The Carter G. Woodson Scholarship and Community Service Foundation
“Education + Community Uplift = An Improved Quality of Life” became the motto of the foundation in the first year. The Woodsonian, the official newsletter of the foundation, was first published in the fall of 1996. It is published annually.
The Woodson Foundation operates four programs that directly benefit primarily Madison-area disadvantaged children and youth: Tutoring, Cultural Enrichment, Social Action, and Scholarship. For seven years, the Tutoring Program existed as a partnership with both the former South Madison Neighborhood Center and the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County. It provided tutorial services in reading, math, writing skills and penmanship to elementary students. The program was approved by Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF) of Washington, DC, in 1997 and has sponsored up to three RIF multicultural book distributions yearly at the Boys & Girls Club and the James C. Wright Middle School. RIF serves 3.74 million children in 17,000 sites in all 50 states and brings some 10.5 million books annually to children through a grassroots network of 219,000 volunteers. The foundation is now considering changing the focus from tutoring to mentoring but will still continue the book distributions.
The Cultural Enrichment Program promotes cultural opportunities for youth who lack access to major arts and cultural institutions. Some of its memorable field trips were to the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the DuSable Museum in Chicago. It is hoped that these experiences will help improve the self-esteem of participants and provide enrichment opportunities that the children may otherwise go without.
The Scholarship Program grants cash scholarships and/or book awards to college-bound, graduating high school seniors. Both scholarships and book awards have been presented to recipients since the inception of the foundation.
The foundation has an Executive Board of Directors. The 2010 Board members are Shannon Blackamore, president; Charles Brown, vice-president, Robert Jackson, secretary; Brian Russell , treasurer; Percy Brown Jr., Public Relations Director; Al Cooper, Parliamentarian; and Anthony Wade, Member At-Large.
The foundation aggressively seeks contributions for its programming from individuals, businesses, corporations, and foundations. All contributions are income tax deductible due to the 5.01(c)(3) status with the IRS. The Endowment Giving Program was initiated in 1997, and the foundation received its first $3,000.00 endowment in 1999 from Charles Calvin Peevy. The Endowment Program gives an opportunity for donors to help develop the financial resources that are needed to ensure the future of the foundation. The full endowment donor makes one minimum contribution of $3,000 whereas the sustaining donor pays a minimum of five equal installments of $600.00 for five years.
For more information on the Endowment Program, please write to:
Shanon Blackamore, President,
Carter G. Woodson Scholarship & Community Service Foundation, Inc.
P. O. Box 1494, Madison, WI 53701-1494