MESD School Nurse partners with “helpers” to outfit students with shoes and jackets
From: Linda Taylor & Laura Conroy
|
|
|
Students attending Fairview Elementary received shoes and jackets thanks to MESD School Nurse Linda Taylor. Taylor woke up one-morning last November thinking about shoes. As she explains “I was thinking in this land of plenty, children in my own caseload often don’t have the basic necessities required to arrive at school ready to learn. Food insecurity. No place of their own to lay their heads at night. Not even a decent pair of shoes.”
|
|
|
Believing the possibility that one person could do something about disparity and poverty, Taylor wrote an email to Nike and received a response within minutes. Days after filling out an online application, Taylor was notified that the children of Fairview Elementary had won a 2-year Nike grant for shoes.
|
|
|
Inspired by the response, Taylor connected with Columbia Sportswear who donated coats to Fairview students. Taylor’s response was simply to say “if you’d have seen the face of 30 little children the day winter break began, when they each received a brand new coat...” Reflecting on the experience Taylor shared, “One thing I know to be true is that we are each surrounded by people who want to help, and not just high-profile corporations like Nike and Columbia. The principals, teachers, and the nurse supervisors all helped with this. Sometimes the most audacious ideas bear fruit. We are all just a few helpers away.”
|
|
|
|
|
