hopkins house 2012 venetian masquerade ball “motown · pdf filehopkins house 2012...

Hopkins House

2012 Venetian Masquerade Ball

“Motown at the Ritz-Carlton”

Saturday, November, 17, 2012

The Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City

1250 South Hayes Street

Arlington, VA

Event Program

About Hopkins House...

Hopkins House provides high-quality, high-impact, community-

based education programs and opportunities to children, youths, and

their families with the goal to help them achieve, in measurably

effective ways, their full intellectual, economic, and social potential.

Founded in 1939, Hopkins House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

organization with four locations in Northern Virginia. The

Organization was named in memory of Dr. J. Milton Hopkins, a phy-

sician who tended to underprivileged children in Alexandria for more

than 30 years.

Hopkins House operates two nationally accredited preschool

academies and the Early Childhood Learning Institute/ECLI. Its pro-

grams are open to the public. More than 250 children, youths, and

adults are served at Hopkins House annually.

The Hopkins House Children’s Scholarship Fund

The Hopkins House Children’s Scholarship

Fund is central to the Organization’s mission

because it ensures that children and parents

from low-resourced, working households are

able to achieve their full intellectual, econom-

ic and social potential, regardless of their

family’s income. The Hopkins House Chil-

dren’s Scholarship Fund helps families in two

distinct ways.

First it helps families in need of tuition assistance, but are ineligible for government

support. Many of the children and families who are most in need of Hopkins House

services cannot afford the full cost of tuition. Many of the families at Hopkins

House earn less than $25,000 a year.

Even at this salary, these parents often earn too much to qualify for most government

assistance and too little to afford quality preschool for their children. The Children’s

Scholarship Fund helps these families by providing limited but critical tuition assis-

tance when the need is greatest: loss of a job, reduction in wages or working hours,

spouse’s failure to pay child support, divorce, or other challenging and sudden

events.

Secondly, the Scholarship Fund allows Hopkins House to not limit the number of

slots available to families receiving government subsidy, due to the difference in tui-

tion costs and reimbursement to child care facilities from the government - A differ-

ence that often causes major financial constraints on childcare providers.

A committee of volunteers not only helps to raise money for the Scholarship Fund

but also reviews applications for grants. Scholarships are based on written applica-

tions, including financial information, and a statement of compelling need.

In order to keep up with the urgent need for scholarships, Hopkins House must

annually raise at least $150,000 through various fundraising initiatives such as our

annual Venetian Masquerade Ball.

Contributions to the Scholarship Fund are tax-deductible to the extent provided by

law and directly benefit the children most needing your assistance.

The Venetian Masquerade Ball The earliest mention of a Carnival celebration is rec-

orded in a 12th century Roman account of the pope

and upper class Roman citizens watching a parade

through the city, followed by the killing of steers and

other animals. The purpose was to play and eat meat

before Ash Wednesday, which marked the beginning

of Catholic Lent - the forty day fast leading up to

Easter. The Latin term carnem-levare - to remove

oneself from flesh or meat - was used to refer to the

festival.

The Italian version, Carnevale, began in the ancient port city of Venice in the Mid-

dle Ages when the great squares of the city were turned over to aristocratic pageant-

ry, public sport competitions, and performances by roving minstrels and actors.

In 1981 city officials revived Venice Carnevale as a reincarnation of the aristocratic

festival it had once been. Characters from the 16th, 17th, and 18th century Italian

theater reappeared on the streets, along with masqueraders portraying counts and

countesses and other legendary figures. Today Venice Carnevale is open to every-

one and participants come from many countries and a range of social backgrounds

to take on the identity of classical personages and a variety of fantasy

characters.

Masks have always been a central feature of the Venetian Carnevale; traditionally

people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Ste-

phen's Day, December 26) at the start of the carnival season and midnight of Shrove

Tuesday. As masks were also allowed during Ascension and from October 5 to

Christmas, people could spend a large proportion of the year in disguise. Mask

makers (mascareri) enjoyed a special position in society, with their own laws and

their own guild.

Today, Venice Carnevale lasts for a two-week period leading up to Lent. During this

time, hundreds of thousands of people come from all over the world to enjoy the

celebration. For many it is an annual pilgrimage and much of the year is spent in

preparing their elaborate masquerades.

