2006 Partners in Educational
Excellence:
The Kiwanis Club of Redlands
Submitted
By Cherry Bordelon
The motto of Kiwanis International is “Serving the Children of
the World” and the Kiwanis Club of Redlands lives that motto on a daily basis.
From its inception in 1922, this Club has focused on the well-being of
children with emphasis on promoting excellence in education. The
major emphasis of the Club is to build conscientious, responsible future
citizens by placing emphasis on our most precious resource, our young children. From construction projects at schools to stocking
district school libraries, the Redlands Noon Kiwanians contribute to improving
education for all District K-Adult students.
This past year, the Kiwanis president chose as the Club project the
populating of the library at the new Judson and Brown Elementary School in the
Redlands Unified School District. Over
12,000 books were donated by club members and delivered to the new school.
With a dearth of state funds for school libraries, the Kiwanians wanted
to ensure that the students in this new school would have a library where they
could find a myriad of titles to enlighten as well as entertain them.
Four years ago, a previous Kiwanis president chose to donate books to a
Redlands elementary school each week in the name of the invited program speaker.
Children’s literacy is and always has been a priority for this Kiwanis
Club.
The Redlands Kiwanis Club also helps elementary and middle school
students in the Redlands Unified School District further their academic and
social growth by funding annual $400 grants to create and enhance
curriculum-based, instructional school gardens. The club's "Seeds of
Science" program began four years ago to help the district's elementary
schools (15 to date) cultivate their respective outdoor classrooms. Due to
its success, the program was expanded this year to include the district's four
middle schools. These students, with Kiwanis support and under the guidance
of staff and parents, several of whom are Master Gardeners, along with
collaborative partnerships that include the Redlands Horticultural &
Improvement Society, the Inland Empire Master Gardeners and the Redlands
Educational Partnership Foundation, design, create and maintain their outdoor
classrooms. To date, the Redlands
Kiwanis Club has donated more than $22,000 through its garden-based
learning program to help our youth grow by providing them with
experiential learning through field studies in cultivating and harvesting their
school vegetable gardens and maintaining a variety of outdoor habitats, ranging
from those featuring plants to attract birds and butterflies to California
Timeline Gardens, which showcases plants the indigenous people still use and
plants other cultures have introduced to our Golden State.
The schools' instructional gardens serve as interactive and beautiful
outdoor classrooms where all students benefit from three-dimensional learning
experiences in science, math, history-social studies and English-language arts.
These outdoor classrooms provide an integrated context for interdisciplinary
learning in keeping with the California Department of Education's "Garden
in Every School Initiative;” and, conversely, prove there is a "School in
Every Garden," where theses core subjects and others, including
health, nutrition, and the arts, are taught and experienced. This
interdisciplinary approach cultivates the talents and skills of all students,
while enriching the students' capacities of observation and thinking.
The schools' outdoor classrooms are wholeheartedly endorsed by students,
staff, parents, businesses and the overall community to further develop
characteristics of successful learners -- organization, flexible thinking,
pride, responsibility, and contribution. Organization is required to plan,
create and implement the gardens and their seasonal crops. Flexible Thinking is
needed to adjust to climate fluctuations and perform integrated pest management.
Pride occurs with students playing their part in nurturing seeds and seedlings
into mature produce, and cultivating wildlife habitats. Contribution is
evidenced as a result of creating and restoring healthy habitats for people and
wildlife.
The gardens also help our youth become contributing members of society by
demonstrating healthy nutrition practices, and cultivating and distributing
sustainable agriculture for and to those in need. Students’ enhance and
supplement their understanding of diverse ecosystems and values structures, and
the cause-and-effect of their decision-making, which will serve them well in
collaborative efforts in our global society.
One of the schools benefiting from the club's grant is Mariposa
Elementary, which recently was honored with the California School Board
Association's top award, the Golden Bell, for demonstrating the
effectiveness of curriculum-based school gardens. When asked the question,
"How Does Your Garden Grow?" the grateful response in the
communities served by Redlands Unified School District is with the support of
the Redlands Kiwanis Club.
The
Kiwanis Foundation was established in 1981 and has annually awarded scholarships
to graduating seniors in all of the Redlands Unified School District secondary
schools. Not only are the students
who meet academic and community involvement criteria eligible for the
scholarships, but challenge grants are offered to students who have overcome
hardships and obstacles to graduate to assist them with college and/or career
training. In 24 years, more than
$200,000 in scholarships has been awarded.
As the number of high schools and the cost of postsecondary education
increase, the Foundation expands its fundraising efforts to meet these
additional needs.
Another significant contribution that has
had a positive impact on hundreds of students is COMPACT, a partnership between
business and education.
Compact has had an impact on hundreds of students. Involving educators and
community leaders, members of the Kiwanis Club set criteria for COMPACT and
established it in the local high school. It
has since spread to the District’s second high school and the continuation
high school. COMPACT gives its
members an opportunity to learn competitive skills for future employment by
participating in different activities associated with job search.
COMPACT activities include evening business mixers that allow students to
interact with various members of the business community where they learn how to
conduct themselves in a professional manner. All members are expected to donate
their time to serving the community. COMPACT has been recognized by the
California Schools Boards Association and the San Bernardino County
Superintendent of Schools.
The
motto of Kiwanis International is “We Build.”
The Redlands Kiwanis has taken this very seriously and completed a
variety of construction projects at Redlands Unified schools. From shade
structures to landscaping to major remodeling projects, Kiwanis has continually
worked to improve the facilities that house students.
The Kiwanians supplied the labor and materials for a major renovation at
Clock Auditorium at Redlands High School. This included a storage loft in
the stage craft area, painting the foyer and dressing room areas, carpeting the
dressing rooms and hallway, and installing new dressing room makeup counters.
They also built Theater K in the basement of the auditorium.
Prior to this project, the Kiwanians financed and installed temporary
dressing rooms for swimming and water polo at the pools at RHS as well as
building the coaches’ office at the pools. Much like the character, George
Bailey, in the classic film, “A Wonderful Life,” who changed “Bedford
Falls” for the better, the Kiwanis Club of Redlands has enhanced the community
of Redlands and enriched the Redlands Unified School District. This group of
dedicated volunteers has accomplished this by conducting book drives, planting
gardens, granting awards to students at all grade levels (i.e. Hope of America
for outstanding achievement and character and Terrific Kids to acknowledge
attendance for elementary and middle school students as well as provision of
scholarships to high school students). Further, this group is recognized for
facilitating community events for children and families such as the
“Celebration of Childhood,” “Run through Redlands, the Redlands Christmas
and Easter Bike and Pet Parades, and the Lincoln march for the Scouts; ringing
bells for the Salvation Army, assisting with community clean-up days, and much
more. To modify the quote by Clarence the Angel in this movie, "You've been
given a great gift, Redlands Unified School District: a chance to see what the
school district would be like without the Kiwanis Club of Redlands.”