Fun Fact!
3.1 miles is the distance from each of our Girls Inc. centers to one of our partner organizations!
3.1 miles from the Girls Inc. Schenectady location at 962 Albany St., takes you to the SUNY Schenectady campus via State St. Here’s a message from SUNY Schenectady President Dr. Steady Moono!
3.1 miles from the Girls Inc. Albany location at 80 Central Ave., takes you to the University at Albany via Washington Ave. Hear from our partner, Assistant Dean Deberneen Pivott!
July 30 – August 1, 2021
Virtual – anywhere you are!
When you support the Girls Inc. Virtual 5K and Family Fun Weekend, you help move our mission forward in a strong, smart, and bold way!
Join us (virtually) for 3.1 miles of fun! Over the course of three days, we encourage you to try new activities and tally those miles in whichever way is most fun for your family – run, walk, hike, bike, swim, kayak, skate….
Prizes will be awarded to the most creative finisher photos submitted. Tag us @girlsincgcr on Instagram or @girlsinccapitalregion on Facebook.
Special thanks to our generous sponsor, PriceChopper/Market32!
Questions? Contact Renee Kelly, Director of Development, at [email protected]
On May 6, 2021, we welcomed members of the community to our Albany location for a special evening of art and inspiration! Guests enjoyed a one-of-a-kind program highting the mission of Girls Inc. – inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Guests moved throughout the following exhibits in a COVID-conscious fashion:
GALLERY & SILENT AUCTION
A showcase of original pieces created by the girls we serve, including acrylics on canvas and hand-beaded jewelry, and featuring two specially commissioned pieces by local female artists Mack Wells and Alicia Lea. In addition to artwork, the auction include a Girls Inc. swag basket and autographed copies of Nyasia’s Bee-utiful Discovery and Adeline.
READINGS
Schenectady native and Girls Inc. alumna, Ashley Charleston, read from her recently published children’s book, Nyasia’s Bee-utiful Discovery. Guests had the opportunity to ask questions of this middle school teacher-turned-author and also meet her niece, Nyasia, the inspiration behind the book. A high school junior at Emma Willard School, Cassandra Carraher is a long-time youth volunteer at Girls Inc.! Her passion for literacy began when her Girl Scout troop collected more than 2,400 books to start a library in Africa. Then in 2016, she wrote and published, Adeline. Cassandra shared her journey to publish her first novel and plans for her second novel with guests.
PERFORMANCES
Guests were wow-ed by the girls’ modern dance performances!
Ashley Charleston is a self-publishing author, special education ELA teacher. She received her bachelors of arts in English from the University at Albany and her masters of arts in African-American Literature from the North Carolina A&T State University. She believes that her words can change the world. She hopes to inspire children to write themselves into existence.
Mackenzie Wells is an abstract fluid artist from upstate New York. Her education and background focused on the arts, but she did not find her passion for painting until her late twenties. She gathers much of my inspiration from personal experiences, the environment, and photographs that she takes.
Cassandra Carraher is a Junior at Emma Willard School. She became passionate about literacy in 2014, when her Girl Scout Troop 2304 collected over 2400 books to start a library in Lesotho, Africa. Cassandra started volunteer reading at Girls Inc. in 6th grade and continued for three years. In 2016 Cassandra decided to write and self-publish her first novel, inspired by her love of literacy and her stubborn persistence to show that anyone can accomplish anything. Adeline was published in 2018, and told the story of a servant of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of Girl Scouts, who (despite the time period) treated everyone with kindness. That year Cassandra hosted a book-signing at Girls Inc. and donated 100 copies of Adeline. Recently Cassandra has been organizing events such as the Storytelling Gala, to help create a virtual library for Girls Inc. Now in 2021, she is writing another novel. This novel tackles current issues that teens face and is planned to be completed during Cassandra’s senior year.
Alicia Lea is a native from upstate New York and always held a high interest in being creative from a young age. Spending most of her time painting, drawing and making jewelry, she carried all of these talents into her adult life. After completing her degree at Hudson Valley Community College, she continued her education at SUNY Albany. Briefly being homeless (staying in abandoned places in Albany NY) while putting herself through college, Alicia discovered her love for abandoned architecture while in her first years of college by exploring dilapidated buildings and painting graffiti with her classmates. Transferring to SUNY Albany and taking other courses in multimedia she began to explore the use of texture and space. This translated in her personal work by focusing on absence, decay and melancholy of the buildings in her current environment. Alicia has exhibited art throughout the capital region. Not only finding love in art, Alicia also found love in teaching people of all ages how to create and paint, while having fun! After working at a local sip and paint studio for five years, Alicia is now opening her own studio and gallery in Cohoes NY called “Paint Cohoes: Studio and Gallery”.
