Back to School

By Deacon Tina Campbell

Prayer for Schools and Colleges: O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities, that they may be lively centers for sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP p. 824)

 This morning I walked into the Cathedral office’s work room and there were four volunteers sitting around the table collating, folding and stapling stacks of the “decodables” for our adopted school, Jed Smith.  As a       recently retired teacher, I am very familiar with these 4+ page booklets given to primary age students to practice the various phonetic patterns that are taught as a child learns to read.

Like the newspapers’ “Back to School” sales, these volunteer efforts are a harbinger of the approaching school year.  Soon other Trinity volunteers will be organizing for our Backsnack efforts, our tutoring, and our school staff support luncheons.

It’s been a rough summer for schools with layoffs, cutbacks, cancelled summer school programs and larger classes. Education is one of the political footballs in California’s budget debacle. And yet, teachers and      support staff will continue to carry out the important work of educating our children in a rapidly changing, diverse, urban culture.

Public schools are the vehicle through which our nation passes on its skills and language, its history and    principles.  Schools are the place where children learn of a nation’s heroes and heroines and, following in their footsteps, grow into caring and conscientious citizens.

So this year when your local school asks for volunteers I hope you will consider helping; when it holds a pancake breakfast or a carnival, consider donating or attending; when it asks for your vigilance to prevent after-hours vandalism I hope you will be one of those neighbors keeping a watchful eye. As Teddy Roosevelt put it,” Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Acolyte Festival 2009

more about "Acolyte Festival 2009", posted with vodpod

Pumpkin Night 2008 Slideshow

more about “Picasa Web Albums – Brian – Pumpkin N…“, posted with vodpod

 

Jed Smith BackSnack and Clothes Closet

As we edge toward the holidays, we need food. Each week we supply 20 families with Back Snacks for the weekend. 

A BackSnack includes a loaf of bread or package of rice crackers, a jar of peanut butter, one package of oatmeal, a fruit cup, a granola bar per person in the family, a package or two of Raman soup, a box of macaroni and cheese and a can or two of chili, beans or spaghettios.  Usually there are one or two pieces of fresh fruit also. We are in constant need of these items. If you know of any way to get quantities of these items it would be very helpful. 

Watch for a sign-up for special needs families at Jed Smith.  You can sign-up for a person in the family and buy gifts for them for Christmas.

We are still collecting children’s clothing. The Clothes Closet for the children of Jed Smith School is open one Friday a month from 3:00-4:00pm. We need gently used baby, children and teen clothes including underwear.  We also need volunteers to help on Fridays to pack the BackSnacks and  set-up the Clothes Closet from about 1pm  to 4:00pm.   

We offer each child a gently used book. If you can donate books, please bring them, as well as your food donations, to church and place in the Jed Smith Barrels under the stairs by the office. We will also need backpacks for the children and, as always, checks are greatly appreciated.

                 Nancy Tennyson,

                 Director of Family Ministries

Jed Smith Back To School Night

 

 

Last Wednesday night I got to participate in a remarkable event. Our congregation partners with Jed Smith Elementary School, a school located in housing projects in which ever student is enrolled in the school lunch program. For quite some time we had been supporting classroom teachers by compiling student materials at the beginning of the year, adopting classroom teachers and giving them little gifts and encouragement, providing every child with small gifts at Christmas, etc. More recently we have established a program where we send children home on Fridays with backpacks of food for them and their families. We started this when we found out that children were being adequately fed at school during the week but were going hungry over the weekends. We also started a free clothes closet at the school.

 

Last Wednesday night we did something new, and equally exciting. The remarkable, high-energy principal, Fay Sharpe, has been working hard to connect the life of the school with the neighborhood. (Every student lives within a few blocks of the school.) One of the key opportunities to foster this connection is Back To School Night, which is an open house at the beginning of the year that usually runs from 5-6pm.. Last Thursday, for Back to School Night, members of Trinity cooked dinner for everybody who came. They made over 20 gallons of delicious, meaty spaghetti sauce to serve with the spaghetti as well as salad, garlic bread and ice cream. We also had the clothes closest open. Usually the children are the only ones who go to the clothes closet because we open it on Friday’s when school is letting out. But this time, entire families could go. We also had a health fair with lots of health information and nurses on site to answer questions, take blood pressure of offer other services. We had a sign up for a parent’s group.

It was a breathtaking success. Fay said attendance was more than double the attendance in previous years. As an example she said in a class of 20 students, 18 students had their parent(s) come. The energy at the school was lovely. The clothes closet was crazy – good crazy. Lots of health material got picket up and the nurses spoke with many young women about women’s health.

I remember my former bishop in Idaho, Bishop Bainbridge, challenging congregations to make such a difference in their communities that if the church would disappear, the community would lament. I feel like Trinity Cathedral is starting to make that kind of difference.

 

Six parents signed up for a new parent’s support group.