NRTA's 2006 With Our Youth! Award Winners
Source: NRTA Live & Learn
The NRTA With Our Youth! program is a volunteer service initiative implemented by retired educators’ associations and open to age-50+ adults nationwide. Volunteers work with children and youth to provide meaningful educational and life-skills support. NRTA With Our Youth! was formed in response to the 1997 Presidents' Summit for America's Future, at which the NRTA network made a three-year pledge to provide 45 million volunteer service hours with 1.5 million youth in 2,000 communities. Since 1999, NRTA has reached more than 2.5 million youth in 42 states.
The NRTA With Our Youth! program continues to grow and expand. Through it, young people have been inspired to reach their full potential because an adult took the time to be a part of their lives.
The Seventh Annual NRTA With Our Youth! Awards were presented in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 21, 2006, during NRTA's national leadership and community service conference. Award recipients included the projects described below:
2006 With Our Youth! Excellence Award
State
South Carolina Education Association–Retired
Albert Einstein stated, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." In South Carolina, retired educators and school personnel are demonstrating that they truly are living their lives for others. In an environment of statewide testing for reading, writing, and mathematics, skilled volunteers dedicated to tutoring and mentoring are a highly prized commodity. In schools, churches, and summer camps throughout the state, each year, retired educators are tutoring and mentoring at least 40,000 students.
Additionally, more than 100 trained retired educators steadily work as lobbyists to stop public funding of voucher programs that support private and religious schools.
SCEA-R also supported full funding of the Education Finance Act and the Education Improvement Act. For the first time in six years, all of the funding was put in place.
SCEA-R members not only commit their time, skills, and knowledge, but they also donate school and hygiene supplies to girls' and boys' homes, children's shelters, and summer camps for underprivileged children. Members provide resources and supplies for global projects, such as Operation Tsunami. SCEA-R gives more than 12 scholarships each year that include money for college visitation, and $1,000 annual scholarships (over four years) for prospective teachers.
Members also support the "Showers for Scholars" program, which provides much-needed supplies to students. Thanks to these retired educators’ "living their lives for others," they not only meet children's physical, emotional, and academic needs, they also contribute to the rising test scores in South Carolina Public Schools.
Local
Escambia County Retired Teachers Association
Alabama
Alabama’s Escambia County Retired Teachers Association represents a committed connection to the words of the inspirational leader Martin Luther King Jr., who once said, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all of humanity."
In Escambia County, retired teachers are addressing the broader concerns of humanity by embracing the academic struggles of the children in their surrounding communities. They established the "Student Support Learning Center" in the basement of local church. Many of the students from lower-income families did not have transportation to the center, so the retirees devised a program to bring the center to them.
A team of retired mathematics, language arts, science, and social studies teachers worked from Baptist Hill Church, four hours each evening, four days a week. Armed with three telephones, three computers, and five cell phones, retirees provided significant support and assistance. If students came in person, called, or sent e-mails, they each received an immediate response. In its charter year, volunteers fielded more than 500 queries.
Thanks to the commitment of this local association, 54 students from nine county schools received personalized tutoring. The children’s grades reflected the outcome of the outstanding service they received. Escambia County Retired Teachers provided the furnishings, computers, telephones, supplies, and, most of all, they provided a unique service that demonstrated their concern about quality education.
Trumbull Retired Teachers Association
Ohio
A well-known African proverb states, "It takes a village to raise a child." The members of the Trumbull Retired Teachers Association fully embrace that belief. Their youth-service program has evolved over the years from working on members' individual ideas to focusing on inspiring young people’s full potential by giving them adult attention and by sharing knowledge.
This adult attention begins at the early stages of a child's life. Members participate in a prekindergarten workshop that cultivates the educational process by fostering in kids a love of books, familiarizing them the various ways they will see words printed, and cooperating and sharing ideas within a group setting.
Volunteers also spearhead the Ohio Reads program, a one-on-one tutoring program that targets intermediate-level students identified as at-risk for not passing proficiency and achievement tests. The students show progress in comprehension and fluency.
