Tag Archives: Richmond

Shelley Callahan | En Español

Last November, Children Incorporated staff members Renée Kube, Shelley Oxenham, and Chuck Smith helped rebuild a playground at G.H. Reid Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia, where we partner with Communities in Schools of Richmond (CIS) to support sponsored children in the Richmond area, near our headquarters.

Just a few months prior, over summer break, the old playground was set on fire, and it spread around the equipment, melting and disfiguring most of it, and leaving the 750 Richmond public school children with few options for outdoor play.

Partners in Rebuilding

Fun supplies makes for a good time for kids

A few of the donated supplies for kids at G.H. Reid Elementary

Renée, our Director of U.S. Programs, explained that the playground rebuild project was able to happen thanks to KaBOOM, a national nonprofit that builds playgrounds, especially in low-income areas.

The CarMax Foundation also stepped up to contribute funds and materials for the build, and Renée attended the volunteer workday, along with her Children Incorporated coworkers Shelley, U.S. Programs Specialist, and Chuck, U.S. Sponsorship Manager.

About 250 volunteers built the playground from the ground up in just one day. One of the jobs Renée, Shelley, and Chuck were assigned was painting maps and game boards onto the playground surface.

A Big Initiative

By the end of May, we had $1,000 to donate to G.H. Reid, and we couldn’t wait to present the check to them, as well as contribute some supplies to get them started.

In early 2017, Children Incorporated promoted Renée, Shelley, and Chuck’s story about helping to rebuild the playground. We took that opportunity to mention another initiative as well: we wanted to provide additional funding to the school for the playground’s upkeep, such as laying new mulch and repainting, which it would be in need of at the end of the school year. But by early spring, that initiative grew beyond just helping with maintenance, thanks to a special sponsor, Micah Greer – it turned into a campaign to raise funds to purchase playground supplies as well.

Micah is the founder of Operation Optimist, a web-based clothing company in Austin, Texas, and he is a personal trainer. Micah has been a sponsor through Children Incorporated for more than a year, and he decided to take his involvement to new heights by making the generous offer to donate ten percent of all of his merchandise sales to our organization. When Micah sent Children Incorporated a check for $500 in April, we decided we would use the funds to purchase supplies for children to use in support of healthy living, since that’s one of Micah’s primary focuses. And we asked donors to match it – which they happily did! By the end of May, we had $1,000 to donate to G.H. Reid, and we couldn’t wait to present the check to them, as well as contribute some supplies to get them started.

Presenting the check to our volunteer coordinator to purchase even more playground supplies for the fall

The Dream List

With the funding in place, Renée asked for a “dream list” of playground supplies from G.H. Reid, which was provided by Mr. Vickers, the physical education teacher there. Mr. Vickers told our volunteer coordinator, Sydney Capito, that the children could use detachable hurdles, a handled parachute, dumbbells, basketballs, footballs, soccer balls, kick balls, and hula-hoops. Renée purchased some of the items, including a flag football set and wiffle ball bats. We were so excited to take fun supplies to the school last week, and to present a check to Sydney, who knows the children will be thrilled to have all this new gear to play with in the upcoming school year.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA?

You can sponsor a child in Richmond in one of two ways: call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists, or email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | En Español

Someone set fire to the playground matting at G.H. Reid Elementary School last summer. The fire spread around the equipment, melting and disfiguring most of it, and leaving the 750 Richmond, Virginia public school children with few options for outdoor play.

But when bad things happen, good people often start showing up to help. Hundreds of volunteers from various Richmond organizations, including Children Incorporated, stepped up to help out last November.

But when bad things happen, good people often start showing up to help.

Together, they rebuilt the playground in just one day.

Community support

Renée Kube, director of U.S. Programs for Children Incorporated, explained that the project was led by KaBoom, a national nonprofit that builds playgrounds, especially in low-income areas.

“We had been told by our volunteer coordinator at the school that funding had been secured from KaBoom,” she said. “But KaBoom requires community buy-in — additional community funding and also hands-on help — so what they really needed from us was warm bodies to come and work all day.”

They also needed maintenance funding, and Children Incorporated pledged to provide that as well.

A one-of-a-kind design

But it was the children who designed the playground, which was based on ideas and drawings submitted by students at the school. Because the children created their own ideas and voted on what they wanted, the Reid Elementary School playground is one-of-a-kind.

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The playground under construction

The CarMax Foundation and KaBoom put in most of the upfront money and materials, and on November 3rd, Kube turned up to work, along with her Children Incorporated co-workers, Shelley Oxenham, U.S. Programs Specialist, and Chuck Smith, U.S. Sponsorship Manager.

They were among about 250 volunteers who built the playground from the ground up in just one day. One of the jobs Kube, Oxenham, and Smith were tasked with was painting maps and game boards onto the playground surface.

