Last Thursday, we celebrated our 4th Annual Family & Coach Appreciation Party at Revel Fulton Market! This fun event brings together our coaches and families from across the city to celebrate their hard work and dedication throughout the year. Our coaches and families are two of the most committed groups of stakeholders Urban Initiatives has and without their support our programs wouldn’t work. The Family & Coach Appreciation Party allows us to spend an evening with them, thank them, and share a meal.
The party kicked off at 6 p.m. and all attendees were encouraged to participate in our many fun activities. Attendees played games, took photos at our picture stations, viewed our data walk, enjoyed some delicious passed appetizers, and had the opportunity to connect with UI staff and other families.
Urban Initiatives was fortunate to have many volunteers on duty to help us manage all the fun activities during the course of the evening. Members of our Associate Board, Board of Directors, and Partners Board came out to volunteer. They helped facilitate games, serve food, and welcome our guests. Many thanks to this incredible group of volunteers for all their help!
We also use this party as an opportunity to honor a few extra special members of the Urban Initiatives team. We presented the Coach of the Year Award to Coach E from Greene Elementary. Coach E is known for being an incredible leader for his team. We also honored Janina Davis from Morton Elementary as our Parent of the Year. Janina spends her mornings and evenings working as the zone supervisor for the schools safe passage employees. Throughout the school day, she is serving as a support staff to teachers and other administrators. Janina is an incredible source of encouragement to the students and parents at Morton Elementary. Lastly, we recognized one of our long-serving coaches from Daley Elementary with the Recognition of Lifelong Service and Dedication. Arturo Jauregui has served the students and families of Daley for the past 13 years as a UI coach, mentor, and teacher, and we honored him for the great work, dedication, and passion in teaching our students about teamwork and leadership through sports.
We were proud to once again partner with our friends at Revel and Limelight to present this fun evening. Revel hosted us at their beautiful Fulton Market venue and Limelight provided our dinner. We are so grateful for their continued support of this event!
Program Manager of Family Engagement, Christina Valencia said, “Thank you to all the staff, volunteers, families, and students who came out to appreciate you all in being part of our team. I want to especially thank the parents for being committed, supporting us, engaging in our family events, and for continuing with us throughout the years in our continuum of programming to keep empower your kids and our students in becoming future community leaders.”
Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Fourth Annual Family & Coach Appreciation Party, we are already looking forward to next year!
