SUBJECT: PUBLIC EVENT WITH DETAILS

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: (Insert name)

(Insert date) (Insert title)

Phone: (Insert phone number)

Public Invited to “(Insert Event)”

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BENTON TOWNSHIP, MI - Jamie Vollmer, nationally recognized speaker, author, and friend of education, will speak at the Lake MichiganCollegeMendelCenter for Arts and Technology on Wednesday, October 4.

Registration and social hour for “Welcome to the Conversation: Increasing Community Support for Michigan’s Schools” begins at 5 p.m. and dinner begins at 6:15 p.m. The presentation, which will last two hours, begins at 7 p.m.

The event is presented by the Berrien County Intermediate School District, Community Partnership for Lifelong Learning, Lake Michigan College, Lewis Cass Intermediate School District, Michigan Works!, the Van Buren Intermediate School District, Berrien County and Lewis Cass School Board Association, and the Van Buren School Board Association.

Vollmer is a former businessman and attorney who now works to help strengthen community support of public schools and build professional pride among educators. Once a harsh critic, he is now a champion of America’s public schools, helping school districts build professional morale and increase community support. He advocates substantive reform, but insists that public education must be broadly and aggressively supported if America is to remain great.

(Insert Quote)“This is an important opportunity to participate in an enlightening evening designed for community groups, business leaders and educators,” said BCISD Superintendent Jeff Siegel. “Mr. Vollmer’s message of building support for America’s public schools is delivered in an entertaining and invigorating style.”

In 1988, Vollmer joined the nationally recognized Iowa Business and Education roundtable. He was, at the time, the president of the Great Midwestern Ice Cream Company. He became director of the Roundtable in 1990.

While president of the company, Vollmer held the viewpoint that schools needed to change, and that educators were a major part of the problem – he felt that schools should be run like businesses. It was during an in-service presentation he made to a group of teachers that his opinion began to change.

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Superintendent’s Office • (insert superintendent’s name here) • (insert superintendent’s email address)

In his Blueberry Story, Vollmer shares one of the teachers in audience pointed out that, unlike his ice cream business that could reject a shipment of inferior blueberries, public schools accept all students, no matter what their skill level or backgrounds may be. It was at that point that he realized that schools cannot be run like businesses.

(Insert Registration Information) The event is open to the public. Tickets are available for $15 per person which includes social hour and dinner. To register for this event, visit and click on the Jamie Vollmer link or call (269) 471-7725 ext. 149 to register by phone.

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