Susan Reed came to Alpine Elementary for a night of fun activities with her children. She came home with two hats and two sweaters for them, compliments of a free clothing bank.
“You can never have too many hats and gloves and sweaters” with winter coming on, Reed said, while her first-grader Liana munched on cookies after visiting a book fair. “I’m really impressed with how many things there are to do.”
Those included math board games, writing on Play-Doh with golf tees, and a “book walk” where students circled to music and won books by landing on them. The event, called “We’re Wild about Learning,” provided parents with basic necessities along with things to do with their children.
Besides choosing clothes provided by Faith United Church of God and others, parents pored over tables full of cabbages, potatoes and apples trucked in by Feeding America. Alpine students raised funds for the food, matched by a donation from DeWys Manufacturing. Kent School Services Network was also on hand to offer help, as were volunteers from Chemical Bank.
Providing assistance was a way to attract more families to the evening’s academic activities, Principal Jason Snyder said.
“Anytime we have a school event, the more we can connect families with basic services, that’s going to help kids too,” Snyder said. “We want to be able to make our school the hub of the community.”
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