Text 'Yes' for ABC

Submitted Release 

Starting today, volunteers from the nonprofit ABC House will text and call neighbors and friends as part of ABC’s annual phone-a-thon.  The fundraisers will gather weeknights at Mitchell Volvo until Nov. 14.  

For 40 years, the ABC program has supported minority students with academic promise from disadvantaged areas as they attend Simsbury High School. ABC’s goal is to prepare the students for college.  The program’s success rate is superb, with virtually all students in recent memory attending such four-year colleges as Bates, Providence, and the London School of Economics. For many of these students, college is a first for their grateful families.  

Currently, seven students—all male—live in the ABC House, a weathered brick home on Hopmeadow Street, under the supervision of residential staff and volunteers.  Students also are paired with host families that have sons in the students’ grade. One weekend per month and one evening per week, students stay with their host families.

“Our success depends on the community’s support and generosity,” says Linda Schofield, ABC’s co-president, noting in particular Mitchell Volvo’s role in hosting the phone-a-thon for the past several years.  The phone-a-thon generates about one third of the nonprofit’s operating budget of $93,000.  Grants from   local businesses and civic organizations and donations from ABC’s mailing campaign make up the balance. ABC receives no government support.

For more information about ABC, the website is:  http://www.simsburyabetterchance.org/