United Way’s Start United Helps County Students Get Ready For School Year
August 6, 2020 at 1:19 a.m.
United Way’s Start United Helps County Students Get Ready For School Year
By Jackie [email protected]
Sharon Sallot, vice president of development for United Way, said there was a realization that students in the Start United program, which is the summer school program, needed school supplies.
Start United is a free three-week summer experience for kids kindergarten through sixth grade that will include small class sizes and social emotional learning. The goal of the social emotional learning is to build a relationship with students, helping them “cultivate and build resilience through conversations and interactions with others,” according to a news release from United Way.
“And so we got the idea to put United Way bags – backpacks – out into the community. And in three weeks’ time, the community responded just incredibly,” Sallot said.
There were businesses, churches and individuals taking the bags and filling, as well as giving money to get the bags filled.
The bags had a variety of things.
Warsaw Community Church provided water bottles and face masks for all 1,000 students. Goshen Hospital provided hand sanitizer for all 1,000 students, Sallot said.
A combination of pencils, scissors, color pencils and erasers, books and notebooks were in bags given out to summer school students from kindergarten through sixth grade, Sallot said. Students from Warsaw, Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley received the bags.
The bags for WCS students were handed out at Lakeview Middle School Wednesday. Sallot said the bags for Wawasee students and Tippecanoe Valley students were taken by school staff last week and distributed Wednesday.
The bags were handed out by volunteers Wednesday as the students were leaving for the school buses or to be picked up.
The Start United summer program started July 20 and will end Friday. It features three components: a great learning environment, engagement with volunteers and getting the supplies needed to start the school year, according to a news release from United Way.
“United Way is in the business of helping kids,” said Darren Bickel, president of the United Way of Kosciusko County. “This summer, kids needed the community to provide a space of learning, healing and safety. Start United delivered all of those things.”
“Not every kid was doing all right during the long school closure. The lack of routine had created behavioral challenges, learning loss and a struggle to find a new normal. The kids started over this summer. They began the process of learning again and consistently interacting with peers. For three weeks, the joy of learning blossomed. This summer saw no children sent home for behavioral issues or discipline problems. Teachers were able to teach, and students were able to learn,” stated the release.
Sallot talked about the reasoning behind it.
“You know, I think it’s because we’ve gotten involved with our Kids United program and when we kick that off, it was important that we realize that there a lot of kids that were coming out of COVID behind from where they stopped in March. There are kids that you just don’t think about the fact that home life may not be the best life for some of our kids. And there are some families don’t have enough food. There’s families that have issues with poverty. There’s just a lot of issues,” she said.
WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said WCS had a wonderful experience with the program and noted it has brought down some of the anxieties of some of the teachers and parents.
“Kids are very, very resilient. They’re not the ones that so worried about whether there’s masks or no masks or what that looks like. They just want to get back to schools and their relationships,” he said.
Sharon Sallot, vice president of development for United Way, said there was a realization that students in the Start United program, which is the summer school program, needed school supplies.
Start United is a free three-week summer experience for kids kindergarten through sixth grade that will include small class sizes and social emotional learning. The goal of the social emotional learning is to build a relationship with students, helping them “cultivate and build resilience through conversations and interactions with others,” according to a news release from United Way.
“And so we got the idea to put United Way bags – backpacks – out into the community. And in three weeks’ time, the community responded just incredibly,” Sallot said.
There were businesses, churches and individuals taking the bags and filling, as well as giving money to get the bags filled.
The bags had a variety of things.
Warsaw Community Church provided water bottles and face masks for all 1,000 students. Goshen Hospital provided hand sanitizer for all 1,000 students, Sallot said.
A combination of pencils, scissors, color pencils and erasers, books and notebooks were in bags given out to summer school students from kindergarten through sixth grade, Sallot said. Students from Warsaw, Wawasee and Tippecanoe Valley received the bags.
The bags for WCS students were handed out at Lakeview Middle School Wednesday. Sallot said the bags for Wawasee students and Tippecanoe Valley students were taken by school staff last week and distributed Wednesday.
The bags were handed out by volunteers Wednesday as the students were leaving for the school buses or to be picked up.
The Start United summer program started July 20 and will end Friday. It features three components: a great learning environment, engagement with volunteers and getting the supplies needed to start the school year, according to a news release from United Way.
“United Way is in the business of helping kids,” said Darren Bickel, president of the United Way of Kosciusko County. “This summer, kids needed the community to provide a space of learning, healing and safety. Start United delivered all of those things.”
“Not every kid was doing all right during the long school closure. The lack of routine had created behavioral challenges, learning loss and a struggle to find a new normal. The kids started over this summer. They began the process of learning again and consistently interacting with peers. For three weeks, the joy of learning blossomed. This summer saw no children sent home for behavioral issues or discipline problems. Teachers were able to teach, and students were able to learn,” stated the release.
Sallot talked about the reasoning behind it.
“You know, I think it’s because we’ve gotten involved with our Kids United program and when we kick that off, it was important that we realize that there a lot of kids that were coming out of COVID behind from where they stopped in March. There are kids that you just don’t think about the fact that home life may not be the best life for some of our kids. And there are some families don’t have enough food. There’s families that have issues with poverty. There’s just a lot of issues,” she said.
WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said WCS had a wonderful experience with the program and noted it has brought down some of the anxieties of some of the teachers and parents.
“Kids are very, very resilient. They’re not the ones that so worried about whether there’s masks or no masks or what that looks like. They just want to get back to schools and their relationships,” he said.
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