Knights Helping Knights Clothing

Drive

Kristie Carozza Lynn

Instructional Leadership Skills

Fall 2012

Abstract For the past two years, I have co-chaired a

newborn through sixth grade clothing drive at the

Norwin School District located in North Huntingdon

Township. We recently wrapped up this year’s

clothing drive on Saturday, November 17 with the

shopping and distribution day. This presentation

includes an explanation for this project, a collection of

artifacts from the clothing drive I planned this

semester while enrolled in Instructional Leadership

Skills, and a proposal for next year to extend the event

through 12th grade.

Rational The Norwin community in primarily middle class. However the community also entails families from extreme opposite ends of the economic spectrum. As a kindergarten teacher in the district, and a philanthropist in the community this extreme gap was highlighted. ("Economy in north," 2012)

I had students in my classroom that lived in multimillion dollar homes sitting at a table with students from the destitute trailer park across. I had students leaving for extravagant vacations to the Caribbean, while others were sleeping on the floor every night because they did not have any beds in their home.

I knew that even though they were sitting at the same table in class, they came for two different worlds. My goal for this project to bring these worlds closer together to help those in need by using the resources of the more fortunate right here in our own community.

Statistics • Norwin school district has four primary buildings and one

intermediate building. One primary building has a free and reduced lunch percentage of 8% while another has a 35%.

• The median household income of North Huntingdon township is between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. ("Economy in north," 2012)

• 28% of families are making less than $25,000 a year and %18 of families are making over $150,000 a year. ("Economy in north," 2012)

• Children who live in low-income families are at substantially higher risk of negative economic, educational, and health outcomes compared with children who live in more affluent families. (Mark & Dia, 2009)

Rational The second grade teacher working across the hall and I would converse with concern each morning in the hall greeting a few students would walk into our classroom without coats, wearing shoes with holes, and some that even reeked of unpleasant odors. How could we expect these children to sit in our classrooms and be ready to learn when they did not feel good about themselves, they were cold, uncomfortable, and bullied by others.

We spent hundreds of dollars and would sneak items such as new tennis shoes, winter coats for the family, socks etc.. into the backpacks of the students in need in our classroom. We knew there was a better way to help these students and the many other students alike in our community.

Leadership Plan We knew from prior experience and personal interactions that in our PTA there are many wonderful parents who would be willing to assist in any way to help a child in need. Prior to our plan, there really was no way to involve them without breaching confidentiality.

We also knew of many compassionate and caring teachers in the district that shared our concern. My second grade partner and I requested a meeting with our building principal, superintendent of elementary education, and superintendent of Norwin to present a plan of action.

Leadership Plan Our plan was to collect gently used clothing from families throughout the community at various daytime and evening drop-off periods, sort the clothing by size and gender, and then distribute the clothing to those in need on a “free shopping day.”

What we needed:

• permission to proceed with the project

• access to buildings

• tables

• a moving company to transport the clothing from the storage unit back to the school for distribution

• a storage unit to store the clothing as it was collected

• volunteers to sort on drop off nights and set up for the shopping day

• flyers and invitations to go home k-6

Leadership Plan At our first meeting, administration gave us

permission to move forward with our plan, access to

buildings, approval to send home flyers to collect clothing,

approval to send an invitation to all families in the district to

shop, and an invitation to be sent home privately to those

families on the free and reduced lunch list.

Throughout the planning process, we were

approached by a male teacher in our building to assist in

the project to fulfill a requirement for completing his

principal certification. We jumped on the opportunity for

more leadership help, especially since he was a strong guy

with a big truck! He was the perfect addition to our plan for

collection and distribution.

Knights Helping Knights My two partners and I gave our project a name, Knights Helping Knights. The Knight is our school mascot. We attended PTA meetings, sent hundreds of emails, and contacted high school student councils to enlist parent, teacher, and high school volunteers to sort clothing a drop-off nights. We contacted local businesses to attain the donation of a storage unit and a moving company to transport everything we collected from the storage unit back to the school.

We attended further PTA meetings to invite anyone who could simply use a helping hand this winter to come out on the distribution day and shop for free. We assured all parents in the flyers that went home that the shopping would be extremely confidential. We used our 46 volunteers before the event to collect, sort and display clothing. However, on the day of distribution the only district employees working were the other two chairmen and myself. We had family members and friends without any community ties working the event with us so no one felt ashamed to shop in front of their peers or their child’s teacher.

Distribution of Information

Below are documents that went home to all children, invitations for those in need that were sent by mail, press releases, and the survey given to shoppers. We sent information to the 2,750 students in the district kindergarten through 6th grade.

