Sunrise on the Square 5K/10K Road Race is September 5!

CIS is so excited to unveil our beautiful new logo for the Sunrise on the Square Road Race! We are partnering with Main Street Newnan and Mike Fitzpatrick Ford in this year's Sunrise on the Square Road Race on Saturday, September 5, 2015. All proceeds from the race will benefit CIS of Coweta County.

The Sunrise on the Square Road Race is a local favorite and has been held annually in Downtown Newnan on the Saturday before Labor Day for over 25 years. The race begins in Downtown Newnan and spans through "The City of Homes," where runners will catch a glimpse of our beautiful historic intown neighborhoods and commercial district. The race is a USATF certified course (new in 2015), where runners will enjoy the diversity of terrain, including long, flat stretches, and downhill and uphill sections. The Sunrise on the Square Road Race welcomes runners and walkers of all skill levels to participate. Runners are given options to pursue a 1 Mile Fun Run, 5K route and a 10K route.

Early registration  is available through August 21, and 2015 run T-shirts are guaranteed for all runners who preregister by that date. If you'd like to download a registration form for the race, click here. 

School supply drive for ECHS teachers ends Wednesday!

United Way in Coweta County is partnering with CIS of Coweta to hold a school supply drive for East Coweta High School teachers. We'd love for all our supporters to drop off items or make a donation for purchasing supplies by visiting our website and clicking on the donate button.

The School Supply Drive runs through this Wednesday, July 29, 2015, and drop-off locations include:

• Hampton Inn (behind Red Lobster), 50 Hampton Way, Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital, 745 Poplar Rd., Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital Wellness Center, 26 W. Court Square, Newnan

• Senoia Cycle Works, 66 Main St., Senoia

• The Southern Credit Union, 232 Bullsboro Dr., Newnan

Items on the teacher supply wish list include binders (for students in need), chart paper markers, compasses, erasers, flash drives, graph paper, hand sanitizer, highlighters, loose leaf paper, mounting tape, paper towels, pencils (mechanical and #2), pens (red, black and blue), Post-It Chart Paper and Post-its, rulers, sanitizing wipes, sheet protectors, staplers/staples, tissues, white board cleaner and white board markers (low odor).

For more information, call Executive Director Gina Weathersby at 770-710-9540.

To download a flyer about the School Supply Drive to share at your organization or place of business, click here.

Our CIS Board of Directors!

Earlier this week, our CIS Board of Directors met at the Newnan Utilities Wahoo Creek Administration Building on Millard Farmer Industrial Boulevard. Our board works hard year round, and we're so grateful to this awesome group of individuals. Some of these board members are, clockwise from top left, Dennis McEntire, Rhodes Shell, Garnet Reynolds, Matt Brass, Vince Bass, Sally Hensley, Donna Brooks and Mary Ann Bell.

And here is a list of all our board members and the companies they represent. We hope you'll join us in thanking them for their service to CIS!

Communities In Schools of Coweta County
Board of Directors

Dennis McEntire, Chairman

Newnan Utilities

Donna Brooks

Community Volunteer, Incoming Board Chair

Vince Bass

Coweta County School System

Mary Ann Bell

Coweta-Fayette EMC

Keith Brady

Mayor, City of Newnan

Matt Brass

Office of Congressman Lynn Westmoreland

Jac Counts

Cancer Treatment Centers of America

Arthur “Skin” Edge

GeorgiaLink

Carole Ann Fields

Goodwill Industries

Sally Hensley

Community Volunteer

Gerald Kemp

Fidelity Bank

Lisa McDonald

Pots & Plans, Inc.

Garnet Reynolds

BB&T Bank

Rhodes Shell

Shell & Shepard Financial Services/City Councilman

J.P. Watson

The Heritage School

Bev Yeager

Retired Principal, Coweta County School System

Senoia Cycle Works among those collecting school supplies for CIS!

He may be joking around here, but Ty Ridgway at Senoia Cycle Works is seriously helping United Way in Coweta County and CIS of Coweta in our school supply drive for East Coweta High School teachers. We'd love for all of our supporters to drop off items or make a donation for purchasing supplies by visiting our website and clicking on the donate button.

The School Supply Drive runs now through July 29, 2015, and drop-off locations include:

• Senoia Cycle Works, 66 Main St., Senoia

• Hampton Inn (behind Red Lobster), 50 Hampton Way, Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital, 745 Poplar Rd., Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital Wellness Center, 26 W. Court Square, Newnan

• The Southern Credit Union, 232 Bullsboro Dr., Newnan

Items on the teacher supply wish list include binders (for students in need), chart paper markers, compasses, erasers, flash drives, graph paper, hand sanitizer, highlighters, loose leaf paper, mounting tape, paper towels, pencils (mechanical and #2), pens (red, black and blue), Post-It Chart Paper and Post-its, rulers, sanitizing wipes, sheet protectors, staplers/staples, tissues, white board cleaner and white board markers (low odor).