2012 Venetian Masquerade Ball Honorary Chair

Leon Harris Hopkins House welcomes back, for the

s e c o n d y e a r , V e n e t i a n

Masquerade Ball Honorary Chair Leon

Harris.

Award-winning journalist Leon Harris

anchors the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. news-

casts for ABC7/WJLA-TV. He came to

Washington after 20 years at CNN’s

Atlanta Headquarters, where he co-

anchored CNN Live Today and Prime News, and hosted CNN Presents

and American Stories.

Harris has covered a wide variety of stories including the September 11th

terror strikes, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Asian Tsunami of 2004,

the explosion and crash of TWA Flight 800 and the Los Angeles riots.

He has interviewed presidential candidates, and reported live from both

the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

Harris’ work has earned him a number of honors, among them multiple

CableAce awards for Best Newscaster, and National Emmy Awards for

coverage of the September 11th terror strikes, the Oklahoma City bomb-

ing and the 2000 presidential election. He was honored, too, with a Na-

tional Headliner Award and more recently with a National Capital Area

Emmy Award for Best Anchor.

A Cum Laude and honorary doctorate recipient from Ohio University,

Leon Harris is passionate about improving the lives of

children and serves on numerous charitable boards.

2012 Venetian Masquerade Ball

Honorary Co-Chairs

Mrs. Juliette McNeil The McNeil Family Foundation

Mrs. Brenda Moore The Mark & Brenda Moore and Family Foundation

Mrs. Amanda Stafford The Stafford Foundation

Thank You,

2012 Venetian Masquerade Ball Sponsors

Signature Sponsors The McNeil Family Foundation

The Mark & Brenda Moore and Family Foundation

The Stafford Foundation

Ruby Sponsors C3 Systems, Inc.

PNC Bank

Diamond Sponsor Mr. James N. Dresser &

Mrs. Mary Jane Maddox

Crystal Sponsors Virginia Commerce Bank

MCA Construction

EDJ Associates, Inc.

Honorable Mention Paul Pagnato, Jr. &

David William Karp

Mr. & Mrs. Curtis Nash

Elizabeth Partoyan

The Hart Family Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Craig Witmer

The McNeil Family Foundation

2012 Signature Sponsor

The McNeil Family Foundation is dedicated to furthering the ideals of

service to the community, high standards of educational excellence and

religious freedom. In their philanthropic undertakings, the McNeils share a broad

vision and uncommon devotion to the common welfare. It is those ideals, as well

as their philanthropic interests, to which the Foundation

remains faithful.

The McNeil Family Foundation is honored to partner with Hopkins House in

ensuring that all families have access to high-quality

preschool educational programs.

THE MARK & BRENDA MOORE and FAMILY FOUNDATION


The Mark & Brenda Moore and Family Foundation salutes the HOPKINS HOUSE :

Partners in Planting and Harvesting Seeds of HOPE

~as we have been blessed, so shall others be~

The Stafford Foundation


The Stafford Foundation is proud to partner with Hopkins House in providing access to high-quality educational

programs for all, in building strong family foundations, and in preparing generations, to come, to be future leaders.

Hopkins House…

A Community Treasure

Compliments of James N. Dresser & Mary Jane Maddox

2012 Diamond Sponsors

C3 Systems offers a diverse portfolio of Management Consulting Services and Strategic

Technology Solutions. Through our Areas of Practice (AOPs), we address the critical

challenges of today’s federal and commercial business community with our innovation and

initiative, providing a differential advantage—low risk, low cost, and unique value proposi-

tions while leveraging our custom tools and techniques. Our AOPs fall within the following

focus areas:

• Management Consulting

• Staffing and System Engineering

• Other IT Services

C3 Systems prides itself in giving clients solutions that go beyond the ordinary. We base our

services on the mantra “Innovation, Integrity, and Ingenuity” to ensure that our solutions help

our customers improve their organizations’ performance, in a cost effective manner.

