At the Newton Child Care Commission's annual fund raising event "Kidz in Jeopardy", held on April 7, 2005, $8,600 was raised for child care scholarships. This money was added to the scholarship fund, which was allocated to income eligible Newton families via a lottery held on May 18, 2005. This years event was sponsored by the Auburndale Community Nursery School.

The evening's event was produced and filmed at the NewTV studio and MC'd by Brooke Lipsitt. Teams from the Mayor's Office; Ward After School; Bigelow PTO; Cabot After School; Newton School Committee; Providence College Alumni; Newton Board of Aldermen; Village Bank; Newton Firefighter's Association; Newton YMCA; Peirce After School & the Newton Rotary Club all vied to be the team left standing at the end. During the last game of the evening, the team members from the Newton School Committee - Susan Heyman, Dori Zaleznik & Mark Laredo tried their best to beat team members from Bigelow PTO - Andy Gluck, Terrence Lynch & Mike Horowitz, but neither team would give up and the game ended in a tie. The tie was quickly and creatively broken by Brooke Lipsitt by the toss of a coin and the School Committee went home with donated prizes of overnight stays at Boston Hotels and the Bigelow PTO went home with gift certificates to O'Hara's/Paddy's restaurant.

While watching and playing along with the game in the adjacent "green room", participants were treated to light refreshments donated by Star Market in Auburndale, Edible Arrangements in Waltham and Warren's Place in S. Weymouth. Raffle tickets were also available for sale before and during the event.

The Child Care Commission is grateful for all the support and contributions made to this event from the community. We especially wish to thank Paul Berg and Tony Mastantuono of NewTV for their continued enthusiasm for this production!

On May 18, 2005, the Child Care Commission allocated $31,000 via a lottery to 31 families in Newton to assist them with their child care costs. Funds for this lottery were received throughout the year through grants, donations and fundraising events. If you would like to learn more about this fund or would like to make a donation, please call the office at 617.332.6723 or see the "Scholarship Lottery Program" page.

At Mayor David Cohen's press conference on June 13, 2005, Barbara Sullivan, Chair and Ann Brown, Executive Director, graciously accepted a check in the amount of $2,492.00 from Boston College. We gratefully acknowledge this contribution, which will be added to the scholarship fund for FY06.

The Rebecca Pomroy Foundation has once again granted the Child Care Commission the amount of $4,000 to be used towards the Single Parent Support Groups and the Babysitting Reimbursement Program. We are appreciative of the Foundation¹s continuing support of the work we do for single parent families in Newton. The single parent groups will begin in the fall and information regarding the babysitting reimbursement program will be available in July. Please call the office at 617.332.6723 for additional information.