Student stories, community partners take center stage at Just for Girls luncheon in Bradenton
BRADENTON -- At her last school, Chenya McDuffie was focused more on her looks and less on her grades. By the middle of last year, she was failing her classes.
Her mother pulled her out and enrolled her in the Jane B. Pratt Alternative Education Program, run by the nonprofit Just for Girls.
This year, Chenya is 14, and in eighth-grade after being honored as the best seventh-grade student last year.
"This school is very important to me and my family. Just for Girls has changed my life forever," Chenya said to a group of Just for Girls supporters gathered at the Marriott Courtyard in downtown Bradenton on Wednesday for the organization's annual awards luncheon and showcase.
The Just for Girls nonprofit runs summer programs, as well as before- and after-school programs; the alter
native education program; and a kindergarten through grade five charter school for girls in Manatee County. The organization opened as the Manatee County Girls Club in 1969, taking on the name Just For Girls in 1992. The alternative program opened in 1993 and was named after founder Jane B. Pratt in 2009. The charter school was approved by the school board and opened its doors in August 2012.
"We know what we do is working," CEO Becky Canesse said.
Just for Girls alumna Stefani Overturf was a testament to that. For four years, as her family life fell into pieces, Overturf attended the after-school and summer programs, she said. She remembers the first day she walked into the girls club, when she was 8, and the center was located near the library.
It was a hot, muggy, summer day. Overturf's father wasn't around and her mother had to work. Overturf had to go somewhere, she said. At Just for Girls, Overturf found the positive, constant steady she needy in her life, she said Wednesday.
"Kids crave routines and boundaries, and that is what Just for Girls provided," she said.
After four years, Overturf went to live with her paternal grandparents and stopped attending Just for Girls, and as she's struggled in her life throughout, she's turned back to some of the skills she's learned at Just For Girls.
Overturf is now married and runs Overturf Floor & Fabric Care with her husband. They were the 2015 winners of the Small Business of the Year Award.
"You can control how your future is shaped," she said. "We're all a work in progress."
The organization runs a center on 59th Street West in Bradenton, a center on 21st Street East in Bradenton and a center on 10th Street West in Palmetto. The charter runs out of the East Bradenton location, the alternative school is located at the Palmetto Center, and plans are underway to renovate and overhaul the West Bradenton center and move the charter school operation to that site, located next to the YMCA. Organizers are still fundraising for the renovation.
At the luncheon, the nonprofit awarded three honorary girls, community members who have given back to the organization. The Bradenton Kiwanis Club and Foundation, which donated the location at 59th Street West to Just for Girls in 1979; Tom Jess Silverberg, the owner of Jess Jewelers; and Sylvia Anderson Price, a longstanding supporter, were all deemed honorary girls.
In accepting her award, Price recalled the Just for Girls motto, "Together, we are helping girls achieve their full potential."
"This is certainly what they're doing," Price said.
Meghin Delaney, education reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7081. Follow her on Twitter @MeghinDelaney.
This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 11:09 PM with the headline "Student stories, community partners take center stage at Just for Girls luncheon in Bradenton ."