Gargiulo Education Center
End of School Year and Summer Camp Newsletter
Dear Friends
and Supporters of GEC:

As our 2018-2019 school year and summer camps conclude, we wanted to update you on our accomplishments this year and ask for your help in our plans for the upcoming year.

We ended the school year with 65 students in our afterschool program. Many of our students came in at the top of their class, and made great strides academically. Our one and only senior this year, Luz Alonso, has graduated from Gulf Coast High School. She is moving on to the nursing program at FGCU.. Luz has attended our school since the second grade. We are very proud of her and her many accomplishments and wish her luck in her aspirations to become a registered nurse. Our Board of Directors has awarded her a $1000 scholarship in addition to the other scholarships she has earned.
WE HAD A GREAT YEAR!
Mary Asta, our Executive Director, along with our generous gala underwriters,Mike Sullivan and Ole Ramirez, and our outstanding committee held our inaugural fundraising event “A Table at LeCirque” seaside at the Ritz Carlton Naples, on February 23, 2019. It was an outstanding event surpassing our expectations in attendance, money raised, and the positive publicity for the school. We’d like to give Special Recognition to Mary, Medittera Bible Study, the volunteers and our dedicated gala committee for all the time and hard work invested to make this event a tremendous success. This fundraising allows us to continue to hire dedicated and talented certified teachers and expand on our multi-faceted Entrepreneurial Apprenticeship Program, which includes STEAM and our successful summer program. In addition, a few donations have been earmarked to support our newly created and much needed endowment fund.
Among our important
initiatives for this last year:
  • We now occupy two spaces which gives us three more classrooms and another restroom. The additional space reduces the number of students per class and grade levels, creating a more optimal learning environment. 

  • We have acquired new furnishings from a generous donation from St. Vincent DePaul.

  • As part of our career readiness program, Brenda Martinez and Lucia Jemenez have joined our team at the school as coordinators, bilingual communicators, and calming voices. Brenda and Lucia are not only our new employees, they are also a moms who each have three students that attend our school.

  • The mothers and fathers of our students have created an annual Fiesta Mexicana to show their appreciation to all of our volunteers, supporters, teachers and friends of the school. They have already set a date for next year. It will be held on March 7th, 2020.

  • We expanded our summer camp, classes and programs. We had 49 students signed up for our 6 week camp. Students have also attended several other programs thru scholarships such as: 

  • ST Johns:
  • A Week of Music, Artisan Acting Summer Camp
  • Social Skills Classes
  • Private acting, piano and guitar classes
  • Week long Basketball, Soccer, and Football camps

  • EAA Young Eagles Flying Program for 20 students

  • Summer English Classes for parents

  • Four weeks of Everglades Wonder Garden Camps

These camps and programs were completely probono through scholarships valued at well over $30,000. 
Our Board has also been very active during the school year. We successfully completed our first audit with an outside auditing team. This audit was a critical step in validating our 501c(3) status and fiscal responsibility. We also added two new Board Directors; Ole Ramirez and Tony Marano.

Thanks to all of you for your continued confidence and financial support as we incur our day to day program expenses. These efforts and accomplishments would not have been possible without our friends, donors, and volunteers who support our efforts tirelessly. We are proud of the great success of this past year and hope we can count on your support in the coming years to continue enriching the educational experience for our students. Special thanks to our many friends in the Mediterra community, the Mediterra Bible Study, our Directors, generous former Directors, our many volunteers, our Executive Director, Mary Asta, and our new friends at Ladies of Charity, Cypress Woods and Barefoot Beach!

Sincerely,
Alex Miller
Board President
Gargiulo Education Center, Inc.
1-203-274-3649