Hello Everyone

Hello everyone! My name is Gabrielle Decoster and I'm the new HIPPY VISTA in Dallas. I'm originally from Fort Worth and recently graduated from Austin College in Sherman. Thank goodness for the college because there was NOTHING else going on in Sherman, TX... I'm living in North Dallas with two friends from college and my roommate's very territorial and yappy pug. Right now I'm working at the central office but should soon be starting work at the Dallas ISD HIPPY office once all of the paperwork is sorted out. So far I've really been enjoying the HIPPY program and in the past couple of weeks have been able to dive right in on a couple of projects. One that I just finished is a Wikipedia article entitled "Using the Americorps Education Award" that gives some information about the education award and presents a forum for HIPPY and other AmeriCorps alumni to add to and explain their experiences trying to use the award at different schools since the protocol at each school is so different. Another project that I've been working on, which Carla may have mentioned to you all already, is the Barnes & Noble Fundraiser for Texas HIPPY taking place on December 10. We're hoping that we can recruit people to shop at Barnes and Noble stores around the country on that day and just mention HIPPY when they purchase something so then the organization will get a percentage of the profits from that sale-yay! In addition there will be a big event at the Lincoln Park Barnes and Noble in Dallas with some children's arts and crafts activities, a storytime with a children's book author, and maybe other activities like a treasure hunt or book trivia-not sure, still in the planning stages. So hopefully we can raise a lot of awareness and funds for the program. Guess that's all I have for now, hope everyone has a good upcoming weekend!