2012 Ruby Sponsor

2012 Ruby Sponsor

Special Thanks To

MCA Construction

for their generous

sponsorship of the 2012 Hopkins

House

Venetian Masquerade Ball

“Motown at the Ritz-Carlton”.

2012 Crystal Sponsor

Save the Date!

Hopkins House

2013 Annual Heart of the Community Awards

Date:

Thursday, Feburary 07, 2013

Time:

6 pm - 8 pm

Place:

The Carlyle Club

411 John Carlyle Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

Sponsorship Opportunities

Gold Heart Sponsor ($15,000) Pink Heart Sponsor ($2,500)

Red Heart Sponsor ($5,000) Yellow Heart Sponsor ($1,000)

Orange Heart Sponsor ($500)

Chair

James L. McNeil Vice Chair

Mark Eisenhour Secretary/Treasurer

Julie N. Jakopic President/CEO

J. Glenn Hopkins

Beverly Barr

Kevin Bergen

Robert L. Bogan

Kerry J. Donley

Darrall Griffin

David G. Gompert

Harry “Bud” Hart

Michael Hart

Charniele Herring

Robert Hicks

Willard Jasper

Clarence A. Johnson

Gregory H. Leisch

Amy Liu Witmer

Juliette McNeil

Alvin E. Nashman

Elizabeth Partoyan

Justin M. Wilson

Chair

Darrall Griffin Vice Chair

Beverly Barr Assistant Vice President

James Dabney

Cary Garcia

Lula Gaskin

Harry “Bud” Hart Resource Development Assistant

Candice Hayes

President/CEO

J. Glenn Hopkins

Michelle Jackson

Cynthia King

Beverly Moses

Petra Osborne

Monica Thibeaux

Hopkins House Board of Trustees

2012 Masquerade Ball Host Committee

Helen Day

Preschool Academy

1224 Princess Street


Phone: 571-480-4081

Fax: 703-683-3056

James L. & Juliette McNeil

Preschool Academy

8543 Forest Place


Phone: 571-480-4261

Fax: 571-480-4279

Early Childhood Learning Institute

(ECLI)

5904 Richmond Highway, Suite 540


Phone: 571-480-4285

Fax: 703-347-6867

Hopkins House

Central Office



Phone: 571-480-4094

Fax: 703-347-6867

Hopkins House - A Learning Center for Children and Their Families

www.hopkinshouse.org

Aid for Child Care Drops When Its Needed Most

Sabrina Tavernise - The New York Times - December 13, 2011

BALTIMORE – With states under pressure to cut their budgets and federal stimulus money gone, low-income

working parents are facing a paradox. Just when they have to work longer hours to make ends meet, they

are losing access to the thing they need most to stay on the job: a government subsidy that helps pay for

child care.

The subsidy, a mix of federal and state funds that reimburses child care providers on behalf of families, is

critical to the lives of poor women. But it has been eaten away over the years by inflation and growing

need and recently by state budget cuts, leaving parents struggling to find other arrangements to stay

employed.

“States have dropped their investment in child care substantially”, said Lind Saterfield, vice chairwoman of

the National Association of State Child Care Administrators, who oversees child care for the state of Illinois.

“We’re being expected to do more with less.” Her state has toughened eligibility for the subsidies and

raised co-payments from families to cover the growing demand.

Sheontay Smith, a single mother in Baltimore, and her son are among nearly 8,000 families on a waiting

list for the subsidy in Maryland. Pennsylvania’s list doubled last year to more than 10,000 children, and

Arkansas’ quadrupled to 11,000, according to the National Women’s Law Center.

At least two states, Arizona and Utah, are no longer appropriating state general funds for child care at

all.

According to a recent report by the law center, families in 37 states were worse off this year than last

year as waiting lists grew, co-payments rose, eligibility tightened, and reimbursement rates for providers

stagnated.

“We recognize that this is a tough time for states”, said Shannon Rudisill, who oversees the subsidy pro-

gram at the Administration for Children and Families, which is part of the Department of Health and Human

Services. “They have a hard set of choices that they have to negotiate.”

She said President Obama had recommended an increase in the subsidy in the 2011 budget, but that it

had not been approved by Congress. Stimulus money, which had raised financing by a fifth in 2009 and

2010, is now gone.

