Article and Pictures by Larry Oskin, Marketing Solutions
The Champion Circle Youth Empowerment Program, launched in 2017 by the Give a Day Foundation, has been busy with summer educational, cultural, academic, and athletic challenges for the young men of our community.
Through mentorship, community engagement, and skill-building activities, Champion Circle aims to foster self-confidence, responsibility, leadership, and a deep sense of community connection. Our goal is to prepare participants for success in both their personal and academic lives. Activated for this summer with 26 students and numerous mentors, they have been participating in a complete schedule of educational workshops, and community & sports activities. Their workshops consist of special guest speakers including local government and business leaders. Team building sports activities such as basketball, dodgeball, bowling, and golf are being held this summer. They are participating in IT, computer technology, firearm safety, culinary skills, civic engagement, and communications training sessions. They are having hands-on automotive workshops, teaching them all about a day in the life of a technician all the way up to what it takes to become a service manager.
This year, they had a Skilled Trade Day to learn about Electricity, HVAC, Culinary Skills, IT Cyber Security, Military careers, and other valuable Entrepreneurships. With Financial Planning and Career Day workshops, they are having a very full summer schedule. While teaching Core Values, the Champion Circle students learn how volunteerism will help them gain a better understanding of why it is so important to give back to your community.
There are sessions designed to prepare these students for trade school or college as well as how to best start their careers, including resume writing and how to conduct job interviews. The Champion Circle program is free, while they are required to provide five hours of volunteer community service each month. They have been working on how to discover their own identity, while sharing improved strengths and values. The mentors will be available to help guide the young through the next academic school year.
Give A Day Foundation co-founder Otis Taylor shared, “Our Champion Circle summer program is really all about the teens and helping them grow into responsible young adults, teaching them leadership & communication skills, teamwork, and the importance of understanding their strengths and career goals.”
As a guest mentor, Hyundai Central Florida Service Director Caesar Marquez noted, “We really appreciate what GADF is doing for our local area youth. It’s an honor for us to help sponsor and support these students to realize the lifetime of opportunities that are now available before them. We showed these students that tremendous automotive trade jobs and careers are available right here. We have apprenticeship and training programs to start them on a very rewarding career.”
GADF Co-founder Sandra Taylor noted, “We are very proud of our Champion Circle! We have been sharing great new ideas and opportunities with these young men all summer. This program aims to foster self-confidence, responsibility, leadership, and a deep sense of community connection. Our goal is to prepare participants for success in both their personal and academic lives. The Hyundai workshop was especially important, as these students need to be ready to take advantage of over 7 million profitable trade jobs open today in America!”
Senior student Jeremiah Cole shared, “This is my third year with the amazing GADF Champion Circle summer program. It’s great fun and I have learned a lot. If you want to learn from excellent mentors, to become disciplined and to learn new skills that will give you lifelong opportunities, join Champion Circle. With help from this program, I have decided to become an HVAC technician for my future career.”
The Give a Day Foundation partners with local area non-profit organizations, helping them to accomplish their goals by providing volunteer support. Their mission is simple, to help our community through volunteerism. GADF volunteers are taught to help improve the lives of individuals and families while helping make these young men into better leaders for a stronger community going forward.
Clermont Mayor Tim Murry, Banks Helfrich, the Clermont Police Department, Dr. David Taylor, Brian Bulthuis, and numerous South Lake community leaders came out to meet with, support and to help mentor the GADF youth. To learn more about the Give A Day Foundation and Champion Circle, visit: https://www.giveadayfoundation.org/, https://www.facebook.com/gadfcc.org/ and https://gadfchamp.org/ Call: 407-864-3303 or email: Otis@GiveADayFoundation.org.