A global concern

They painted maps of the United States and of the world, a hopscotch board, and other game lines on the blacktop. Fortunately, Kube said, they didn’t have to be experts on global geography in order to get the maps down.

“KaBoom sent people out the day before to plan out where things would go,” she said. “They decided where to put the monkey bars and swings, and they drew out the outline of the maps for us.”

When the work team arrived on November 3rd, they painted the maps, after some redesign.

“One of the volunteers looked at the map of the world and said, ‘That’s not right,’” Kube recounted. “He was Dutch, and he said that part was wrong – so we said, ‘Okay, you’re in charge of Scandinavia.’”

They also needed maintenance funding, and Children Incorporated pledged to provide that as well.

An enthusiastic audience

In addition to the playground, the team built a swing set, a giant Connect 4 board, and a trellis with a bench and cubbies. They also painted the maps and blacktop games, and repainted the lines on the basketball court. They cleared out a garden area, and removed trash and debris from the site.

While the volunteers worked, the children tried – mostly without success – to concentrate in their classes.

“It was tremendously exciting,” Kube said. “The kids were peeking out the windows to watch it going up, and at the end of the day, they were leaning out of the school buses, looking at this new equipment so longingly.”

“They had to wait several days for the concrete to set before they could use their new playground, but since then, it’s been well-used and appreciated,” Kube said.

Ongoing maintenance

Our staff members Renée, Shelley and Chuck

The heavy use the playground will get is one of the things Children Incorporated has pledged to keep up with. With 750 children running across its surfaces every day, the paint won’t hold up forever – and neither will the mulch spread around it.

Children Incorporated will provide funding to repaint and re-mulch the playground as needed – and they may even provide the manpower, too, Kube said.

“We just built it in November, so maintenance is not an issue yet,” she said. “They’ll look at it at the end of the school year and see what needs to be done. We will definitely be providing funding for mulch and maintenance – and, if needed, we’ll be doing the work ourselves.”

Other community groups may put in the physical labor too, Kube said. One church in the area said they couldn’t raise maintenance funds but could provide volunteers to help spread mulch once Children Incorporated purchases it. The paint job may go the same way.

“We want to keep it attractive, and we want to keep it safe,” Kube said.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN Richmond?

You can sponsor a child in Richmond, Virginia by calling our office and speaking with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381 or by emailing us at sponsorship@childrenincorporated.org.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | En Español

In 2011, Children Incorporated was gifted $10,000 by Deep Run High School in Richmond, Virginia as a beneficiary of the school’s Deep Run Marathon Dance. In an effort to help children in Richmond with vision issues, the contribution was used for a large-scale vision clinic held in October 2011 at the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Athletic Center in partnership with OneSight, Richmond City Public Schools, the Rudi Johnson Foundation, the James Farrior Foundation, and Art on Wheels.

“She had often complained of headaches. With her new glasses, however, she is able to concentrate for longer periods of time, and she no longer gets headaches.”

It was announced in early 2018 that after many years, Deep Run High School is retiring the Marathon Dance fundraiser; but the memory of what our organization was able to do, thanks to that donation, will last a lifetime for us and for the children who benefited from it.

Eye chart art

During the vision clinic, funds donated to Children Incorporated helped not only with the cost of providing eye exams for kids, but also with costs associated with a therapeutic, hands-on “eye chart art” project with partnering organization Art on Wheels. As the children rotated through the eye exam stations, they were asked how they “saw” themselves in the past, present, and future. Then, during the wait for their glasses, the children made ‘eye chart collages,’ which were all digitally photographed.

When the clinic was over, the children took their original collages home. The digital photos were judged by Art on Wheels staff members; 25 pieces were awarded special mentions, and they were printed and mounted. At the end of the month, the 25 pieces were installed at a local art gallery, where a screen displayed rotating images of all participant’s art.

Improvements in academic performance

At the vision clinic, 654 Richmond children received comprehensive eye exams. For many, this was the first time their eyes had ever been thoroughly examined by an eye doctor. Of these kids, 463 needed eyeglasses. Additionally, six children received referrals to pediatric ophthalmologists due to the discovery of serious eye conditions.

After the clinic, a survey was sent to each of the children’s teachers. Their feedback included comments such as, “Because she is seeing the board so much better, she no longer has to sit extremely close to it. There has been an improvement in her academic performance.”

“His writing scores on his bi-weekly tests have improved.”

“She had often complained of headaches. With her new glasses, however, she is able to concentrate for longer periods of time, and she no longer gets headaches.”

We can’t thank amazing students and administrators like those at Deep Run High School enough for making it possible for us to help so many children who were in need of eye exams, glasses, and referrals. These incredible people helped to offer better vision and a better future for so many of our sponsored and unsponsored children.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA?

You can sponsor a child in Richmond, Virginia in one of two ways: call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our staff members, or email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org.

SPONSOR A CHILD