..\clothing drive\First Letter Home to all 2012.pdf

..\clothing drive\clothing reminder to all.pdf

..\clothing drive\Letter Home to Everyone for Distribution.pdf

..\clothing drive\Invitation Sent Home In The Mail For Those In Need.pdf

..\survey 2012.pdf

Press Release 2011

Newsletter 2012

../clothing drive/First Letter Home to all 2012.pdf../clothing drive/First Letter Home to all 2012.pdf../clothing drive/First Letter Home to all 2012.pdf../clothing drive/First Letter Home to all 2012.pdf../clothing drive/First Letter Home to all 2012.pdf../clothing drive/clothing reminder to all.pdf../clothing drive/clothing reminder to all.pdf../clothing drive/clothing reminder to all.pdf../clothing drive/clothing reminder to all.pdf../clothing drive/clothing reminder to all.pdf../clothing drive/Letter Home to Everyone for Distribution.pdf../clothing drive/Letter Home to Everyone for Distribution.pdf../clothing drive/Letter Home to Everyone for Distribution.pdf../clothing drive/Letter Home to Everyone for Distribution.pdf../clothing drive/Letter Home to Everyone for Distribution.pdf../clothing drive/Invitation Sent Home In The Mail For Those In Need.pdf../clothing drive/Invitation Sent Home In The Mail For Those In Need.pdf../clothing drive/Invitation Sent Home In The Mail For Those In Need.pdf../clothing drive/Invitation Sent Home In The Mail For Those In Need.pdf../clothing drive/Invitation Sent Home In The Mail For Those In Need.pdf../survey 2012.pdf../survey 2012.pdf../survey 2012.pdfhttp://www.norwinsd.org/cms/lib2/PA01001594/Centricity/ModuleInstance/4990/Elementary-Wide Clothing Drive.pdfhttp://www.norwinsd.org/Nov2012Newsletter

Photographs This is the clothing collected, sorted, and housed in the

storage unit.

Photographs

These are teachers delivering the clothing back to the

school to be displayed for the shopping day.

Photographs These volunteers are working the evening before

distribution to display the clothing for shopping.

Photographs Girls clothing was set-up in the gym by size and boys in the

connected cafeteria.

Photographs We also distributed gently used coats, shoes, and

accessories.

Gabriel Our clothing drive has helped over one hundred of families in the North Huntingdon community and received nothing but extremely positive feedback on the anonymous surveys we made for the shoppers. All of the documents I included in this project were from this semester. The second annual clothing drive was even better than the first. (Gabriel, 2005)

While planning for this year, I was fortunate enough to be enrolled in instructional leadership skills at the same time. I was a forward thinker and I made changes to the plan that match Gabriel’s philosophy of teacher leadership. I enlisted a teacher leader at each building to delegate some of our responsibilities. I acquired approval from administration to hold a teacher dress down day at each building. Teachers donated $5 to wear jeans on a Friday. The money was used to purchase new socks and underwear for the early shoppers who are the most needy. We gave the option in the letter sent home to the most needy to have their clothing delivered if they did not have transportation to the event. (Gabriel, 2005)

Extension K-12 This year, we received feedback from the

shoppers that they would like to see the program

extended through 12th grade. I have forwarded the

surveys onto administration to set the groundwork for

my plan next year.

I am up to the challenge and feel I have the

leadership knowledge and passion for my cause to do

so.

Extension K-12 For this project to be extended next year, I am working with a teacher from the high school that has volunteered to become part of our team. She will be in charge of the collection nights at the high school and middle school, while my partners and I will continue to be in charge of all five elementary buildings.

We will need permission to hold the event at the high school because the elementary buildings do not have a space large enough to house all of the clothing on distribution day. I contacted the storage unit to thank them for their donation of the unit and reserved two units for next year for the larger event. We will need more volunteers. We will start early in our outreach and plan to take our proposal of the extension to the first union meeting of the year. We foresee enlisting more teacher volunteers who will not only be helping children, but heighten teacher PR. (Gabriel, 2005)

2013 Timeline of Events August Meeting with Knights Helping Knights chairmen and building lead teachers K-12

September Meeting to present the extension of the event K-12 with administration (Knights Helping Knights building lead teachers, superintendent of elementary education, superintendent of secondary education, and superintendent of school)

October Collection and sorting of clothing from each building K-12.

November Clothing distribution for community for newborn-12th grade students

Community Leadership After the first clothing drive had come to a close

last December, I was named “Outstanding Educator

of the Year” by the Council of PTA’s. I believe it was

because I took the role as what Gabriel calls a

“community leader.” pg. 12

I was honored to accept the award on behalf

of my colleagues who work far beyond a 9:00-3:00

work day, have a genuine love for the children, and

are teacher leaders in all the ways necessary to better

the education of students .

References Economy in north huntingdon township, pennsylvania . (2012). Retrieved from http://www.bestplaces.net/economy/city/pennsylvania/north_huntingdon_township

Gabriel, J. G. (2005). How to thrive as a teacher leader. Alexandria, VA: Ascd.

Mark , M., & Dia, A. (2009). The risk of negative child outcomes in low-income families . Retrieved from http://www.aecf.org/upload/PublicationFiles/DA3622H1234.pdf