The celebration of T-RUTH Academy's First Anniversary

1. T-RUTH Academy For Young Adolescent Girls

3. Inspired by ruth 1:16 “"Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (NAB)

4. And by the dream of Encouraging a love of reading and writing Developing a supportive community Empowering girls to reach their full potential Developing a spirit of service to others

5. Founded by Sandra Golden, PH.D.Patricia McCord, M.Ed.

6. Supporting Literacy Development For young girls, 12-16, living in the Defiance area

7. With support From Defiance College Division of Teacher Education

8. Saint Mary Parish And the use of the Yellow House for our meeting space

9. Volunteer assistants Peggy Brown Jerri Courtney

10. community volunteers And generous donors

11. Developing interpersonal and academic skills

12. in a structuredreading/writing program

13. Engaging the whole person

14. Through a variety of activities

15. intellectual

16. Interactive

17. social

18. Community building

19. Service Baking cookies for Empty Bowls dinner

20. And by empowering

21. confidence

22. Skills

23. understanding

24. Caring,serving,committedYoung women

26. Photo by Brooke Gordon

27. T-RUTH Academy creed Created and written by participants of T-RUTH Academy for Young Adolescent Girls ©2010

28. We Live for ourselves and for each other, for improvement now, not later. We LIVE as deeply as we can by accepting challenges and opportunities with a smile. We LIVE as strong individuals united as an equally strong group and we realize the importance of the simple statement: We LIVE!

29. we all come together as one to DREAM and in our dream we see a piece of everyone in it. We DREAM of a better world with better lives. DREAMING is our way of getting started. When we DREAM, we make things happen courageously.

30. We need courage to speak up and say what we think, but we also need wisdom to be careful not to offend others. We also need COURAGE to accept responsibility for our lives and behavior, to accept our failures, to strive to overcome them, and to work hard to accomplish new things. Through COURAGE we find hope.

31. Hope is inspiring and fun. HOPE is something everyone should have. If we don’t have HOPE, we should seek it. For when we have HOPE, we can encourage others to have it, too. HOPE brings joy!

32. We, the T-RUTH Academy girls, commit to always be there to bring JOY to each other’s lives. We strive to bring JOY through smiles, hugs, and love. Everyone needs happiness, and therefore, JOY in their lives. JOY allows us to imagine.

33. We imagine growing with and through each other by establishing a community of sisters based on trust and respect. We pledge to remain loyal to each other by communicating and sharing ideas and feelings. When we IMAGINE, we create.

34. We love to create beauty with our dance, our song, our writing, and our art. We strive to CREATE within ourselves a peaceful and welcoming spirit.

35. peace begins within us first. We seek PEACE within so that others may be inspired to live PEACEFULLY. Our goal is to tear down the walls that separate us by living the words from which T-RUTH originated: “I will not forsake you; wherever you go, I will, go… (Ruth 1:16).” Together we have the power to create a new world free of hate and fear, filled with light and love.

36. “Kiss the rain" Composed and performed by Yiruma, from the album From the Yellow Room (2003)