Catch up with The Civic Circle:
We thank Carpe Diem Arts for the opportunity to share the seven “steps to democracy” with a wonderful student group at Gaithersburg Elementary School in January and February. Highlights included a field trip to Gaithersburg City Hall, where Mayor Jud Ashman shared with students why he ran for office, how elections work, and how democracy involves “a dialogue between the people and the officials.” Students also sang their original song about telling truth from fiction, written
This month, we welcome Trevor Schmutz to our board of directors, and Lili Leonard, of Black Dog Philanthropic Consulting, to help with fundraising and development. Trevor is a grants management specialist in D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office on Volunteerism and Partnerships. Lili has a commitment to small- and mid-sized nonprofits, and signs on thanks to a generous grant from Maryland Humanities. Welcome, Trevor and Lili!
In January, award-winning poet Malachi Byrd brought Martin Luther King’s legacy to life with a mini-residency focused on collective poetry-writing. In their poem “Dreaming of Home,” Civic Circe students in Montgomery Housing Partnership’s Community Life program wrote about their countries of origin, including El Salvador and Honduras (“land of beaches”), and their hopes for the future. Here is an excerpt: I have a dream That we all have homes That there will be no
Teaching artists Jarrell Pittman and Marcie Wolf-Hubbard ended the Civic Circle semester on a high note. With Jarrell, students created a recording with the refrain “My voice matters, your voice matters,” and lines like “I will help people with my voice,” and “Let’s stop bullying, no hurt feelings.” With Marcie, students use collage and “burnout poetry” techniques to create civic art booklets with messages like “You have friends,” “Make it happen,” and (from Mother Teresa)
A Generous GivingTuesday
Category: Uncategorized
The Civic Circle expresses gratitude to all the generous donors who made our GivingTuesday campaign such a big success. All told, the contributions received on this platform, on The Civic Circle’s website, and via check totaled more than $5,700—more than twice our goal! Thank you for your generosity! Big thanks goes out to all the Civic Circle supporters and friends listed below, in no particular order. A special thanks goes out to Larry Harris and