GVCO Caring Hands Foundation News

GVCO Caring Hands News

Our 1st Annual Lend A Paw donation drive in association with the Brandywine Valley SPCA and Senator Committa's office was a huge success! Woof! Woof!

Thanks to your efforts, Caring Hands collected dog and cat food, kitty litter, treats, toys, sheets, towels and bedding for the SPCA animals. Caring Hands volunteers made dozens of food puzzles for dogs, sock toys for cats and many, many peanut butter filled kongs.

Charlestown Day

41 GVCO Caring Hands student volunteers gave their time at the annual Charlestown Day event. The day started with a 5k run, numerous vendors, carnival games, along with plenty of food and drink. GVCO Caring Hands student volunteers combined for over 125 community service hours to help what turned out to be a very well attended event.

Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.

Dorothy Height

Coming This Fall

Beginning next week, sign ups will be sent out for these and other opportunities to provide community service to a number of worthy causes in our community and the surrounding region.

Cradles to Crayons Children’s Clothing Drive - starts Oct. 23rd

This will be the 3rd Annual drive for Cradles to Crayons. The first two were a great success and we're looking forward to greater things this year! The drive continues until early November and will need many volunteers.

GVCO Caring Hands Tent Sale – starts Oct. 23rd

Our annual Tent Sale of holiday items will continue until early Nov. at the GVCO Community Center complex. We will be looking for numerous volunteers to assist with this event.

Winter White Out Event - November

NEW event this year! We will be partnering with Home of the Sparrow to assist women facing homelessness to secure housing and achieve long-term stability. There will be more info on this event as we move forward in the calendar.

"Good Neighbors" Initiative - Holiday Gift Wrapping

For many years, we have been wrapping hundreds of gifts and delivering them to several local senior centers during the holidays.

GET INVOLVED

Students in grades 7-12 are welcome to join Caring Hands and help us make the difference.

Parents - you are welcome to come out and help too!

GVCO Project Update

GVCO Community Center

THE STONE BASE COURSE FOR THE DRIVEWAY & UPPER PARKING LOT HAS BEEN INSTALLED

For 3 straight days, Charlestown Paving worked to get the drive/upper parking lot installed. What seemed like 100 truckloads of material were delivered, leveled and than rolled. The picture above is taken from the back of the site from behind the practice field. The pad for the building is on the left. The driveway down to Bacton Hill Rd can be seen at the far end.

See the vision of our Great Valley Community Center to find out all that will be offered at the new facility.

The GVCO Future

We are on our way...

to a world-class community resource that delivers a broad range of sports, educational, arts, recreational and senior programs that address key community needs.

GVCO Walk Through Video

We need your help to finish what we've started! We will not get the necessary financing to complete the project without raising additional funds.

DONATE NOW to finalize the building of our brand new GVCO Community Center!

The time is NOW.... Together we can make it happen!

What can we accomplish together? See GVCO Inside and Out

More GVCO Programming

Winter Basketball

Regular registration of $175 ends 10/26.

There is no sibling discount.

Waitlisting begins Oct. 26th or when a section fills.

Waitlisting does not guarantee team placement.

Preliminary schedule for Grades 1-8:

· 10/18 Skills assessments begin

· Early Nov.: teams finalized

· 11/6: Coaches meeting and uniform distribution

· Week of 11/8: GVBL Winter League practices begin

There will be one practice (roughly 1 hr) sometime during the week and one game (roughly 1 hr) a week on the weekend. Games and practices will be held at a location with GVSD boundaries.

During registration, we allow parents to choose one day a week that will NOT work for practice in order to allow some flexibility in scheduling other activities.

Players must be Great Valley Residents: Register

GVBL Boys High School Basketball League

Open to Great Valley resident boys in grades 9-12 in September 2021.

Teams have only games and no practices

Below is the preliminary schedule for Grades 9-12

· 11/29: Games begin and run until the first week in March.

· No games will be played from Dec. 23rd through Jan. 2nd.

Players must be Great Valley Residents: Register

As always please reach out to basketball@GVCO.org with further questions.

K-1 Flag Football

K-1st Flag Football has begun!

Download a season schedule and team roster.

It was a beautiful fall day for our opening day set of games. The cheerleaders were out there, loud and proud! The bleachers were packed with parents and friends.

And the players put on a show!

Big THANKS to the coaches for getting the kids organized and heading in the right direction!

Tackle Football

Our 3rd grade team unfortunately lost 7-13 to Twin Valley last weekend. The team's record is 3-1-1.

The 5th grade team had a resounding 27-0 win over Boyertown. Valley's record is 4-1 but the standings have not been updated yet.

GVCO Cheer

The GV Cheerleaders are having a great time this season with all the activities and fun events they’ve been part of so far.

We had our annual Be a Mini Cheerleader night, where the Junior Patriots got to cheer with their High School Cheerleader mentor for the first half of the GVHS Varsity Football game.

Our cheerleaders rode a firetruck in the Malvern Memorial parade and helped create dog treats for the SPCA.

Fall Crew

Do Good with Chipotle

Come out to the Malvern Chipotle on 10/13 between 5-9PM. 33% of the event sales will be donated to Great Valley Crew!

50 National Ave., Suite 1100 in Malvern

Order online for pickup using code 3N9MZJ7 or show the flyer below.

GVCO Community Partnership

Philadelphia is the nation's poorest big city with nearly 300,000 children living in poverty across the region. Cradles to Crayons Philadelphia has a reach that goes well beyond the borders of the city itself.

Chester County, including the Malvern area, is included in the region in which Cradles to Crayons is having an impact. GVCO is once again partnering with Cradles to Crayons, hosting our 3rd Annual Donation Drive. Reaching out to our Great Valley community in an effort to help those right here in our area.

Part of Cradles to Crayons' mission: "Our whole focus is to make our collaborative process as easy and streamlined as possible. This helps us to empower the children we serve collaboratively — at home, at school, and at play — by providing the everyday essentials that match their individual needs." GVCO's reach here in the community, coupled with Cradles to Crayons' ability to reach those in need is the perfect partnership for our GVCO Caring Hands foundation.

Childhood poverty is a serious nationwide issue and the local area is not immune. Without adequate and appropriate clothing, children face unfair barriers and participate in life on an unequal playing field. Cradles to Crayons uses the term “Clothing Insecurity” as part of our efforts to formally recognize the issue, and increase awareness on this hidden basic need.

GVCO is proud to be partnering with such a worthy organization in helpng Cradles to Crayons reach its inspiring mission and goals.

www.cradlestocrayons.org/philadelphia

GVCO Donor Spotlight

Jody and George Powers

How lucky are we to have a new community center in our area?! GVCO has been a part of our lives since our children used to play hoops at GVBL over 15 years ago. The camaraderie and good spirits in that gym were refreshing and seeing the kids grow into a sport they liked made it so enjoyable.

In 2019, we were able to participate in and volunteer our time when GVCO introduced Pickleball. Over 200 players got involved and had a blast learning and playing the game and participating in other GVCO programming as well as the Caring Hands Foundation.

We cannot wait for the new center and the new pickleball courts! We are thrilled that the building will house many sports, programs, and activities that benefit the community. The new center is a true labor of love for the many parents and volunteers who have given so much of their time and effort to the project.

If you have not already done so, please help the cause and donate today so we can all benefit from all that GVCO has available. Let's make GVCO the place to go!