Volunteers also help judge 4-H booths at the Trumbull County Fair and the countywide spelling bee.
Through intense collection efforts, TRTA members gather clothing for the Poorest of the Poor in Appalachia. Members also provide supplies and handmade throws for a local haven for battered women and children as well as the New Life Maternity home for single expectant mothers. They also recycle hearing aids, cell phones, and eyeglasses.
For more than 20 years, TRTA members have awarded funds to students. For the last five years, they have awarded 10 $500 scholarships. Trumbull County is one village where the children can count on the collective spirit of retired educators to help pave the way to success.
Patrick County Retired Teachers Association
Virginia
If you are a student in Patrick County, Va., a retired teacher has probably touched your life. Volunteers reported 1,099 hours in service to 1,838 young people. Retired educators helped in classrooms and at school events, such as science fairs, spelling competitions, book fairs, and field trips. Patrick Country Retired Teachers Association members donated a book to each kindergarten student in the county.
Volunteers also serve in the broader community through local churches, Child Protection Committees, and events such as Smart Choices Among Teens, an alcohol-free after-prom party. They assisted with the "Reality Store" at the local high school, teaching students what is and what is not affordable. They adopt projects, such as Samaritan's Purse, in which volunteers prepared shoeboxes of toys, school, and personal supplies to send to needy children worldwide.
Volunteers take service to another level by involving young people in community projects. Seventh-graders learn to read to preschoolers, and youth lead church and community activities and visit the sick and elderly. Thanks to Patrick County volunteers, students develop writing, editing, and testing skills. Those interested in the teaching profession are also eligible for scholarships.
The caring volunteers of Patrick County Retired Teachers Association provide ongoing relationships in classrooms, churches, and the community. Whether young people need clothing, food, tutoring, or companionship from a lunch buddy, Patrick County Retired Teachers are there. They truly embrace the motto of Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, the founder of NRTA and AARP: "To serve, not to be served."
Individual
Sandra Bennett McKinney
South Carolina
Sandra volunteers as a Juvenile Justice Arbitrator with the South Carolina Seventh Circuit Solicitor's Office. During the past decade, through her diligent study and arbitration, she has kept nearly 100 children out of the Juvenile Court System Detention Center. In each child’s case, McKinney conducts an intense study, at least nine hours long, of the offender's file and the related law. She interviews the youngster, his or her parents, the victim, and the police officers involved.
From her investigation, Sandra develops a plan to address the offender's well-being, including but not limited to, a visit to the state prison, a letter of apology to the victim, community service, curfews, and anger-management counseling. Upon successfully completing the program, the child may have the offense removed from his or her records. McKinney’s work has resulted in thanks from parents whose children she has saved from becoming involved in more serious crimes.
Sandra’s colleagues, Judge James Fraley and the Director of Arbitration, Valerie Sullivan, strongly recommended her for recognition. Noting the volume of cases she has effectively mediated, they reported, "Ms. McKinney has continued to make juvenile arbitration a priority, whereas many others could not make it past the training course."
In addition, Sandra works on issues that are personally meaningful to her. In their youth, she and her daughter both encountered bullying. So as advocates for younger targets of bullying, Sandra and her daughter have extensively lobbied legislators to include anti-bullying language in the South Carolina Safe School Act. Sandra and her daughter wrote 135 letters—many by hand—to members of the South Carolina Senate and House. Sandra and her daughter’s extensive efforts ultimately resulted in an "anti-cyber bullying" law.
Bill Paul
Wisconsin
In an interview conducted upon the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Rusty Quave, the mayor of D'Iberville, Miss., declared, "People want to build back. It's just trying to find the right formula for them to build back." Residents of his Gulf Coast town were figuring out where to live, as some of their homes were submerged in 10 feet of water.
