Message from Our Executive Director

Happy New Year to You All! The First Tee of Charlotte is excited to begin the next decade and the next phase of programming. This will include more participants, new opportunities, and ALL FUN! We are working hard to ensure that our participants get the most out of the resources that my Board of Trustees and I work so hard to secure.

We have listened to your suggestions and requests and hopefully have planned a year of activities, events and opportunities that will please everyone. To begin with, our program will be making a strong push to re-introduce our study hall program. This is an excellent opportunity for participants to get assistance with homework, utilize our new computer lab and have a quiet, safe place to complete assignments. The 2010 Program Schedule is now available on our website through the entire year. You can feel free to register for any and all programs that we offer through the end of the year, including the Spring Clinic for the first time online!!! In addition, we have heard your requests for golf clubs and other equipment and accessories, thus we will be hosting a rummage sale at The First Tee of Charlotte from February 15 - March 8. You can come and browse our donated and gently used inventory to acquire a set of clubs, accessories or other equipment for your child for a nominal fee of just $5. Everything is $5!!!! That's right, $5 for a set of clubs, or a golf bag, or a goodie bag full of accessories, etc.! (Stay tuned for more information on this great opportunity) Also, A/B Honor Roll will play a key role this year so please remember to turn in your report cards as soon as they come in. We can take a copy (which can be made at the Learning Academy) or an email report to send in to our Home Office. Finally, by popular demand, our "Buzz" Newsletter will be distributed more frequently, every other month! Now you can stay on top of all of the news throughout the year.

As you can see we have been hard at work to make our 2010 great. But all is for nothing if you don't take advantage of all of these great new opportunities. We are looking forward to seeing more faces in our place this year as well as Parent involvement. I would like to take this time to introduce the members of our Parent Advisory to you, Priti Aery, Chris Carson, Teresa Johnson, Jeffrey Hart, Bridgett Weeks, and Helen Borbor. These dedicated parents act in an advisory capacity to our staff to make suggestions and be the voice of our families regarding programming, events and the overall image and well-being of the program for our Participants. They will be readily recognizable when they are at the Learning Academy so please share with them an thoughts you may have on what we are doing right or could improve on!

In addition, we have instituted a Participant Advisory and now have a direct line to the pulse of our Participants. This group of young people have been selected because of their commitment to our program, exemplary Life Skills and potential to lead. These Participants' duties are similar to those of the Parent Advisory in giving feedback to our Director of Programs regarding just what is important to the Participants and how we can improve the quality of our programming. Boy do they have some great suggestions on line for 2010...just wait and see!

As always we thank you for your participation and look forward to seeing all of you just as soon as the weather breaks. Just a few dates to remember below:

Facility Open for Practice on Teacher Workdays: January 25, February 15, & April 2, 2010

February 15 - March 8: The First Tee of Charlotte $5 Madness!!! Rummage Sale

April 5-9: 5th Annual Spring Swing Jr. Golf Clinic; registration deadline, March 26th

Sincerely Yours,

Vincent King
Executive Director