Urgent message from TRIO – Read letter below!

Dear TRIO Colleagues:

TRIO funding is in serious jeopardy. Our community needs to be active on all levels – from emailing Members of Congress and the White House to attending townhall meetings and speaking with your elected officials locally. 

Today, we are launching a petition on change.org asking Congress and the White House to protect TRIO funding and students. Please go to http://www.change.org/coe and sign this important petition and ask all of your contacts within your state to do the same (this includes TRIO staff, alumni, parents, students, friends, and family. Our goal is to have 5,000 signatures by Friday, July 22. Therefore, every signature is important! Once you have signed the petition, your congressional delegation (including both Senators and your Representative) will be contacted by change.org to let them know of your support. This is a very easy way to support your students and programs while also getting attention for TRIO in Washington, DC. Please remember, every signature counts so grab your neighbors and friends and stand up for TRIO!

 If you have any questions, please contact Rheanna Martinez (Rheanna.martinez@coenet.us) at COE. 

Thank you for standing up and fighting for TRIO,

Heather Valentine

Village Harmony, the unique and lively Vermont based youth world music singing ensemble, will perform at Northfield Mount Hermon as part of the group’s second summer concert series. The concert is sponsored by the Upward Bound Program at NMH.

Village Harmony will perform on July 14 at 7:00 pm at Raymond Hall, Rhodes Arts Center. The suggested admission is $10 for general admission at the door or $5 for students and seniors. For more information, call (413) 498-3652.

The 24 teenage singers of Village Harmony will perform gospel and jazz arrangements, as well as traditional music from the Balkans, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. The group is led by ethnic music specialists John Harrison, Natalie Nowytski, and Olga Velitchkina.

Harrison is the long time leader of the Montpelier, Vermont Community Gospel Choir and also an experienced jazz singer and musician. Nowytski, from St Paul Minnesota, sings and teaches the vocal styles and timbres used in traditional singing from Eastern Europe and Ukraine. Velitchkina, a Russian native from Paris, France, specializes in Russian village music and also in some of the earliest forms of Russian liturgical music.

Village Harmony’s recordings and songbooks will be available for sale at the concert. To download PR photos of the group, visit http://www.villageharmony.org/PR/ 

About Village Harmony: Village Harmony is an umbrella organization based in Vermont dedicated to the study and performance of ethnic singing traditions from around the world.  Each summer the group sponsors 10 ensembles of teen and adult singers in New England and in numerous foreign countries. Each group develops its own unique sound with a different international team of leaders, but all share common traits: a powerful, natural, unrestrained, vocal sound; a remarkable variety of vocal styles and timbres, as appropriate to the many varieties of ethnic and traditional music; and the visible, vibrant community among the singers and audience as they share in a joyous celebration of music.

Political leaders are NOT talking about TRiO right now. However, they are engaged in crucial conversations that will have a direct impact on whether any funding is available for TRIO in FY12 and beyond. 

•   Republicans are holding legislation to raise the debt ceiling hostage unless Democrats agree to include measures in the bill to reduce the federal deficit by cutting programs important to low-income Americans.

•  The United States will have to choose between paying its debts and funding domestic programs like Social Security, Medicare, etc.

•    Contact Vice President Joe Biden.  He is the White House’s lead negotiator on this issue.  Contact him by e-mail at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact AND by phone at (202) 456-1111. (Please note that phone lines are only staffed Monday-Friday, 9am – 5pm, Eastern Time.)

•   Contact Senator Harry Reid (D-NV). As the Majority Leader, Senator Reid is accountable to all American citizens for action in the U.S. Senate. He is and will continue to be a key figure in this fight. He knows about TRIO. Now we need him to stand up for TRIO! Contact him by e-mail at http://reid.senate.gov/contact/ AND by phone at (202) 224-7327.

•    Contact your Democratic Representatives and Senators in Congress. Republicans have dug in their heels on this issue. So, we must focus our energies on Democratic Senators and Representatives. Contact information for all legislators is available at http://www.contactingthecongress.org/.

•  Recruit five friends WHO DO NOT WORK IN TRIO to do the same!   Remember to also engage local leaders, parents, alumni and students as well.

Sample Message #1:    “As a citizen, I am very concerned that you and other Democrats are not going to stand up for the low-income people you represent in deliberations on the debt ceiling. Education programs that are important to me, like the Pell Grant and TRIO, are threatened by these negotiations. If we don’t educate our citizens, we will not be able to compete in the global economy.”

Sample Message #2:    “I am very concerned that the interests of our most vulnerable citizens will be ignored in the debt ceiling debate. Don’t trade the futures of the low-income students and families who rely on programs like TRIO and Pell in the name of fiscal responsibility. Cutting such programs would actually be fiscally irresponsible. Without an educated population, our economy will not survive. We, as citizens, are counting on you to protect our TRIO programs and the students and families served by them.”

UB scholars at Greenfield High School and Turners Falls High School are being recognized for their involvement and achievements in the program with the creation of a public bulletin board in each school. The boards feature photos from school-year services and Summer Academy events, UB news and recent events featuring students at the schools, recruitment information, graduating senior recognition, a “Hall of Fame” listing past UB graduates from each school and the college they attended, information about the UB tutors and descriptions of program services.

Check out the boards in the fall for updates. Student contributions are welcomed — let us know if you have ideas for our boards!