ACSA’s Partners in Educational Excellence Award honors exemplary school-community partnerships. This year, the honor goes to GOALS – Growth Opportunities Through Athletics Learning and Service.
GOALS provides socio-economically disadvantaged elementary students and their families in the Anaheim area with athletics, after-school educational enrichment and community service experience. Led by Executive Director Dave Wilk, GOALS has helped underserved students in distressed communities build self-esteem, strong values and social skills since 1994.
The program has many components, including ice hockey, tennis, after-school athletic and academic classes, a summer sports camp and literacy outreach. In addition, the A+ Opportunity Academy provides free academic, athletic and social enrichment to those students who are off-track at their local elementary school; GOALS Girls encourages females between 6-19 to participate in activities; Project Hope supports athletic activities for disabled youth; and Healthy Futures helps unfit, obese youth with aerobic activity, nutritional education, clinical testing and participation in regional 5K races.
Other GOALS programs include Pathways to Responsibility/Be a Leader, a three-month community forum that brings government, business, education and other leaders together; Roller Hockey, offering free clinics off the ice; and Tree-Mendous GOALS, in which teens assist senior homeowners in planting shade trees to lower energy costs.
GOALS community service does not begin or end in the schools. Last year, participants made more than 1,000 holiday cards for veterans at the Long Beach Veterans and Nursing Home, which were hand-delivered by youngsters dressed as elves. Volunteers helped with holiday food packing at the local food bank. They also launched a letter-writing campaign to support Robert Muller, a professional hockey player in Germany who later succumbed to brain cancer.
Debra Schroeder, principal of Melbourne A. Gauer Elementary School in the Anaheim City School District, said she has worked closely with GOALS the last 10 years and has seen it positively impact students, especially English learners and socio-economically struggling families.
“The sheer number of students who have been touched by this dynamic program is difficult to fathom,” Schroeder wrote in a nomination letter. “I have personally observed the positive impact on many of my most needy students.”
Hundreds of students in the Anaheim City School District and surrounding areas have been positively impacted by GOALS. Many students continue their involvement into junior high and high school, and in some cases, become adult volunteers or employees.
Three such students include Les Gonzalez, Frank Cardona and Daniel Lopez, who accepted the 2009 Partners in Educational Excellence Award at ACSA’s Awards Presentation Nov. 6 in Sacramento. All three began the program as teenagers and made it their life’s work to continue its legacy.
Click here for more information on ACSA awards.