Sunny smiles all around at back-to-school rallies
Author: Pete Koutoulas • First Posted: Monday, August 10, 2009
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Children and their families lined up at Douglass Park and 17 other neighborhood sites for free school supplies.
In neighborhood centers, parks and churches all across Lexington, thousands of families, kids, educators and community volunteers came together Saturday to energize and equip students for the start of the school year. There was plenty of food and fun to go around, and every child left with a backpack full of school supplies.
“The goal is to help students be prepared for school, to ensure they have what they need to be ready to go,” said Alice Nelson, family/community liaison for Fayette County Public Schools. “The other piece is the idea of the neighborhood – the notion that your neighborhood, your community, believes education is important.”
This year, 18 neighborhoods concurrently hosted “Ready, Set, Go!” back-to-school rallies. A coordinator for each site enlisted local supporters, area businesses and donors. The massive effort drew volunteers from schools, churches and community organizations, all coordinated by LexLinc, a nonprofit agency that works to bring together people and organizations to accomplish what one could not do by itself.
“It’s important for people to come together around their children and have a sense of neighborhood,” said Wanda Bertram, executive director of LexLinc. “Children have to know that the village is behind them and has high expectations for them and is supporting them. It takes more than just parents. It takes a whole community for a community of children to succeed.”
At the Douglass Park rally, balloons, cotton candy, snow cones and bouncy inflatable mazes added to the carnival-like atmosphere. Children darted among booths offering arts and crafts activities and face painting, while adults visited information booths and chatted with friends and neighbors.
“It definitely brings excitement to the beginning of the school year,” said Jodi Sumner, a fourth-grade teacher at Booker T. Washington Academy, who greeted children near the dunking booth.
Bertram said she saw similar scenes at each of the seven rallies she visited.
“I encourage (the site coordinators) to create an atmosphere that’s festive, that celebrates their children and the potential that their children have to succeed,” she said. “There was such a sense of energy at the sites. Each was like a neighborhood festival.”
The rallies distributed 8,000 school-supply kits countywide, including basics like folders, scissors, glue sticks, erasers and crayons for elementary kids and pens, notebooks, calculators and protractors for middle and high school students.
The idea for the rallies grew from a single event hosted in 2001 by Shiloh Baptist Church. For several years, a grassroots community organization called One Community, One Voice coordinated a huge back-to-school rally downtown at the Lexington Center. But after a few years, several community groups suggested the format would be more successful if the supplies and celebration came to where the kids are instead.
In 2006, OCOV partnered with LexLinc to develop a system of neighborhood-based rallies. And in 2007, LexLinc accepted all central coordination responsibility, including raising sponsorships to purchase backpacks and elementary school supplies. The rallies have grown in scale and popularity ever since.
This year roughly $80,000 was raised, including donations from Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government Department for Environmental Quality, Kentucky Utilities, Jackson Curlin for Kids Fund at the Blue Grass Community Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and American Founders Bank.
“We want to make sure all our children have the tools they need to succeed in school,” said Mayor Jim Newberry, who spoke Saturday at Douglass Park.
Many groups set up tables under shady trees at that downtown site. The county health department, the Child Care Council and the Girl Scouts were there, along with Booker T. Washington’s PTA. The school district offered handouts, too, including refrigerator magnets touting “5 Simple Ways to be an Involved Parent” and brochures explaining the School-Based Decision Making councils.
“We’re a resource for parents and for providers,” said Tammy Spivey of the Child Care Council. “We try to get out in the community as much as possible.”
District Superintendent Stu Silberman thanked everyone who pitched in.
“Thanks for taking care of the kids, guys,” he said, adding, “We are ready for our kids to come back, and we’re excited!”