How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time!

Okay, so it’s a childhood joke, but it relates to how to achieve the items on the school district’s wish list.

As the Business Partners & Community Supporters program was introduced to district administrators in October, each was asked to think about items essential to educational basics that we needed.

I learned that we need help purchasing books for our readers that excel and our under-developed readers. (Probably not the technical terms educators use, but what I as a parent understood.) Students at both ends of the spectrum are challenged with reading for course work when it is too simple (not challenging) and too difficult. Yet we can’t afford enough materials for those groups – we tend to provide to the middle of the bell curve. Could we ask supporters to specify books be purchased with their donation?

An open house proved to be an eye-opener. The English teacher matter-of-factly mentioned the textbooks under the chair are what our students would use. Questions from the parents led to the entire picture. There aren’t enough textbooks for each student to have one, they use the books in class, then leave them for the next class to use.

Before Thanksgiving my youngest casually mentioned during dinner one evening that not all the kids have calculators in math class. ‘So what do they do to get their work done?’ I tried to ask casually, without alarm. Students were sharing. Yes, sharing is a worthy attribute, but it makes getting class work done a challenge. Within the week I had received a request from the middle school math teachers for 60 calculators (just 10 for each classroom).

Well one bite at a time, we are heading towards success. Today a local business committed to a donation that will get almost 50 calculators! A wish nearly fulfilled for the math teachers and students.

Let’s see what we can do with the rest of the elephant!

Life goes on!

Na na na na na life goes on, na na na na na made me strong
Got a feeling and I can’t go backLife goes on (and it’s only gonna make me strong)
Life goes on and on and on ~LeAnn Times, “Life Goes On”

Life has been full of transitions this week.

After being home for four weeks, Monday I returned to my full-time job. I made it through the entire day, exhausted, but thinking of all for which I was thankful: I had a job, I had insurance, the polyps were benign, that my kids had cleaned house, etc. I fell asleep before I got to the end of the list. Wed. we were awakened by tornado sirens and thankful that after less than 30 minutes in the basement, the Weather Service gave an all-clear for our area. Thursday night the storm was much closer and we were all tense after hearing about the devastation the day before in Chapman and Manhattan.

Add to the stunning news that Weekenders International ceased business Monday! Fashion coordinators were stunned as they logged on and saw the announcement. We emailed, phoned, texted each other to ask if it was really so. Was it reorganization or are they ‘gone?’ By Wed. we knew a bit more and the sad news was it is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. We are still getting only drips of news from uplines.

What I find interesting is how differently individuals handle change. For some it was ‘Who Moved My Cheese!’ Others talk about a new door being opened or ‘there’s a reason, a new opportunity.’ There’s the self-centered “What’ll I do for new clothes every six months?” and the concerned “Think of all the families this has impacted!” It rocks our world and we wonder, “Who is telling us the truth?”

The piranhas are taking advantage of the misfortune. Mere minutes after the devastation in Manhattan, there were looters! I’ve been getting unsolicited emails from vultures I don’t know ‘offering fantastic business opportunities’ and begging me to join ‘their team.’ (Remember the joke about ambulance chasers?) Why I’d join them when they don’t even know what I wanted when I started selling Weekenders.

We were each slapped in the face with sudden change. While we can’t go back, we can use what we’ve learned to make us better businesswomen: to ask questions before we leap in to new opportunities; to fine-tune the skills we developed in the past; to reflect and realize it’s not always our fault when things happen.

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah!...Lala how the life goes on. ~The Beatles, “Ob-La-Di, Of-La-Da”