For more information, call Executive Director Gina Weathersby at 770-710-9540.

To download a flyer about the School Supply Drive to share at your organization or place of business, click here.

Video shows how CIS is 'Making a Difference'

Each year, CIS makes a difference in the lives of nearly 1.5 million children. Why should the entire community be concerned about dropouts? Because dropouts are more likely to:

• Live in poverty

• Suffer poor health

• Depend on public assistance

• Enter the criminal justice system

One way CIS helps is by providing students with such basic necessities as backpacks and school supplies, shoes and clothing, meals and food programs, transportation, tutoring and after-school programs, counseling, gang/violence prevention, college readiness, parent resource centers, low-cost clinics and dentist visits, eye checkups and glasses, and more.

"When you link those great resources with a kid that’s really in need, magic happens," said Dan Cardinali, national president of CIS. He also said that for every dollar invested in CIS, $11.60 is returned to the community in wages earned, taxes paid, health care costs reduced, social services saved, and criminal justice system avoided.

To watch the video for yourself, click here.

CIS School Supply Drive for teachers is now under way!

United Way in Coweta County is partnering with CIS of Coweta to hold a school supply drive for East Coweta High School teachers. We'd love for all our supporters to drop off items or make a donation for purchasing supplies by visiting our website and clicking on the donate button.

The School Supply Drive runs now through July 29, 2015, and drop-off locations include:

• Hampton Inn (behind Red Lobster), 50 Hampton Way, Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital, 745 Poplar Rd., Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital Wellness Center, 26 W. Court Square, Newnan

• Senoia Cycle Works, 66 Main St., Senoia

• The Southern Credit Union, 232 Bullsboro Dr., Newnan

Items on the teacher supply wish list include binders (for students in need), chart paper markers, compasses, erasers, flash drives, graph paper, hand sanitizer, highlighters, loose leaf paper, mounting tape, paper towels, pencils (mechanical and #2), pens (red, black and blue), Post-It Chart Paper and Post-its, rulers, sanitizing wipes, sheet protectors, staplers/staples, tissues, white board cleaner and white board markers (low odor).

For more information, call Executive Director Gina Weathersby at 770-710-9540.

To download a flyer about the School Supply Drive to share at your organization or place of business, click here.

2014 CIS Annual Report highlights improved quality, increasing growth

In 2014, Communities In Schools nationwide served nearly 1.5 million students in 25 states and the District of Columbia. The focus for the year was on improving quality of service and increasing growth across the CIS network.

According to CIS, “Quality drives quantity at CIS. Instead of expanding into new communities in 2014, we focused on going deep by adding more than 150,000 new students within our existing network. For an organization of our size, an annual growth rate above 10% is pretty astounding, and it speaks to the hard work and dedication of the entire network.”

Among the successes of CIS in 2014:

• For the first time ever, The NonProfit Times named CIS to its Top 100 list of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States.

• To help put a face on the dropout crisis, CIS launched Change the Picture, its first-ever nationwide branding campaign that earned nearly $14 million in pro bono ad placements in just six months.

• At the close of a three-year capital growth campaign in 2014, CIS was able to invest $30 million into the CIS network, helping to leverage an additional $600 million in local resources for our affiliates.

To learn more about these and other highlights of 2014 at CIS, click here to read the 2014 annual report.

Next week is kickoff for school supply drive!

United Way in Coweta County is partnering with CIS of Coweta to hold a school supply drive for East Coweta High School teachers. We'd love for all our supporters to drop off items or make a donation for purchasing supplies by visiting our website and clicking on the donate button.

The School Supply Drive runs July 8-29, 2015, and drop-off locations include:

• Hampton Inn (behind Red Lobster), 50 Hampton Way, Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital, 745 Poplar Rd., Newnan

• Piedmont Newnan Hospital Wellness Center, 26 W. Court Square, Newnan

• Senoia Cycle Works, 66 Main St., Senoia

• The Southern Credit Union, 232 Bullsboro Dr., Newnan

Items on the teacher supply wish list include binders (for students in need), chart paper markers, compasses, erasers, flash drives, graph paper, hand sanitizer, highlighters, loose leaf paper, mounting tape, paper towels, pencils (mechanical and #2), pens (red, black and blue), Post-It Chart Paper and Post-its, rulers, sanitizing wipes, sheet protectors, staplers/staples, tissues, white board cleaner and white board markers (low odor).

For more information, call Executive Director Gina Weathersby at 770-710-9540.

To download a flyer about the School Supply Drive to share at your organization or place of business, click here.