Families celebrate kids' accomplishments at Inspiring Minds summer program

WARREN

More than 300 students and their families celebrated summer accomplishments Thursday afternoon at the sixth annual Inspiring Minds Summer Finale Event at Warren G. Harding High.

Inspiring Minds is a free six-week program for students in third through 12th grades. They participated in continuing education to prevent summer learning loss. Offerings included art, sports, swimming lessons, community service, college visits, industry tours, cooking lessons and field trips.

Several community members including Mayor Doug Franklin and representatives from Warren City Community Development, Warren City Schools, Kent State University Trumbull, AVI Foodsystems, United Way of Trumbull County, The Raymond John Wean Foundation and Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority joined to celebrate student success in the summer.

“When educating the mind of our youth we must not forget to educate their hearts,” Franklin said in a heartfelt speech before congratulating not only the students, but also their parents for allowing them to be successful.

Deryck Toles, Inspiring Minds CEO and founder, said Inspiring Minds is really just about providing opportunities for people.

“No matter what it is, no matter what your background is, for our kids it’s very important to show them there’s a lot of people who care about them and a lot will invest in them the same way someone invested in many of us,” he said.

Read more about the event in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.