This has been a great first week of school. Every year, there is so much to do and so much going on, especially this time of year. But one of the things I’d like to plug in this little bit of time is getting involved in our schools. Our students have more special experiences, oftentimes because of our support groups that step up to provide either better experiences, support gear or just helping hands at events. I want to ask and challenge every parent who gets the chance to read this, whether you have a student in our school or not, to consider how you or someone in your family might get involved and support various groups that help our student experience. Specifically, I’m talking about our booster clubs here, as they are the main vehicle that parents can get involved in and provide additional support to our students.
At the high school, we have many different opportunities to get involved. Whether it be our athletic boosters, academic and activity boosters, JROTC boosters, band boosters, choir boosters or many of the other small groups that support our students, each of these activities involve lots of time and lots of opportunity for supporting students. For example, I was recently in an email exchange with JROTC boosters. In that simple exchange of seven or eight emails, there were three parents, myself and our two cadre commanders going back and forth on how to make some events happen. For our students to be able to attend a championship drill meet at the University of Toledo, we had to ask for the support of parents to be able to move our big fund-raisers, rework one of her charity ideas and just find out that everybody had the time to pull off these big events for kids. So for example, in this exchange they were talking about Santa’s breakfast. By the way, it’s moved to December 14th. (Come see Santa Claus–mark your calendar). I know we’re a little ways away, but obviously I share this with you as parents are already getting involved to support the kids. The number of volunteers and moving parts to do some of these events is staggering. This quick example happens in all of our groups. And in many of those groups, some of the leaders that we are relying on do not even have children anymore in our schools.
Another quick example, the academic and activity boosters created the opportunity for seniors to paint their parking spots. The photos are wonderful and the kids had a great time. But what is not shared is the amount of time that several parents put in to support the kids in this endeavor. Behind the scenes, there were several parents, literally, here all day supervising and helping the students. Then the culminating activity of ice cream and voting was again supported by a group of parents to make this a fun event.
This year, I hope to share enough information to give everyone a chance to maybe get involved. Facebook and other avenues are great ways for people to see if they can get involved and support in some way. Maybe it’s as simple as when the call goes out for candy bars to be given out at our academic honor roll, you take a few minutes and drop off a box in the office. All support is welcomed.
As we get closer to some of our bigger events like senior sunrise, Santa’s breakfast, after prom and the honors banquet, I really hope everyone will take a few minutes to see if there’s a donation you could make, a way to supervise or just finding a little extra time to come to a meeting to support the people who are helping to make each event special for the kids. We have a great community–do what you can to be involved.
