The giant retailer, Target, has a deal with “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and it could mean thousands for some lucky schools. Target has earmarked $5 million in grants for a slew of elementary and secondary schools recommended by the viewers of  the weekly talk/variety show.

Viewers will be required to submit their recommendations through the “Ellen” website and give a “compelling” reason why their school deserves one of the grants to improve its learning environment. Two of the winning schools will appear on the “Ellen” show.

In a post on the Philanthropy News Digest website, Laysha Ward, president of Target community relations said, “We are proud to team up with the Ellen DeGeneres Show and its viewers to help us select fifty schools to each receive a $100,000 grant that can be used to purchase the resources that students and teachers need to excel in the classroom.”

“Ellen” is taped at the Warner Bros. studio here in Burbank.

Photo: White House Blog -- 2010 NBA World Champion Los Angeles Lakers and President Obama came together for an afternoon of education and service projects with some Washington DC kids December 13, 2010

The repeat World Champion Los Angeles Lakers went  to the White House to celebrate a championship win last year. So this time around, they did something different to honor their latest accomplishment.

Earlier this month, on December 13, the Lakers visited with members of The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington. Part of the time was spent with the kids assembling care packages and writing letters to wounded military men and women, as well as putting together special gift kits for the homeless in DC. For fun, the players and coaches joined with the kids in a skills building game called, “Big Brain Academy Challenge.”

Also, helping sponsor the event, the league’s global social outreach program, NBA Cares.

“The Lakers have a proud tradition of performing community service in the L.A. community, and I’m glad that they took the time to help us during the holiday season here in Washington, D.C. We celebrate that spirit of service off the court — because it’s very hard to do what these guys do on the court, but everybody can serve off the court,” President Obama said later at a ceremony honoring the Lakers.  The full text of the President’s remarks on the White House website.

More on this event in this story on the  Lakers website. You can get updates on the Lakers in the sports section,  in the middle column,  of this blog.

The new school year is only about a week old , but it already has been an ordeal for some Burbank middle school students and their parents. As I first reported on this blog about a week ago, A Burbank city funded, long-running,  and very successful after school program was axed at David Starr Jordan Middle School, leaving some parents scrambling to find a safe alternative for their children.

One parent, I’m keeping her name confidential,  alerted me to the situation in an e-mail and has continued to give me her impressions of what the public is being told vs the reality of what’s going on. 

Last Tuesday, August 17, a Boys & Girls Club official told  me a new after school program sponsored by the club was available at Jordan Middle School. Yesterday, I found the club’s after school program listed on the Burbank Unified School District website.

However, the transition, from the old after school program to the new one, has been very bumpy, according to this parent who sent me an e-mail this evening:

“We signed up for Boys and Girls club today and happily paid our $75. No flyer was given to the children. The only way we would have known of it was through your blog.

I called B&G club about the privileges and the two people I spoke with didn’t know what I was talking about, neither did the person at Jordan so not sure what is involved.

At this stage, just glad I don’t have to worry about my child walking home (a kid was knocked down last week near the school) and am glad to be in a position to pay the $75 (cheaper than a speeding ticket).

So thanks Fronnie as you were hugely instrumental in getting this going. I am sick of paying and paying and getting shafted time and time again. No 13% pay raise for us.”

It’s a real bummer that these parents have been jerked around like this. These Burbank taxpaying citizens and their children deserve better from their city.

Photo: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times

Some stories make you want to cry and stand up and cheer — all at the same time. Crenshaw High School junior Sharron Pearson’s determination to go to a summer program at Oxford University and  the overwhelming financial support she has received from the public is just such a story. To say Pearson is bright is almost an understatement. She has a 4.2 grade-point average and is enrolled in a Los Angeles magnet program for gifted students.

As is the case for many families these days, money is tight. Her father said they could not afford the summer program at Oxford, but 17-year-old Pearson applied anyway. She got accepted with a scholarship. Yet, weeks before the first class on July 5, Pearson and her supporters were scrambling to raise $2,500 for airfare to London and to cover her other expenses.

Then an article about Pearson’s plight appeared on the Los Angeles Times website Tuesday, April 21 and the public came to the rescue. A special fund for Pearson was inundated with offers from as many as a thousand people, according to a follow up story today on the Times website.

A Crenshaw school official had said the fundraising would stop after the goal of $2,500 was met. I think the extra donations should go into the special fund for future needs. Pearson has high aspirations and the extra money will ease the burden on her family and help her reach her goals.  

