{"id":4135,"date":"2015-08-31T14:08:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T18:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=4135"},"modified":"2015-09-01T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T16:32:00","slug":"jump-start-helps-students-prepare-for-the-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/jump-start-helps-students-prepare-for-the-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Jump Start helps students prepare for the school year"},"content":{"rendered":"

First-grader Jada will have a jump start on the new school year after getting her first-ever haircut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been growing it for six years,\u201d she told the Rudy and Kelly hairstylist set up in a Larkspur Middle School classroom.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3455<\/a>A rising kindergartner in the school\u2019s cafeteria was ecstatic to find the movie star Minions on a T-shirt he would get to keep, and high school teens sorted through stacked jeans to find pairs to their liking.<\/p>\n

Also available to students at stations throughout the school were shoes, backpacks, school supplies, library cards, hygiene products and health screenings as needed.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3441<\/a>They were among the 390 students from across the city who benefited from Jump Start, an event hosted Aug. 27 by the school division and the nonprofit AidNow\u00a0to help students in need prepare for the school year.<\/p>\n

It was five years ago that Jessie Calevas, parent and AidNow board member, read an article about the school division\u2019s homeless education program in the division\u2019s newsletter Apple-A-Day<\/em>.<\/p>\n

She wanted to help.<\/p>\n

Calevas contacted the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children and met with Gay Thomas, coordinator of school social work services. They discussed how the newly-formed AidNow could support students in housing crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give the kids fashionable, trendy clothing that they wanted to wear to school,\u201d Calevas recalled of that first meeting.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s not the students\u2019 fault they\u2019re homeless, and I thought it would help them want to go to school if they felt like they were not going to be singled out by what they were wearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following that meeting, the first Jump Start event was planned. AidNow and VBCPS have continued to work together every summer to give hundreds of students a positive start to the school year.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t do it alone. Corporate sponsors and community agencies provide resources and volunteers for the event, and the division\u2019s school social workers identify families to invite and greet them at the door.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3398<\/a>Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence thanked community and staff volunteers for their service and expressed appreciation for the division\u2019s school social workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a calling,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are overworked and understaffed, but they love our kids and do great things for students every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spence added, \u201cThis event is a blessing and amazing for our students. My heart is filled with joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody walks away happy,\u201d said Calevas. \u201cThe volunteers walk away happy, the board walks away happy, and the students walk away feeling like they are ready for the school year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas agreed. She likes that the event helps students feel prepared regardless of where they live or what their home situation is like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to feel comfortable.\u00a0We know that school is the only steady thing for a lot of these students,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cThey know school is their support system, and they know they\u2019re going to get breakfast and lunch. If we can help by making sure they have the clothes, the backpacks and the supplies they need so they look like everybody else, that\u2019s our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_3449<\/a>Families are grateful for the support they receive through Jump Start. Calevas hears from many, and some parents show their appreciation by giving back to help others.<\/p>\n

\u201cA woman from a battered woman\u2019s shelter and her teenage son came three years in a row,\u201d Calevas recalled. \u201cLast year she came and donated clothing because she had graduated college, had a job, was out of the shelter and wanted to give back to us. She couldn\u2019t volunteer at the event because she was working, but she wanted to make sure we had clothes to give to the students like her son had received.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First-grader Jada will have a jump start on the new school year after getting her first-ever haircut. \u201cI\u2019ve been growing it for six years,\u201d she told the Rudy and Kelly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-connections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4141,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions\/4141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}