Connect Canyons
Episode 66: Canyons Parents Embrace the Spirit of Volunteering Year Round
Tennessee may be the volunteer state, but here in Utah, we have a strong history of coming together to help one another. For many years, Utahns have led the nation in volunteering, and this year is no different, according to research by Volunteering and Civic Life in America. Here in the Canyon School District, we also have a strong corps of volunteers, and we're constantly grateful for those members of our community who give the gift of time to our schools.
On the latest episode of Connect Canyons, we hear from two Canyons volunteers who have been working with students and schools for many years and all across the district. They share the positive impact they have seen inside classrooms and how volunteering has helped their families and themselves grow.
Tennessee may be the volunteer state, but here in Utah, we have a strong history of coming together to help one another. For many years, Utahns have led the nation in volunteering, and this year is no different, according to research by Volunteering and Civic Life in America. Here in the Canyon School District, we also have a strong corps of volunteers, and we're constantly grateful for those members of our community who give the gift of time to our schools.
On the latest episode of Connect Canyons, we hear from two Canyons volunteers who have been working with students and schools for many years and all across the district. They share the positive impact they have seen inside classrooms and how volunteering has helped their families and themselves grow.
Welcome to Connect Canyons, a podcast sponsored by Canyons School District. This is a show about what we teach, how we teach and why we get up close and personal with some of the people who make our schools great Students, teachers, principals, parents and more. We meet national experts too. Learning is about making connections, so connect with us.
Speaker 2:Tennessee may be the volunteer state, but here in Utah we have a strong history of coming together to help one another. This year, and for many years, utahns lead the nation in volunteer services, according to research by Volunteering and Civic Life in America. Here in the Canyons School District we also have a proud history of volunteers and we're constantly grateful for those members of our community who give the gift of time to our schools. Welcome to Connect Canyons. I'm your host, frances Cook, for this week's episode. I'm joined by Nancy Tingey, one of the longest serving members of the Canyons District Board of Education and active parent volunteer for the past 30 years. Also joining us is Rebecca Martin, who has given her time within the district for the past 15 years, currently the Parent-Teacher, student Association President at Hillcrest High and this year's APEX Award winner for Volunteer of the Year. Thank you both for joining us.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having us. Thank you, frances, it's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2:Let's start with kind of just the basics. Why do you volunteer? How did you get started volunteering, nancy, would you start us off?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have been a volunteer for a long, long time. As you mentioned earlier, I really began volunteering in schools when my oldest child started kindergarten. I like to say I went back to school with when he did, when he started, and I've been able to be a part of schools in some capacity pretty much every school year since then and I find it to be very rewarding. And to me, volunteering it's about community, it's about belonging, it's about serving, it's also about investing in the future.
Speaker 4:How much, rebecca. I too started when my children started in school, volunteering in the classroom, helping with classroom parties, and then later on I got involved in the PTA and had a more advisory role in helping plan and execute activities and events, not just in the classroom setting but for the whole school overall. And for me it's about community and connection. Like Nancy said, I want to be part of a community and help others feel part of the community. And then, as we work together toward the common goal that we all want our children to have a positive experience in the classroom and in the school, then we're making connections with each other. You're with other like-minded parents and grandparents and other volunteers, working together towards that same goal of helping our children achieve their potential. And then, as we work together, we feel part of that community and we help those children feel invested in the community also.
Speaker 2:You mentioned the PTA, which for Canyon District, is the preferred parent-teacher organization. Can you speak to what the PTA does, why the PTA is important? Nancy, I know you had a lot of. You spent a lot of time with the PTA as well.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Well, the purpose of PTA is to help every child's potential become a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities, and to teach them how to advocate for their children. So the one thing I like about PTA is I'm not there just for my own children. I'm there for all of the students, for all of the children, and especially those that parents may not be either comfortable in the schools or don't have the time to be in the schools, and so I like to help advocate for more educational dollars, for more educational opportunities, to make sure that our students have the resources that they need. So, on the broad scale, I like to advocate for each of those students, whether that's talking to a principal, a school board member, the district or all the way to Capitol Hill and talking to our state legislators and making sure that we get enough money in our school system. So advocating is a really important part of PTA, but it's also engaging and helping individual students achieve their potential.
