{"id":12904,"date":"2024-11-26T08:27:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T13:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=12904"},"modified":"2024-11-26T08:27:48","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T13:27:48","slug":"friendships-blossom-between-veterans-and-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/friendships-blossom-between-veterans-and-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendships blossom between veterans and students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kellam High School teacher Kathleen Lambert, second from right, organizes regular visits to the veterans home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students in the Community Based Instruction class at Kellam High School are building relationships with residents of a nearby veterans home, the Jones & Cabacoy Veterans Care Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teacher Kathleen Lambert\u2019s class also engages in functional activities by visiting the post office and bank and by taking a ride on the light rail train. Both the veterans and students look forward to the activities, which have included a pumpkin painting, holiday ornaments and creating a tree decoration with thank-you notes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kellam student Jada Gunn with resident James Lewis, a Marine Corps veteran.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently they rode on adaptive bicycles provided by the local nonprofit, Spinclusion<\/a>. Kellam student Jada Gunn rode on a carriage bike with one of the residents, and then she took a spin with fellow student Grayson Gallego.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ethan McPherson also took a ride.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More than 120 veterans live at the center, which opened on Nimmo Parkway about a year ago. Lambert stopped by and asked Kathryn Shear, the center\u2019s director of activities, if her students could come for a visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt blossomed, and now they come nearly every week,\u201d Shear said. \u201cThe residents love it, because they see it as giving back to the kids in the community. It\u2019s mutually beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a neat thing,\u201d said resident John Hartz, an Air Force veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like seeing the kids\u2019 smiles,\u201d said Navy veteran Perry Wallace.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Activities Director Kathryn Shear with thank-you posters from Salem High students<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI like seeing them enjoying themselves,\u201d said Leon Tucker, who served in the army. \u201cWhen they painted pumpkins with us, I realized some of these kids are very talented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around Veterans Day, center residents visited Salem High School, where students joined them for lunch and made posters with thank-you notes for the veterans.<\/p>\n

Lambert said there is a symbiotic relationship between the vets and the Kellam students, and both are eager to participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe holiday season can be difficult for some and if we can make someone smile, then we have accomplished the mission,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To inquire about educational partnerships with the Jones & Cabacoy Veterans Care Center, contact Kathryn Shear at Kathryn.shear@dvs.virginia.gov<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kellam student Ethan McPherson with Spinclusion volunteer Lesley Hildreth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Kellam student Lulah Johnson with Angela Cappello of Spinclusion.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Kellam students Jada Gunn and Grayson Gallego with Spinclusion volunteer Mark Lewis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students in the Community Based Instruction class at Kellam High School are building relationships with residents of a nearby veterans home, the Jones & Cabacoy Veterans Care Center. Teacher Kathleen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12905,"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":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12904"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12919,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12904\/revisions\/12919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}