It took a member of the Wisconsin Retired Educators' Association, Bill Paul, and his colleagues, to see the importance of rebuilding D'Iberville Middle School library and to devise the most helpful formula for doing that. The hurricane had completely destroyed the books and other resources.
After taking an initial site visit to the school, Bill concluded, "The need is great; the cause is real." He reported this need to the members attending the state convention of the Wisconsin Retired Educators Association in April 2006. Building on this effort, he visited local chapters to deliver his message. This work inspired a "red envelope" campaign in his community. Bill continued working with committees, schools, and partners statewide. One school in a very small community involved the students in "penny wars," which helped them collect a donation of $1,380.20. With all sorts of activities, from bake sales to individual donations, teachers across the state raised funds to answer Bill’s call for assistance.
His own Wausau Chapter helped the newspaper in the area produce a feature article on the project. Partnerships emerged. The Wisconsin Media Specialists Association, the Library Association, and the Department of Public Instruction joined the effort. The result? Nearly $20,000 was raised to purchase books. Students from D'Iberville wrote notes of appreciation, saying, "We think it is really great that you are helping us. Wisconsin is a long ways away, but we appreciate what you are doing."
Leola Bouchard and Dolores Dumont
Maine
What do two members of Aroostook County Retired Educators do with their talents in this snowy region of Maine? Leola Bouchard and Dolores Dumont brought the excitement of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Nordic-Skiing World Championship to the students of Aroostook County. The retired educators included every classroom in the county in a multi-tiered educational opportunity tied to this international event, which features athletes with physically disabilities.
Leola and Dolores prepared and distributed a teaching guide for their project. The guide was aligned with the goals of the State of Maine Learning Results, and their program covered many subject areas related to skiing, including culture, history, economics, geography, math, science, and more.
Both women provided a unique addition to thematic teaching as they worked with the athletes to coordinate school visits to raise awareness about how athletes manage and overcome their physical limitations. The athletes taught students how to focus their energy on challenges, opportunities, and dreams. Gaining an understanding of the courage and strength the athletes possessed, students were better able to develop their own skills inside and outside the classroom.
All 58 schools in Aroostook County, from the prekindergarten through the 12th-grade level, participated, with a total of 1,300 students and their teachers attending the events. The IPC event director, Nancy Thiboldeau, recognized Leola and Dolores for helping the paralympic organization "move another step forward in arousing aspirations for the youth of northern Maine."
2006 With Our Youth! Spirit of Caring Award
Dick and Nella Kincaid
Nebraska
Dick and Nella Kincaid hail from Nebraska, often called "the breadbasket of the nation" for its bountiful wheat harvests. The quiet, unassuming couple spends their lives caring for others. They have dedicated heart, time, and skills reaching across the Hastings community much like the "amber waves of grain" that stretch over the landscape of their beautiful state. Working in the nursery program at a local church, serving as reading tutors at the public library, or mentoring youth in need, Dick and Nella are there.
Dick has used his carpentry skills to build sets for children's musicals and made pine cars for young people to use in the annual car race. He transports children who are not able to come to church activities and tutors Sudanese children, who are new to Hastings. Dick also finds time to help in the classroom and is a volunteer grandparent for vacation Bible school.
Nella works intensely with CASA, an initiative for troubled youth connected to foster care. When a child is placed in a home, Nella visits, brings gifts, and provides support for the family. In addition, she reviews books for the children's reading list at the library. Together, she and Dick volunteer with "Teammates," a mentoring program which has matched them with individual grade-school students. Dick and Nella attend every game, play, and school event that includes their teammates, all the way through high school graduation.
The noted Nebraska author, Willa Cather, once stated, "The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman." Let us hope that our country can be defined by the hearts of remarkable volunteers like Dick and Nella Kincaid.
Additional Information
- Submit a nomination for the 2010 With Our Youth! Awards.
- Become a With Our Youth! volunteer. Contact the NRTA national office at 202-434-2380 or by e-mail.
- Additional questions about the winners? Please contact NRTA at 202-434-2380 or by email.
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