Christian Griffith, chief consultant of the California Assembly Budget Committee, said the state cut $335

million in child care financing this year, and with hundreds of millions in cuts to other public services -courts,

schools, and the public university system - ”there aren't many good options at this point”.

The nonprofit Child Care Resource Center, which determines eligibility for the subsidy for thousands of

families in northern Los Angeles County, said it had noted a 13 percent decline in licensed child care cen-

ters since June 2010 as budget cuts reduced the number of families on the subsidy.

The reduction is prompting advocates for poor women to question whether the implied social contract that

emerged during the federal welfare overhaul in the 1990s - that women go to work in exchange for help

with child care - is fraying.

“There’s a long store of recognition that child care is essential to helping low-income women work”, said

Helen Blank, the director of public policy at the National Women’s Law Center, who helped shape child

care policy in the 1990s. “That commitment is being eroded.”

For children and families waiting for subsidy, life becomes a kaleidoscope of caretakers. Women inter-

viewed said they left their children with grandparents, neighbors, cousins, siblings, and colleagues at a nail

salon. Such ad hoc arrangements hinder early-childhood development, state administrators say, just as

states are trying to make it a priority.

One mother on a waiting list in Virginia said her 11-year old daughter rode around in a city bus after

school, watched over by the driver who is the girl’s grandmother, until the mother got off work. The smaller

safety net comes as the share of working Americans under or just above the poverty line - the target group

for the subsidy, which is linked to income - is the highest in years. And while demand for the subsidy de-

clined with the recession, it has shot back up in many states as employment has returned, putting a strain on

child care resources.

“We’ve seen quite a steep increase in demand”, said Elizabeth Kelley, director of Maryland’s Office of

Child Care.

Ms. Smith, who works full time at the Baltimore Housing Authority, has been on a waiting list since last sum-

mer. She applied because her son’s father stopped paying child support, and the monthly $520 she need-

ed for her 3-year-old’s day care was more than her $22,000 salary could support.

She took her son out, but ended up losing half her paycheck in unpaid days off because her regular baby

sitters, among them Ms. Smith’s grandmother, who is on kidney dialysis, fell through. The only way to get

the subsidy, her case worker told her, was to stop working and go on welfare. (In Maryland, someone on

welfare is automatically eligible.)

“Is the system set up for me to fail? Because that what it feels like”, said Ms. Smith.

Her son is now back in day care, at the expense of other bills. Her phone was cut off this week, and she is

behind on her gas, electricity, and care insurance.

Another hurdle has been the rates at which the centers are reimbursed. The law center’s report found that

only three states reimburse at federally recommended levels, down from 22 in the beginning of the dec-

ade, and some providers say they can no longer afford to take families on subsidies. Toni Cacace-

Beshears, who runs a network of child care centers in southeastern Virginia, said families on the subsidy

paid at rates so far below her other customers - about two-thirds - that she had to do fundraising to help

make up the difference.

“I’m subsidizing my subsidized clients”, she said. The gap created a shortfall over the past year of about

$272,000 - or about 14 percent of her child care budget.

Parents in income brackets that are a little higher pay more as a result. Monica Jackson, a bakery worker

and a pharmacy technician in Norfolk, VA, was told that she and her husband, an Army reservist who is

looking for work, did not qualify for the subsidy because their income, around $20,000, is too high, a ruling

she is disputing. They cannot afford child care, which Ms. Jackson said cost $1,400 a month, more than their

rent.

“What do you tell people who call you for an interview?” she asked. “’I’m bringing my 3-year-old and 11-

month old?”

Those who have the subsidy live in fear of losing it. Lori Lebo, a customer service worker for an electricity

company in Pennsylvania, said she had to ask her new boyfriend and her 8-year-old son to watch her

baby girl, who was at home screaming with fever, because she had received too many warnings at work

about taking time off to care for her.

“If we get removed, it will be back on the waiting list for both kids”, she worried. That will be havoc for a

new job.”

Hopkins House

“A Learning Center for Children and Their Families”



www.hopkinshouse.org

hopkins house 2012 venetian masquerade ball “motown · pdf filehopkins house 2012...

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