Go round in circles

“…I've got a song, I ain't got no melody
I' ma gonna sing it to my friends

Will it go round in circles
Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky …”~ Billy Preston

I visited s Soroptimist meeting tonight. A friend had invited me a couple of months ago, but this was the first night the scheduling ‘fit.’

When I was invited they didn’t know I’d received financial assistance from another chapter over 30 years ago that helped me pay for college textbooks. What I didn’t know ahead of time was tonight they were announcing this year’s local recipient of the same assistance. They also discovered that another applicant for the reward had a letter of recommendation from a local professor who’d also been helped by the organization.

I’m amazed where we find those circles. The middle school teachers ‘wished’ for calculators and two donors stepped forward. Those calculators will not only help the 50+ students that use them this semester, that will ripple out as those students grow up and are active in our community. Someone helped them, gave them the right tools and they in turn, will have math skills and life skills to help someone else!

The circles get bigger, more entwined. I’m not an engineer, but I see strength in how those circles continue to reach out and support other women in our community. And that DOES fill my heart with a song that has no melody. That’s why I sung it for you, my friends!

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!