Excel by Excel by 5 is a new and especially innovative program that is designed to encourage and assist communities to become actively involved in supporting their young children. The first-of-its-kind, this program emphasizes the important role parents play in educating their children during their most formative years, birth to five. The goal is to insure that children enter school with the skills they need to be successful in school and in life.
Funding from Chevron and the Phil Hardin Foundation was provided for work done in the pilot communities, including Petal, Cleveland, West Point and Pascagoula, through the National Center for Rural Early childhood Learning Initiatives at Mississippi State University.
The city will receive their certification at a press conference at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 31, 2007 at the Petal Relay Park, directly behind the Petal Civic Center. State and local officials will be on hand, as well as officials from the Chevron Corporation. Numerous activities for pre-school age children will be going on, lunch will be provided and parachutist will deliver the city’s official Excel by 5 flag.
Click here for more pictures of the Petal Certification Celebration!
File: Excel_-_press_release_and_Agenda.doc