Speaker 2:It's more than just your classroom fundraisers and activities.
Speaker 3:PTA provides that valuable service at the local school level in engaging families and students and teachers in building up and sustaining the culture in their schools, as well as advocating at the state level.
Speaker 4:One of the important things that the PTA does is we're there to support the teachers and the administrators also and to improve communication between them. One of the benefits of being a member of PTA and showing up at a PTA meeting is you're sitting across the table from the administrator, from your principal, and you have an opportunity to ask any question that you want, right there, face to face, and get answers and find out what's happening in your school and in your school community. And that's a great opportunity for parents that I don't think they realize. It's underutilized, but you have this one-on-one face time to really talk about what's important to you in your child's education.
Speaker 2:That's a really great way of looking at it, a way to work together to find the best solution and find the best pathway forward for our students. I know that PTA is only one of our organizations. Nancy, you are part of the school community councils or have been in the past. Can you explain what that means and how those work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, school community councils are similar to PTA in that it involves parents and teachers and administrators at the school, but they are given a statutory role by the state legislature to help create and develop a school improvement plan and they're given money that is distributed from the state that they can spend at their schools.
Speaker 3:So their conversations should be centered around student achievement data. They look at data, they talk about it, they identify where some needs are and how those state funds can help support what the school is trying to do in ways of improving student achievement. School community councils also can discuss other issues at the school and and give some feedback to the to the school board. I know our board has often, when we're discussing an issue or a matter that will affect schools, will often reach out to school community councils and ask them okay, here's what we're thinking, give us some feedback and give us some advice on how you think it would work in your school.
Speaker 3:Like Rebecca was saying, it provides opportunity for parents to have conversations about what's happening in their school and to provide the input. And also, like PTA, members of the school community council are representative of other parents and they should be advocating for all students and not just individual small groups or things like that. It's what's best for the whole school, is what they should be discussing and representing and, unlike PTA, school community council members are elected, so there's a pretty formal structure to how they operate. I mean, pta is formal too, but it's a separate organization on how they do things.
Speaker 4:I served on school community councils, also at the middle school and high school levels, and I was really impressed with how much money and the responsibility of the school community council members. I didn't know until I got involved with it that there's a lot of money that trust lands in Utah have been given to schools for educational purposes and they need to be tied to educational outcomes. But there's so much you can do with those resources and putting them into the classrooms or hiring aides to help with math or English, to help get your scores up or for your underserved students. It's a really important role and I don't know that parents are aware of it. So school community council is an important tool for your school to help students achieve the educational potential that we're trying to help them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and in a very real way it's a shared governance, because they are able to make decisions regarding appropriating funds and direct those funds to the most important and immediate needs of the school for their academic achievement.
Speaker 2:You both have been involved in volunteering for so many years now. You've dedicated countless hours to education. How do you find the time? You're both busy women. You have families, you have interest outside of schools, but you've also done so much for our schools. How do you, how do you schedule that in?
Speaker 4:Well, just like anything, you have to prioritize what's important to you, and when you have small children, I like to be in the schools. I like to be where my kids were, and I would often bring my younger ones along with me. I've got memories of hauling my two smaller boys when their older sisters were in school. I'd bring them to PTA meetings, I'd bring them to volunteering and they'd be sitting next to me while I'm helping second graders with multiplication tables and it's a great way to help pass that on that. This is what we do. We give back to the community. We are part of this community. We're not separate from it, and schools are beautiful because they will accept whatever you can give. If you can give one hour, they'll take it.
