Outreach Programs

     Outreach programs at St. Paul's Episcopal Church encompass 'On-Going' financial and volunteer support of local and international ministries.

Adopt-A-Classroom

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – School #9 

      From mid-October through mid-May, the Adopt-a-Classroom program provides literacy tutors for students in seventeen (17) “adopted” classrooms in the Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade at School #9. St. Paul’s provides training, and educational materials for use during the weekly tutoring sessions. In order to encourage further reading during school breaks, each student we tutor receives a bright blue book bag filled with five new books before their February break and again before summer vacation in June. Additionally, St. Paul’s provides an annual vocabulary-building field trip to Springdale Farm for all five of the Kindergarten classrooms at School #9, as well as cakes and volunteers to serve them for the annual Kindergarten Moving Up celebration in June.

     During the 2011/12 school year, St. Paul's will provide funding for the Genesee Country Village's Moveable Museum to visit 2nd and 4th graders at School #9. These visits will help prepare 4th grade for their annual visit to the museum, and the instruction to the 2nd graders will tie into with their World History curriculum.

     Beginning in the 2011/12 school year, St. Paul's is taking on an initiative begun by St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, and will be providing a new book for each student in the school, regardless of whether they are in the tutoring program, on the occasion of their birthday. With this gift we will be reminding each student that they are remembered, that they have intrinsic value and that their education is important to their community. 

     Funding for Adopt-a-Classroom comes primarily from St. Paul's and the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester. Our program also receives financial support and in-kind gifts from St. Peter's and St. Thomas' Episcopal Churches, from friends of the program, and from the Volunteers of America.

     Our 59 (and counting!) tutors and volunteers come from eight parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester, as well as from St. Mary’s, St. Louis', and Guardian Angels' Roman Catholic Churches and Incarnate Word Lutheran Church. As word of our tutoring program has spread, friends of our tutors have joined the Adopt-a-Classroom team. We would be happy to have you join us!

     Please contact: Patti Blaine at (585) 354-1703 or send an e-mail to pattiblaine@gmail.com

     St. Paul's Adopt-a-Classroom tutoring program was the focus of WXXI's AM 1370 Connection/Education Friday segment for an hour on the 11th of November 2011. If you would like to listen and learn more about the program, here is a link to the MP3-formatted interview:

     http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wxxi/local-wxxi-993701.mp3