Grade- Visitation B.VM. School, First Prize
Shakira King, 8th Grade ñ St. Francis de Sales School, Second Prize
Brierra Kelly, 6th Grade ñ Gesu School, Honorable Mention
Natasha Hentz, 8th Grade- Ivy Leaf School


Grades 3rd-5th

Jordan Sanjaya, 5th Grade- Archbishop Ryan School for Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children, First Prize
Nathaniel Ferguson, 5th Grade-St. Francis de Sales School, Second Prize
Patricia Creamer, 4th Grade-St. Matthew School, Honorable Mention
Sasha Roadcloud, 5th Grade-Calvary Temple Christian School, Honorable Mention


Kindergarten ñ 2nd Grades

Julia Reeves, 2nd Grade- Springside School, First Prize
Jasmine Mays, 2nd Grade-St. Francis de Sales School, Second Prize
Starrethra Blessin Carter, Kindergarten-Our Mother of Sorrows School, Honorable Mention
Anthony M. Gullette, 2nd Grade-West Oak Lane Christian Academy, Honorable Mention


ART Contest

Grades 6th-8th

Tieng Pham, 8th grade- Visitation B.V.M. School, First Prize
Trey Carson, 7th Grade-St. Francis de Sales School, Second Prize
Chydell McKoy, 7th Grade-Our Lady of Lourdes School, Honorable Mention
Iyannah Collins, 6th Grade- Gesu School


Grades 3rd-5th

India Hudson, 3rd Grade- St. Francis de Sales School, First Prize
Maya Lee, 3rd Grade ñ St. Francis de Sales School, Second Prize
Tori Thompson, 3rd Grade ñ St. Gabriel School, Honorable Mention
Alanis Reyes, 3rd Grade ñ St. Veronicaís School, Honorable Mention


Kindergarten-2nd Grade

Conor Bambrick, 1st Grade - Resurrection of Our Lord School, First Prize
Seth Vaders, 1st Grade ñ Calvary Christian Academy, Second Prize
Hannah Savage, 2nd Grade ñ St. Bernard School, Honorable Mention
Maria Britt, 2nd Grade ñ Our Lady of Lourdes School, Honorable Mention


CSFP 2006 Parent Award
CSFP recognizes the following parents and/or guardians for their unique and special efforts in helping provide educational opportunities for their child and for supporting their greater school community through volunteer efforts.

Agnes Santiago -Saint Veronicaís School
And
Susan McGurk ñ St. Adalbert School

CSFP Teacher of the Year 2006 Awards
This award recognizes the unique contributions of these exceptional teachers. These teachers best serve the goals of CSFP in providing educational opportunities to all children. The criterion for this award included: (i) creative classroom practices, (ii) exceptional instructional support for children and (iii) involvement with extra curricular activities.

Loretta Yogis ñ St. Donato School
Jason White ñ St. Malachy School
Brenda Kuleck ñ Cedar Grove Christian Academy

APRIL 8, 2006
CSFP held a workshop on transition issues facing new scholarship award winners, Saturday, April 8 at The Academy of Natural Sciences. This workshop focused on the academic, social and financial issues facing families entering our scholarship program.

MARCH 4 & 5, 2006
CSFP weekend at The Academy of Natural Sciences. The Academy of Natural Sciences was host to a very special weekend at the museum for our CSFP families. More than 600 students and their families participated in special programs throughout this March weekend. Admission for the CSFP guests was at a very special rate of $1.00 per person. We are very grateful to all of our friends at The Academy of Natural Sciences for making this special event possible, as well as Doug Walker of Brown Brothers Harriman for helping sponsor the event.

JANUARY 18, 2006
CSFP held its kick-off ceremony for the distribution of its 2006-07 scholarship application on January 18th at 10:00 a.m. This event was held at The Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway (1st Floor Auditorium), Philadelphia. CSFP expects to distribute a minimum of 500, new four-year awards for the upcoming school year. Scholarships are for low-income, Philadelphia children entering grades K-5th in the fall 2006. CSFP processed only the first 3,000 applications received. Selection was based on a random lottery held in mid-March. The deadline for applications was March 1, 2006.

June 7, 2005 –Award Ceremony honoring Governor Tom Ridge

CSFP is pleased to announce that its fourth annual student award and recognition ceremony was held Tuesday, June 7th at 2:00 PM.  The location of this very special event was The Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Honorable Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania Governor and Secretary of the United States Department of Home Security is CSFP’s 2005 Citizen of the Year.

Governor Ridge was honored for his work on behalf of children and his help in securing resources to advance educational opportunities to low-income students through innovative legislation like the PA Education Improvement Tax Credit Act.  CSFP was very appreciative that Governor Ridge took time from a busy schedule to personally accept this award and speak to our families and students.  He shared the importance of education and the impact on his life. Governor Ridge graciously stayed for more than one hour after the award ceremony to speak individually to interested families and provide wonderful photo opportunities.

Also on hand that day was the Phillie Phanatic, who helped to hand out numerous Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia awards as well as recognize many of the 350 new, four-year scholarship students present at this ceremony.