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September 2015
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United Way Community Schools Transform Lives
United Way Community Schools Transform Lives
Published: September 02, 2015
Author: Lenore Mohr
Imagine...
you’re six years old, you live downtown, you’ve never met your father and your mother, who loves you madly, works all the time. Your mom holds down two part-time jobs – she bags groceries on the third shift at an all-night grocery store and then she works during the day watching other people’s children. Your mom has a big heart and she works hard, but it’s still not enough to put meat on the table every day and to pay the electric bill. She always hides it when she’s been crying and she pulls you into a warm embrace, no matter what. She hugs so hard sometimes but it feels so good.
You have a sister who is eight years old and a brother who’s nine. You all go to the same school – the fourth one this year – and just like all your friends you walk to school every day. You’re proud to walk next to your older siblings and sometimes they even hold your hand when no one is watching. Mom is always sleeping when it’s time to go to school and the three of you have a hard time getting to school on time, so you’re always late.
Your uniform only has three spots on it today – from that chocolate ice cream cone that your mom splurges on once in a blue moon. You lick your lips remembering that chocolate yumminess and you hear your stomach growl. It also doesn’t help that you’re hungry until lunch. Without mom up, and very little food in the house, you go to school as usual, without breakfast. You look down at your shirt, hoping no one will notice because it’s the only uniform you have and you have to wear it. You’ll try and hide the stain with your book bag all day and try not to speak up or get called on so no one pays any attention to you and notices.
Oh yeah… that’s another thing. You can hear yourself talking in your head but no one ever hears you out loud. The teachers try to get you to open up, but nothing ever comes out.
You remember that day. The day the mean kids beat up your brother and did those terrible things to your sister as you just stood there and watched. It’s no big deal in your neighborhood. Stuff like that happens all the time, why should you stop talking? No one understands. You get through your day. Mission accomplished. You blended into the walls and the desk and the chairs and no one noticed you. Some days it feels like you’re invisible – and you wished you were. Reading? Please. That’s never gonna happen.
When you get home your mom is there, with that look on her face. Her words seem unfocused and blurry as she tells you it’s time to move again but there’s something different in her voice. What is it? I think it’s… hope. She tells all of you that you’re going to a new school – Central Elementary school and it’s a United Way Community School. Those are big words and none of them make sense but at least this time, you don’t have to move.
3 months later - You've transferred to a United Way Community School
Time to get up for school! You heard your mom’s alarm clock go off. You jump out of bed, put on your clean uniform. Smile at yourself in the mirror and run into the kitchen. Your stomach makes those same noises but you know when you get to school you’ll have a bagel, a cup of fruit and some milk. Yum. You can almost taste it! Your sister and brother are ready and you hear someone out front – there’s that friendly lady with the big smile – every day walking you and a bunch of your friends to school. You feel safe and happy. You get to school and see your Community School Coordinator – she high fives you, smiles asks about how you did reading that book yesterday. You answer her – out loud! Your smile goes so big it makes your cheeks hurt – “The teacher says I did a really good job.” She hugs you and says how proud she is of you and next you see the principal and your favorite person at school, Mr. Mike, the security guard. The principal says you earned the right to follow Mr. Mike around during lunch and help him do his rounds. Mr. Mike leans down and puts his hat on your head. What?! This is the best day ever. I love my new school.
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states as its first, and in my mind most important, right: “All people are born free and equal.” When we’re in the hospital, brand new to this world, we don’t wonder if our families are rich or poor, black or white, live in the city or out in the country, but all of us are born exactly the same – free and equal.
United Way Community Schools level the playing field for all our kids in the Valley. They provide opportunities for students and their families to thrive under very difficult conditions. Everyone deserves that chance, don’t they? Everyone deserves the opportunity to be free and equal.
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