Brotherhood truly "Being the Change", ONE by ONE !
The month of December 2009 has being an exciting and momentous month for the Phoenix Military Academy’s male mentoring program, The Brotherhood. This week the Brotherhood received the first stage of funding for a THREE Phase book writing project. Fifteen of the current...
...Brotherhood participants have been reading Hill Harper’s inspirational book for young men, Letters to a Young Brother. However, we had to use Xerox copies of that book, but now with funding from various generous donors from around the country, the Brotherhood will be receiving 35 new copies of the novel from Barnes and Nobles. From now, until the end of March, the Brotherhood will be working on Phase II of the book writing project: writing our own letters to young men about our experiences and life lessons on various prevalent issues. The final step will be to publish our book through I-Universe, as our first published book from PMA Brotherhood participants. We hope this book inspires other young men to live their lives to the fullest, and we hope our life lessons, and even our mistakes encourage other young men in Chicago and beyond.
Brotherhood participants also strengthen their brotherly bond and teambuilding skills with a teambuilding day on Friday, December 4th. The Brotherhood Leadership Team held a teambuilding workshop from 12:30-5:30 on Friday. This included various teambuilding and theater activities helping the young men work together as a team to accomplish various goals, and learn about the importance of young men working together to be successful. In addition, Brotherhood participants with a 90% attendance average attended a healthy competition of an inventive sport, Whirlyball, at Lincoln Park’s Whirlyball location. We competed against one another on bumper cars, as we tried to score with lacrosse sticks and work with our teammates.
As we close the year, the Brotherhood will be organizing a business venture with their annual Hot Chocolate fundraiser during the week of December 8th to December 14th. 2009. The Brotherhood will also be co-leading a poverty and education campaign, along with Mr. Curtis’ Survey Literature courses, inspired by the ONE Campaign. The ONE campaign is an effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. As we begin to celebrate the holiday season, Brotherhood members and freshmen Survey Literature students will learn about poverty and educational needs in third world countries like South Africa and villages in Peru like Chincha and Pisco. We will wear ONE bracelets on Thursday and Friday to demonstrate our commitment to raise awareness about this issue and promise to read ONE novel over the holiday break. This simple act of reading will demonstrate our appreciation for free public education in America, while students in South Africa and Peru fail to receive free public education or the opportunity to attend post secondary education institutions.
2009 has been a great year for the Brotherhood, and we look forward to growing stronger together as brothers, and most importantly reflecting the characteristics of strong leaders, academically driven men, and positive role models.
