Eunice Kennedy Shriver enjoys visiting schools to see how they are implementing their Community of Caring program. She was pleased with what she saw last week at Washington Mill Elementary School.
She first visited a classroom with autistic children where she read to a small group. Shriver then went to Ray Hoskie's first-grade classroom and watched as Guidance Counselor Nadine Lyons led the class in a caring session. The children first took turns giving compliments to each other; many thanking their teacher, principal or guidance counselor. One young girl was very specific when she said, "Thank you Ms. Lyons, for helping me when I first got my glasses."
The students then talked about responsibility and shared with Lyons and Shriver what some of their classroom jobs were. They were all very important, ranging from messenger to librarian to tailgater to floor cleaner. Lyons asked if they liked having jobs, and they said, "Oh yes, it makes us feel important."
THEY THEN SPOKE a little about the responsibilities that adults have and their jobs, washing dishes, paying taxes, taking care of kids, going to the hospital and paying the light bill.
In Forrest Chilton's sixth-grade classroom, students took turns presenting essays on character attributes. Honesty, respect, trustworthiness and dependability were a few of the things mentioned.
Halfway through the rest of their presentations, Shriver asked to interject when somebody mentioned volunteering. She talked about the importance of volunteering and asked several of the students what they were doing to help their community.
Each student was told to "Stand straight and speak loudly." Students presented a range of things they were doing to help, like working in nursing homes, working at homeless shelters, being buddy readers, going to the community center and working with autistic children.
The culmination of Shriver's visit was a presentation by Col. Dave Kee from Fort Belvoir. He acknowledged the efforts of the students, who had recently put together 130 care packages for the officers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. He presented a plaque of appreciation to Principal Tish Howard and student officers Jordan Hellmuth, Megan Knetemann, Megan Sunray, Abby Kitchen and Dusty Floyd.
"The troops were very emotional when they found out about the care packages," said Kee. "Having been a war fighter and been mobilized, you realize how important it is to know that community cares for you."
Kee said that he plans to set up an information system so that the officers can correspond with the students. He then gave commander's coins to Howard and Shriver.