Speaker 4:If you can only work at home and you want to take a project home, I just saw yesterday one of our elementary schools had advertised that they need someone to help with some kindergarten projects cutting out paper and you can take it home. They just have some I'm guessing holiday projects coming up and they need a lot of paper cut to the right shapes. The school can do that. They can take your Hour of cutting paper or they can take. Do you want to help provide a meal for the teachers, for teacher appreciation? Do you want to drop off a bag of rolls or Salad? So whatever you can give the schools can use, whether that's in a classroom or in a larger setting for the school.
Speaker 4:So if you want to volunteer and you're interested, there's a way to make that happen. Quality over quantity, absolutely. And there's opportunities in the evening too. If you're a working parent and you're not available during the day, it's hard to be in the classroom, right if you're working a job. But there are things you can do in the evening. There's things you can do on the weekends. There's other opportunities if you look for them. How much?
Speaker 2:Nancy, how do you prioritize these things?
Speaker 3:Well, like Rebecca said, it's a matter of finding the time if it's important to you. I, when I first was elected to the board of education, I had been volunteering for many years in our our neighborhood elementary school and I Debated okay, does this mean I have to give that up? And I decided no, it doesn't. So I've kept doing that and to me, the rewards are immediate. When we can do something that makes us feel good and Is enjoyable, then it's easier to find the time, and that's how I feel about volunteering in schools.
Speaker 2:You mentioned the reward. I think that's on both sides of things too right. You're not only helping teachers in the classroom or the entire score, the entire district, but it's an internal thing as well. Rebecca, I like how you said you brought your kids along with you. I found a study recently in the Journal of American Medical Association which found that children who participated in community service in the past year were 34% more likely to be an excellent or very good health, 66% were more likely to be considered flourishing and were 34% less likely to have behavioral problems. So your kids are seeing you volunteer and Seeing you get that. That's self fulfillment from it. Do you think that's that's passing along to your children for?
Speaker 4:either of you, I Think it is. My children realize how important it is to give back and to be part of this community, and they've. They've done things in their own circles. My one son started a nonprofit to help compost leftover lunch materials from the lunch room instead of going into the garbage and Using that to make compostable material for a community garden, so they can see what's important and then how can they use it in their life. What can they do to help improve the world around them? We all want to make a difference, we all want to help others and you said the benefit is to ourselves. Every time I go into school, I may be tired or I'm busy and I don't really have time for this, but as soon as they go into the school and I'm around all these students and there's so much energy in our schools.
Speaker 4:It just lifts me right up. I just walk out with a smile on my face because I'm lifted as I'm helping them. They cheer me up. I get out of my own head and my own problems and I start thinking how can I help other people? So, really, the it helps me and benefits me and I become happier when I volunteer.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say the same thing, and some of the rewards that I've had are establishing some lifelong friendships and very treasured associations with other people. As, as Rebecca mentioned earlier, the school kind of is, it's a community gathering place. It's where we can come together with a common purpose of supporting children, and you kind of mentioned it as well. But spending time in a school, there's a spirit there, there's something that feeds the soul, at least for me and for most other like-minded people that I've worked with over the years.
Speaker 3:And then there's just an intrinsic reward about being a little part of something that's bigger than self, and I think those things and my family's experience have helped to teach my family too about the importance of being involved in a community and sharing. It kind of brings to mind in the Tongan language there's a word, it's feitekonyaki, and what it means is we are here to help each other, and that has been just one of my core values and beliefs and a guiding principle in my life. And I'm grateful because of not only the enjoyable experiences and the wonderful people and the rewarding things that I've been able to be a part of, but I personally feel like I have grown and become a better person because of my opportunity to work and associate with people in education.
Speaker 2:I love that idea of being here to help each other and I see exactly what you're both talking about. When you walk into a school and you're there for a program, the kids light up. When they get to interact with members of the community, with their families, having their families come in and see the work that they've done. It's just such a good feeling to then walk out of that school. You're right, there's a certain spirit that just won't leave you in a good way. Let's talk about the impact on the other side. So we're feeling this impact when we volunteer and when we give back on ourselves. But can you both talk? You've both seen firsthand how volunteering impacts our schools. Can you talk about the outcome of some of the volunteer work you've done or you've seen done throughout the district, the impact it has on our schools?
