Dr. Kelly King and Matthew L. Cox/ Co-Founders of the Never Give Up Foundation on the USS Midway.
On the USS Midway.
Picture of the USS Midway.
Dr. Kelly King/Co-Founder of the Never Give Up Foundation
I like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to everyone who visits our Never Give Up Foundation blog. My name is Dr. Kelly King and I am currently an elementary school principal in the Glendale Unified School District. I am so incredibly proud of the work that Matt and I have done with children with learning disabilities and their parents. It has been very rewarding to see the hope come alive in their eyes as they reclaim their dreams for the future. This is why Matt and I began this Foundation and it is for this reason that we are committed to bringing this message of hope and dreams to more children, more parents, more schools, in more states. We’ve had the opportunity to work in Glendale and La Crescenta, California. Next month we begin our work in Utah. 2008 has been full of surprises and I can hardly wait to see what 2009 brings for the Foundation.
Recently Matt and I had the privilege of presenting at the annual Leadership Conference for the Association of California School Administrators in San Diego, California. This conference gave us the opportunity to network with hundreds of school administrators from around the State of California. We were able to share some of the core concepts that Matt teaches in our parent workshops and explain how the work we’ve done has had a positive impact on my elementary school. We met some incredibly dedicated administrators and are hoping to schedule workshops in Palm Springs (my home town), Orange County, San Diego County, and Northern California. What was most rewarding were the administrators who are parents of children with learning disabilities and how receptive they were of the Foundation and our message to “Never Give Up!”
I know that I’m biased because I’ve had many opportunities to watch Matt in action with students, parents, and educators – but he did a terrific job with the administrators who attended our conference session. Matt has the ability to connect with the audience on an emotional level and without exception those students, parents, and educators walk away from the sessions comforted, refreshed, validated, and inspired.
What’s next on the Foundation’s travel itinerary? We are off to a December parent workshop in Washington, Utah and then another large conference in Monterey, California again for the Association of California School Administrators at their annual Special Education Symposium in January. Only 48 more states before we reach our goal of taking the Never Give Up message to every state in this incredible country! Word is spreading, connections are being made, and most importantly – lives are being touched and changed. Thank you for your support. This is really a word-of-mouth endeavor so please share this blog with everyone! We are actively seeking opportunities to present educator and parent workshops, work with students in roundtables, and do keynote speaking.