After months of reports about billions of U.S. taxpayer bailout dollars going to arrogant Wall Street firms and financial institutions who’ve paid out millions in bonuses to their employees, it’s good to hear a story like Sharron Pearson’s where money is being well spent.

As a bright soft-spoken college student, President-elect Barack Obama spent two years at Occidental in nearby Eagle Rock. The young Obama, who went by the nickname of Barry then, transferred from the small but highly regarded liberal arts college to Columbia University in New York at the end of his sophomore year. He left some strong impressions with fellow Oxy students, surprisingly, those impressions were not the type they associated with someone who would one day be President of the United States.

Some of Obama’s Oxy classmates shared snippets of what the future President was like during his early college years in an article, “Obama at Occidental,” by Lyle James Slack in the January issue of the local Verdugo Monthly.  My favorite story  is from Ken Sulzer, a senior partner with a large international law firm, who was in one of Obama’s political science classes: “Obama and I were walking back to the dorm and — listen, I was a year older and I thought I was a pretty smart guy — so I say, ‘I got an A, Barry, what’d you get?’ And he kind of wouldn’t tell me and just tried to change the subject in his low-key cool way. So I grabbed his paper out of his hand — and he’d gotten an A-plus. That’s when it hit me just how bright he was.”

 Obama would spend many more years studying, listening, and learning without drawing a lot of attention to himself. A trait, that in retrospect, has served him well.

 Meanwhile, Oxy alumni will probably be trading more stories about their now famous classmate at a reception on January 19 in Washington D.C., the day before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president.

Burbank High School 1908-2008 

After more than two years in the planning, the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Burbank High School gets underway today. Over the next four days, there will be a wide variety of activities: from a golf tournament, to a parade, to campus tours, and various ceremonies and social events as part of the centennial celebration.

Some of the famous Burbank High alumni are actress Kim Fields, director Tim Burton, and Olympic gold medal winner, Cathy Ferguson. 

There is a good story by Linda Mustion on valleynews.com about Burbank High, its history, the big celebration, and schedule of events.  Also, you can click over to www.burbankhigh100.com  for more information as well. 

Cal State Northridge got a gift recently that probably had officials dancing with glee. An anonymous donor sent the state university a cashier’s check for $5 million in the regular mail! The only request: that the funds be used for scholarships and student assistance.

University President Dr. Jolene Koester said, “… we pledge to be good stewards of these funds.” The multi-million dollar gift will create the Scottsdale Endowment and will target high-achieving incoming freshmen. The endowment got its name from the location of the bank that issued the check, Scottsdale, Arizona.

According to CSUN Vice President of University Advancement, Vance Peterson, demand for financial aid and scholarship support has jumped more than 160 percent in the past year. Peterson says scholarships and financial aid from the gift will have a huge impact. “This can literally mean the difference between attending or not attending college for some of our students.”

Caltech founded in 1891

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena is small but mighty.  Caltech, a major research institution, has a student body of about three thousand. U.S. News & World Report has come out with its 25th annual best American colleges lists for 2009 and Caltech rated very high.

In the rankings of best national colleges for undergraduate studies Harvard topped the list at number one, followed by Princeton in second and Yale in third.

MIT and Stanford tied for fourth, while Caltech and the University of Pennsylvania tied in sixth. All of the colleges in the top ten have tuition of more than $30 thousand a year. Wow!  Higher education is rarely cheap, now it’s seriously expensive at the top notch universities.

Also, UC Berkeley ranked 21 and UCLA 25 on this list.

Details on the U.S. News & World Report website.

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The Verizon Foundation has awarded a one million dollar grant to the American Library Association to study video games. The Chicago-based organization will create a model for library gaming that can be used nationally. The ALA plans to work with 12 gaming experts in its research.
The findings will be used to build “The Librarians’ Guide to Gaming,” a comprehensive, online literary and gaming toolbox, which will be field tested by selected libraries.

“Gaming is a magnet that attracts library users of all types and, beyond its entertainment value, has proven to be a powerful tool for literacy and learning,” said ALA president Loriene Roy.
From Philanthropy News Digest

I spotted this notice in today’s Arts Funding Watch e-newsletter. The grants are being offered to organizations and individuals researching the impact of music on the human condition. Also, these grants are available for projects dealing with archiving and preserving the music and recorded sound heritage of the Americas.

For application guidelines go to www.grammyfoundation.com/grants