GivaGeta

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Family Fun Night

GivaGeta recently announced the $500 grand prize winner of the GivaGeta Family Fun Night, hosted by Jim Cantoni, GivaGeta Co-Founder, and sponsored by Pazzo's and Webster Bank.  The recipients of the grand prize were Glastonbury residents, Jim and Sue Buckley, who invited their family friends, Bernie and Myra Lee along with their children, for dinner at Pazzo’s that included family games and activities that help build a “House of Character” using the Teamwork and Familyplay edition of The World's Kindest Playing Cards. "This is way better than 24,” said 10 year old Kiera Buckley while selecting character traits for the foundation.

Sue Buckley promptly emailed GivaGeta the next day saying, "The Lees and the Buckleys all had such a great night. I just wanted to drop you this quick note to let you know how much we all loved the evening. You and Tony [Albano, Pazzo's owner] were wonderful to put it together for us. THANK YOU!!!!"

Shown hugging Jim Cantoni is Jim and Sue Buckley with their children Jamie and Kiera, as well as Bernie and Myra Lee, with their children Owen and Paige.  Click here to view more photos of the families building a "House of Character" or view the video.

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May 5, 2010 - Character building workshop to develop girls as leaders

Program Goals:

1. Create character building teachable moments to Give understanding ... Get understood™ with  positive values in a fun filled way.
2. Help develop girls of courage, confidence and character and leaders who help make the world a better place.

Results:

The girls raved about the afternoon, thank you again!

~ one of the Mom's

Activity Description: The Ice breaking activity was GivaGeta Memory Match with a GivaGeta Positive Pen™ being awarded to girls who took initiative. The pens come in assorted colors with short, catchy positive GivaGeta Kindness messages on them. Examples of the positive values are Give courage ... Get courageous™, Give confidence ... Get confident™, Give kindness ... Get kindness™ and more.

When the Give a high five ... Get a high five™ card is read, we then transition to this energizer and share the power of a high five, of course with new high fives!  Everyone learns the new ones and then gets a chance to share theirs.

The closing activity is GivaGeta Ambassador which the girls select their favorite positive value and share with the group when they chose it.

Click on the image to see more workshop photos

Click on the image to see more workshop photos

April/2010 - Inclusion Project Conference Workshop

Program Goals:

1. Create opportunities for Inclusion Project Partners traveling all across the United states to meet, network and learn about each other in hopes of making connections and developing relationships.
2. Share new training ideas for character, leadership and team development activities that all Partners can use with staff and transfer onto kids - of all ages and abiliities
3. Discussion about trust and how to help parents feel comfortable when sending their special needs child to camp

Results:

"It went fantastic! They were engaged and as good a discussion as we had about Family Communication...I'll also be using your stuff in every new camp training I do. So excited! Thanks!"

~ Aron Hall, National Program Manager

From their website, "The National Inclusion Project serves to bridge the gap that exists between young people with disabilities and the world around them. We partner with communities and inclusive programs creating awareness about the possibilities that inclusion can bring.

Inclusion is giving people their rightful opportunity to participate. We work every day to make full inclusion a reality. Since our inception, we have made a real impact by ensuring that children nationwide can experience all that life has to offer."

Jan/2010 - Middle Level School Leadership Conference, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT.

Program Goal: Engage students in activities to build a climate of acceptance, using the Socratic learning style of asking to help them discover ways how to make a difference at school, and help them understand leadership characteristics with activities that foster interaction, communication and cooperation. Result: Implementation of additional workshops.

Student Comments:

1. It was a lot of fun while at the same time learning about being nice, respectful, etc.
2. It was fun working with new kids.
3. This is way better than school.
4. AWESOME workshop, very educating and enjoyable. Thank you.
5. This was a lot of fun and very effective.
6. I think this impacted everyone a lot and I had a really great time!
7. I thought it was cool to interact with new people, I made some new friends.
8. The activities were fun & I was able to understand the qualities of a true leader.
9. I really liked the House [of Character].
10. I liked having the cards and making the character houses because everything said about that was true. I also liked receiving the pens.
11. I thought it was good how you kept the students involved.

Thank you to Smith Middle School for choosing GivaGeta to represent them at the state CAS/CIAC Middle Level Leadership Conference.

Feb 3rd 2010 - Unified Sports Pilot I, Middle & High School Students

Program Goals:

1. Bring Athletes and Partners closer together.
2. Engage them in valuable lessons that will help sustain them throughout their life.

Results:

1. 100% found it effective to bring athletes and partners closer together
2. 100% said they were engaged in valuable lessons that will help sustain them throughout their life
3. 97% indicated that they were engaged in activities that foster interaction, communication, and cooperation
4. 100% found the activities fun
5. 98% learned how to create a positive and constructive climate in school
6. 94% reported learning how a school community can make acceptance acceptable

Student Comments:

1. I enjoyed coming to this meeting and learned some new things.
2. It was a fun way to interact with others and people.
3. I liked how we could share our feelings and laugh with everyone.
4. I found it very engaging and beneficial.
5. I liked how we were involved in many activities. It helped me learn.

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Feb 23rd 2010 -  School Nurses' Teambuilding Workshop

Program Goals:

1. Teambuilding for school nurses who do not work in the same office and serve 20 schools throughout Connecticut.
2. Help make connections and build relationships.
3. Activities that can transfer onto the kids and staff in each of their schools.

Results: Program Manager very happy with the teambuilding activities.

