New Year, New Learning Opportunities

Happy New Year from The Child & Family Network Centers!

The success and excitement of our holiday events created a momentum that launched us into the New Year with renewed energy and inspiration. Thank you for your
contributions to our successful holiday events--from coat drives to holiday parties, our year-end campaign and the "Adopt a Family" Program.

We are also thrilled to be kicking off the New Year with a field trip, made possible by our generous supporters at PNC Bank's Grow Up Great Program, to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's Planetarium. Students, teachers and parents will enjoy a private showing of "One World, One Sky" and have time to explore the museum afterwards. It is a wonderful and unique opportunity and photos from the trip will certainly be a feature of our next newsletter. So stay tuned!

In the meantime, scroll down to read a tribute to a loyal CFNC supporter, meet our Volunteer of the Month, find out what runner extraordinaire Brooke Curran has been up to, learn new ways to support our cause and more! And, as always, please be in touch, stop by for a tour or stay connected with us on Twitter, Facebook and our website.

Honoring Robert Stufflebeam

On September 15, 2010, a long time CFNC supporter and friend, Robert E. Stufflebeam, passed away. Mr. Stufflebeam was 98 years old. A resident of Alexandria, he felt very strongly about CFNC's mission to help underserved children in his community and was a very loyal contributor and advocate for CFNC's cause. Mr. Stufflebeam will be greatly missed, but his legacy will live on through CFNC's work.

**Volunteer of the Month**

Meet Camille Funn. Camille volunteers at CFNC's Birchmere 1 Classroom every Monday. She learned about CFNC's need for classroom volunteers on the Volunteer.gov website, and has been an active CFNC volunteer since 2007.

"I very much enjoy working with the students and teachers, and get a lot out of it," Camille says. Camille is always upbeat and eager to help out. CFNC feels very lucky to have such a dedicated volunteer.

Camille brings her love of reading to CFNC's classrooms as well as to the third grade classrooms of Charles Barrett Elementary School, where she also volunteers her time.

If you are interested in volunteering at CFNC, please contact Kristin Thompson at kthompson@cfnc-online.org or 703-836-0214 x234.

MLK Day of Service

On Monday, January 17, instead of celebrating the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday with a day-off, Burgundy Farm Country Day School hosted its second Day of Service.
Nearly 300 Burgundy Farm and Jefferson-Houston students and their families teamed up with Volunteer Alexandria and The Giving Circle of Alexandria to complete 22 service projects to benefit local, national and international non-profit organizations, including CFNC!

Among many activities, students assembled newborn baby kits for expectant mothers and created books on tape for Walter Reed patients. CFNC was the proud recipient of more than 200 dental kits--complete with toothbrush, toothpaste, floss and proper
cleaning information. Kits will be distributed to each family to encourage clean teeth and proper dental hygiene as part of CFNC's Family Services Program.

Alexandria Mayor William Euille stopped by and gave remarks, and Senior Advisor to the Secretary (Department of Interior) Dr. Robert G. Stanton was the keynote speaker.

The event garnered the attention of FOX and NBC news. Check out the footage and read more here.

Runner Extraordinaire and CFNC Supporter, Brooke Curran, in Washingtonian Magazine

CFNC supporter, Alexandria resident and runner extraordinaire, Brooke Curran, was featured in December's Washingtonian Magazine and CFNC was mentioned!

Brooke's mission is to "Run Globally and Act Locally!" so she has committed to completing one marathon per month on every continent, in each of the 50 states and the five world majors (Boston, New York, London, Chicago and Berlin) while raising money to support Alexandria charities through her RunningBrooke Fund. So far, Brooke has completed marathons in 20 states, four of the five majors and on five continents, with Antarctica and Africa still on her to-do list.

In 2010, CFNC was very fortunate to be the recipient of money raised through the RunningBrooke Fund and is excited about the progress that Brooke has made in 2011. To read more about Brooke, where she's running next and how you can become a part of the race, visit her website at www.runningbrooke.com

This just in! Brooke is currently recruiting 50 runners to participate in the National Half Marathon while raising money for the RunningBrooke Fund. Runners receive a training program and coaching from Brooke, team gear, a cheering station, an after-party (provided by Lululemon), race-day pace setters and more! Read the flier here.