Wells Mountain Foundation

Congratulations again to our new class of WMF Scholars! We are so happy to welcome you to the Wells Mountain Family Foundation family.

The summer has been wonderfully busy and productive. Keep reading for more updates…

Summer Trip Scores in Haiti

WMF president, Tom Wells traveled to Haiti in July to visit the Kenscoff YMCA, funded by WMF last year. He also observed the play-off soccer games involving several teams formed during a two-week YMCA soccer camp. About 140 Haitian youth honed their soccer skills during the intensive training. A national YMCA team was selected who played other teams from Haiti. WMF sponsored the awards dinner and ceremony at the conclusion of the soccer camp. Jim Delia, one of Tom’s law partners, ran the program this year.

Literacy

We continue to enroll children under the age of five in the Imagination Library program here in Addison County, Vermont. Over 900 children now receive a new, hardcover book every month until age five, at no charge to the family. The cost of the books and mailing is covered by donations from organizations like WMF. We recently assumed responsibility to raise all necessary funds to cover the cost of Imagination Library for our five town area, a potential of 600 children or $18,000 a year!

Additionally, we also donated…

–dictionaries, almanacs and leveled reader paperbacks to the Addison County Back to School Shop. This shop is set-up in town for one day and is designed to aid families of limited financial means with the purchase of school supplies, at very reduced prices, for their children. Many children visited the shop and readied for and annual fist day of school.

–an assortment of picture books to the Read Now! Program in Paterson, New Jersey.

– five sets of Dorothy Canfield Fisher books and Red Clover books (40 books in each set) at cost to the Tari Shattuck Education Foundation. They, in turn, donate the books to the five local elementary school libraries in the Bristol area.

We once again ran our Book Angel program in 2008. With the assistance of WMF’s literacy committee and other Book Angel friends, we selected and wrapped books for over 250 children.

New Board Member…

Christopher Lutz, of Madison, NJ, joined our board in early 2009. Chris’ day job is with Morgan Stanley Smith and Barney as the Senior VP with the Global Wealth Management group. He has a healthy sense of community service spirit and is one of the powerhouses behind the annual Hoop-A-Paluza, an event that has raised over two million dollars for a variety of children’s charities in the NJ/NY area since 2002.