Feb 25th 2010 - Unified Sports Pilot II School Students

Program Goals:

1. Bring Athletes and Partners closer together.
2. Engage them in valuable lessons that will help sustain them throughout their life.

• 100% of participants in this workshop reported they learned how to create a positive and constructive climate in school
• 82% learned what they could do to minimize the chances of bullying and teasing taking place
• 91% reported learning how a school community can be inclusive of new students
• 100% of participants indicated that they would recommend this workshop

Student Comments:

1. I chose a positive attitude [card] and this goes for everyone on the team. We had a game yesterday and I got to play and you guys were all very encouraging and positive and I really appreciate that. Thank you.
2. It was great!
3. I had fun.
4. I feel if we worked with other schools, it would be neat to meet new people.  I liked how Jim remembered names and little details, that helped us all to feel comfortable.  I thought that the lessons learned didn’t only help my school career, but I can use these lessons all through life.
5. Mr. Cantoni did a really great job at connecting with all of us, and I really liked the way he tried to really get to know us by learning something about each of us!  Thanks so much!
6. I had fun today. It was great! Thank you.
7. I think it was good to help us learn different things we might not know about each other.

October 2009 – An Early Learning Center Pre-K to 12 Years old.

Program Goal: Team building with Management & Staff that can transfer right onto the kids

Result: Recommendations to other centers.

August 2009 - Staff orientation & Professional Development and a Train the Trainer program to reduce emotional bullying at a K-8 Catholic School.

Program Goal: The focus was to provide Learn by Doing tools that teachers and counselors can use to team build and to proactively reduce emotional bullying in school.

Five months later one student was in attendance at the Jan/2010 Leadership Conference above. She was thrilled to see GivaGeta materials and commented: "I think GivaGeta was a great program, but I was sad that we didn’t sing the GivaGeta song [like they do at her school], but it’s OK! I had a lot of fun."

Result: School wide implementation of 17 Educational Kindness™ Leadership Tool Kits by GivaGeta Smiles.

July 2009 – Build Community & Train The Trainer Teacher & Counselor – K-12, Miami, Florida.

We are very grateful for all workshops, this one was particularly rewarding as some people find time to sift through the relevant email newsletters. It started out as the Superintendent of Schools responded to our GivaGeta News, our email newsletter, asking us to contact the Instructional Support Specialist and Program Director for the Partnership in Character Education. The Program was three days of workshops at their Annual Character Education Conference with three workshops of three hours each.

Program Goal: Improve Climate and Culture of the District and help Develop Habits of the Heart.

Result: A total of 25 Educational Kindness™ Leadership Tool Kits by GivaGeta Smiles. A workshop order for five tool kits and one month after the workshop 20 more.

June 2009 – Connecticut Region 17 School District

Program Goal: Tools to assist State Of Connecticut initiative to improve School Climate & Culture

Result: District Wide Implementation of 63 Leadership Tool Kits, then after orientation using the materials, reorders for more.

Two months at a conference the Superintendent said,

"I have been meaning to tell you, this year, because of giving all my teachers your GivaGeta Educational & Corporate Kindness™ Leadership Tool Kits, I received more thank you's than any other year in my history of being a Superintendent."

~ Gary Mala, Superintendent of Schools

"It's an authentic resource and we want to continue to use for social and emotional development and teambuilding."

~The School Principal

May 2009

Program Goal: Improve K-5 School Climate & Culture, Glastonbury, CT

Result: Outfit the school with ten Educational Kindness™ Leadership Tool Kits by GivaGeta Smiles™ and then calls from the Superintendent's Office to outfit five more schools in the school district.

Principal, School Psychologist and Program Manager comments:

"The GivaGeta cards were a great way for us to start discussions with our Student Council in the Leadership Training workshop.
We used them in small groups to prioritize the characteristics of a great leader. Then we talked about why we chose each one. We could have talked forever! The kids were really excited to share their ideas just by using the cards. We then had them make a "House of Cards" using their problem-solving skills. They loved it!"

Engage Kids in Valuable Lessons that will help sustain them for life. There were teambuilding and get to know you activities using the cards. "These are great tools to have in your pocket to work on with kids." The school psychologist continued with, "Positive school climate and culture is the cornerstone and foundation to all other learning. It [GivaGeta] helps you do that in a fun, positive and interactive way. [...] in a well formatted lesson plan."

Break the ice with character to build community and bring people closer together:

Activities included ice breakers to build community. "We have since used it with the kids and it is really fun.," said the Principal. "Everybody is seeing the possibilities. We paired kids up who did not know each other that well and it helped them get to know each other. Teachers and faculty who participated at the school found this to be a great resource as well." According to the school psychologist, the cards provided "a lot of great thought-provoking questions. One of the highlights was the 'Getting to Know You' activity. I'm really looking forward to use these, especially in the beginning of the year, to get students to quickly work together as a cohesive team unit. We got a lot out of the activities and having the Give Teamwork ... Get Results [character development team activities] programming book was very helpful."

May 2009 - ACA Camp West – Program Goal: Developing Positive Relationships, Las Vegas, NV.

Result: Over 25 Camps and youth development organizations implementing The GivaGeta Collection of Learn By Doing tools and Educational Kindness™ Leadership Toolkits.

July 2008 - State of Connecticut Staff Networking Day.

Program Goal: To build community as they merged 5 regions into one and many people for years have spoken on the phone but never met. The program Manager wanted the team to have fun and engage them in activities that bring people together, make connections and build community.

Result: "It was the perfect icebreaker"
~ The Program Manager