 No.13 The Newsletter of Project L.O.V.E. • AUTUMN
2002 • PO
Box 2000 Charlottetown PE C1A 7N8 |
BOASTing about this thing called L.O.V.E.!Project L.O.V.E. stands for Let Older Volunteers Educate, and is our elementary school project. BOAST stands for Bringing Older Adults and Students Together, and we find BOAST volunteers in intermediate and high schools. In 34 schools across PEI, more than 240 very committed (mainly retired) older volunteers help students with their school work in various areas. In the elementary program, help is usually in that most important area, reading. L.O.V.E. Volunteers go to their school once a week, spending between an hour and a whole morning or afternoon in the school. They usually help one student at a time, listening and coaching them with words, reading aloud to model good pronunciation and expression for them, helping with classroom projects or to get caught up on missed assignments. BOAST Volunteers are more flexible - some visit the school once a week, while others work on short-term projects, which may involve more visits over a shorter period of time. The volunteer work is usually focussed on specific areas of expertise of the volunteer. Teachers whose students work with the Project L.O.V.E. volunteers all agree: Their students benefit greatly from this help, gaining self-confidence through the interest shown in them by the volunteers. L.O.V.E. celebrates TEN Years in Island Schools!This school year, 2002-2003, marks our Tenth Year of helping students in PEI’s schools. In addition to our regular work with students, we are hoping to do some special activities to mark this important milestone in our history. In thinking about ways to collect the impressions of the students with whom you work, and measure the effects on them of the care and special attention you give, we have been very impressed with the special cards (with original artwork) which many of you have been given. We have decided to run an art contest at each school, with the winners at each school being entered in an Island-wide contest. The grand prize winner will receive a cash award, and his or her artwork will be printed on T-shirts and posters. We hope that our volunteers will be able to act as judges for the contest - and we’re sure that the works will be amusing and touching tributes to Project L.O.V.E. Further details on this contest will be forthcoming, so keep your eye peeled. Fundraising Campaign Under WayProject L.O.V.E. has struck a Fundraising Committee to conduct a campaign to fund some of the extra things we would like to do to mark our Tenth Year. The Committee, consisting of Laura Mair, Jack Jans and with Martha Fraser as Chair, has decided on a number of activities which might be of interest to potential sponsors. Some of these include the student art contest, a Grade Six prize for each school, a meeting fund for Captains, to strengthen the Captains network across the Island, and a transportation fund. The campaign is just being launched, and we are pleased to note that Maritime Electric has already made a donation. Many thanks to them. Because Project L.O.V.E. is a registered Canadian charity, tax receipts can be issued for any contributions. Annual Luncheon a Success!Thanks to all who attended our annual meeting and luncheon on May 25 in Winsloe. It was a friendly space and we had great participation from our volunteers. It was wonderful that the (then) Minister of Education, the Hon. Jeff Lantz, was able to be there to congratulate you on the support you are giving to students, and to provide us with our operating grant for the year 2002-2003. We especially appreciated volunteers who told stories about their L.O.V.E. experiences, and noted that our Dept. of Education representative, Barbara Macnutt, thinks these stories would make a great book. So, please, make a note of any memorable experiences this school year, and let us know. Stories from “The Trenches”One of our volunteers told about reading a story about witches with a student. When the volunteer explained that he was scared of witches, he suggested that they read sitting under the table so they would be safer. When the storytime was over the student said: “I like reading with you.” When the volunteer asked why, the student said: “Because you’re a nut!” This same volunteer, in conversation with the student’s parent, heard that the student wasn’t looking forward to going back to school this year - but he was hoping that he would be working with the L.O.V.E. volunteer. Asked why, the student said: “Because he’s crazy!” So, remember, volunteers: It sometimes is an advantage to act a little odd - you liven up the experience for your students and you get yourself remembered - for a long time! Child Find PEI seeking volunteers for fingerprinting studentsChild Find PEI is looking for volunteers to help with creating an identification booklet for every child in Grade One on PEI. The booklet will contain the child’s fingerprints, a current photograph, and physical description. It will be kept by the child’s parents and will be used to help find the child if he or she is abducted. The time involved for this project would be a 2-hour training session, probably in late October in Charlottetown. The actual fingerprinting is done in teams of two or three, and would take about an hour-and-a-half to do a class. In addition, volunteers will be required to provide the names of three references and have a criminal records check done. If you have had one of these done for Project L.O.V.E., and it is less than three years old, you may use it instead of having a new one done. If you would like to help in this effort, please contact Lori St.Onge, Executive Director of Child Find, at (902)368-1389. They are located at 549 North River Road in Charlottetown. Thanks to all our “Model” Volunteers.Late last year we visited some of our many schools and took photographs of our volunteers at work, helping students. Thanks to everyone who was willing to be photographed! We hope you have received your own copies of the photos - and if you haven’t, please let us know and we’ll send them out. We were pleased to see that some schools put the photos up on their school web-site. That’s great for promoting the project to others, and we think, also shows what a great and caring school you work in! We hope to get out to the rest of the schools this year, to photograph more of our volunteers at work. We’ll let you know when we’re coming, though! We’ll be putting the photos up on our own web-site as well, so check it out - or have one of your computer-savvy students do it for you. The URL address of our web-site is on our mast-head, and all “our” schools are linked to our page. |
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