Step Up For Students: Success Stories
Volume 4 Issue: 4                                                    December 2015
Giving Twice     
Giving from the bottom of your heart is a character trait that is difficult to teach.
  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we are born with an innate desire to accumulate and keep things in our possession; many adults never reach that place in life where they are able to give without any expectation of something in return.

From birth we see our children guard their possessions, act stingy when they see another with less than they have, and even exhibit unsavory behaviors in an effort to get even more.  So, we work hard as parents to teach them to share, to give, and to care.

It has been said that a gift is something that is enjoyed twice.
  First by the giver who enjoys the feeling of giving something special and then also enjoyed by the person who receives the gift.  Often times, the gift may be something of no significant monetary value.  It may be a random act of kindness, a personal gesture that meets an emotional need, or even an expression through our body language that makes a connection with the receiver.

So, as we find ourselves scurrying about this holiday season, let's not get so engrossed in our "giving egos" that we lose sight of the fact that it is just as great to give as it is to receive.
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Ann Davis, Ph.D., principal of  Incarnation Catholic School in Sarasota,  designed this holiday postcard wish as a way of  expressing their appreciation  to family, friends and benefactors of the school. Students sign each card (first name only) and indicate their grade level.  The school mailed out 3500 postcards! 
Sonia Anderson, Headmistress of  The Broach School in Tampa, is thrilled to share their first student developed newspaper, The Broach School Bugle. Written by students in the 8th and 9th Grade English Class, the newspaper contains articles, contests, pictures, coupons and information from each classroom.  With a cost of only 25 cents, these students sold out their first edition! 
Students at  St. Pius Catholic School in Jacksonville
 have been making a splash in a program designed to prevent drowning,
the leading cause of unintentional death in young children in Florida.

Made possible through a grant from the Winston Family YMCA and the Jan & Lou Walsh Family Foundation, 50 students in grades K-8 with little or no swimming ability, have successfully completed the Y's Safety Around Water, an eight lesson program that teaches essential water safety skills and beginner swimming lessons.  

Principal Lauren May, a former swim coach, recognized the importance of water safety training and pursued the opportunity for St. Pius to become the first school in North Florida to participate in this type of extracurricular program.  St. Pius Catholic School currently has 106 students that receive the Step Up for Students Scholarship.  
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