To the Editor:

The Wareham Community Engagement Initiative (WCEI), which is a community-run initiative founded by members of the Church of the Good Shepherd, would like to take a moment to express our appreciation for the support of our community and to give a quick update on our work. Over the past two years, WCEI has come together, asked questions of our community and engaged in volunteer activities. You may remember us through the many surveys we took of the Wareham community in 2017, looking for what people thought we could do to make Wareham a stronger and healthier community. Through this process the citizens, leaders and children whom we've spent time with have blown us away; the quality of character and level of passion and dedication that defines Wareham (and our amazing neighbors) is remarkable. What a special community we have here.

Based on the survey we conducted, the objective of our Initiative has become "Until all children in Wareham have the support they need to succeed."  We truly believe that relationship building between our diverse group of volunteers and children, grounded by a common goal of achieving success, yields a powerful impact on the community as a whole. This year, we are humbled by the relationships we've been able to build. In September or 2018, we began working with the incredible Vicky White and the children at Brandy Hill with a club called Homework Heroes. Every Tuesday afternoon, members of WCEI and our community volunteers meet with Vicky and the children of Brandy Hill to work on homework, practice flash cards, do word searches, and simply chat and enjoy each other's company. We've spent time with the Brandy Hill community barbecuing, playing outdoors, holiday gift shopping, decorating a tree and verbalizing wishes for our community and the world.  The children even prepared a wonderful Thanksgiving meal for the volunteers simply to say thank you.

We want to thank every one of our team members and volunteers, our community and partners, the Church of the Good Shepherd, Episcopal City Mission, The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Vicky White and the beautiful children of Brandy Hill. We could not have achieved our success without your time, honest opinions, heart and dedication. We are excited to continue working with the community of Wareham and Brandy Hill in 2019! If you'd like to learn more about the work we're doing, become a volunteer, or participate in a youth developmental asset training, please reach out to Kelly at wcei.wareham@gmail.com or call the Church at 508-295-2840. Everyone is welcome and appreciated.

Wareham Community Engagement Initiative