Speaker 3:I'll share just kind of one example that first comes to my mind and in our neighborhood elementary school years ago the school community council identified an academic need and students were not very fluent with their math facts. So the school community council organized a program to help where volunteers would come in and help students practice and become more fluent in their math facts. And the attention to that over the years has kind of waxed and waned a little bit, but it's something that I really felt was important and as well as fun and enjoyable. So basically we organized parents to come in and spend just a few minutes with a student with flashcards, just helping them learn their math facts.
Speaker 3:One year there was a student and I help in fifth grade. This student came in for the first time to work with me and said I don't do math and I'm like inside of me. I felt so bad. I thought how can someone in fifth grade have that mindset already? So I took that on as a challenge that year to help that student gain confidence and feel like, no, I can master these things. I can master the simple math facts. And I would always tell students when you have those basics mastered, then you can do anything. To me it's always every year. There are students that struggle and when you see them accomplish things and meet their goals and they are so excited and I just think that is going to set up a foundation for them and who knows where that trajectory will take them.
Speaker 4:There's been lots of moments over the years where I've felt touched and everything from when I've served the cross-country team a breakfast we had a big breakfast before a big race their region meet and getting up really early and putting on this breakfast for the 40 kids on the team. It was hard, I was tired, but they all said thank you and they really appreciated it and most of them ran one of their best races and the coach says we are always doing a breakfast before a region because that made a difference. So something small like helping provide breakfast for some hungry kids, and they say thank you, that's a great moment. There's other opportunities.
Speaker 4:When I was in the PTA president at Midvale Middle School, we could apply for a PTA arts grant. They have arts grants where you have to provide matching funds and then they will give you funds. And we had a theater teacher that was fantastic and wanted to do a production of the little prince, but she didn't have it in her budget. So she came to me and I said well, let's apply for this arts grant. I will give the $500 from our PTA and then we'll see if we can get the matching $500 from National PTA. Well, we received the arts grant, so she had $1,000 to put on this production of the little prince and it was phenomenal. The students did a great job, they loved it and she had them write thank you notes.
Speaker 4:Each student and there were about 50 students at least involved wrote a thank you note to the PTA and one of them said this changed my life. I was in a really bad place. I didn't want to come to school, my life was falling apart and this play made me come to school and it gave me something to live for. And it's moments like that and I think, the little bit of paperwork that I did to support this teacher all I did was help this teacher have the resources that she needed to impact the lives of her students, but is able to have a little part in that and it changed this student's life, like Nancy did. With the math facts, you can change someone's life by your act of kindness and that's worth your time.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. I think you both have put such a fine point on. It doesn't matter how much time you're able to give it's that you're able to give at all, whether it's an hour with a student who struggles in math or just helping to fill out paperwork. We're entering the season of giving, where everyone is a little more in tune to the idea of volunteering and giving back to our communities. How has volunteering changed your life and the way you approach your day-to-day lives?
Speaker 4:Volunteering has helped me understand and appreciate the people in our schools that are working here the administrators, the teachers, the custodial staff. It has helped me gain an appreciation for all that those hard-working people are doing and I've benefited from seeing their work and being able to acknowledge them and then to be in your school, where your students are, to see what's happening in their life, what their life looks like from the inside, from being in the school classrooms. It makes a difference and I feel like I have a better understanding for what my children are going through. There's a tangible benefit that you can understand your students better. You can appreciate your teachers better and see what their classroom is like and maybe the challenges that they're facing. So you're much more understanding of situations, of what's happening, and then you can better assess what can I do to help, how can I help, how can I make this better? And the benefit is we can all make it better and then it improves everyone's outcome. It makes everyone's experience better and more positive.
Speaker 3:I'll just take a step back Canyon's District Schools. It's a system of public schools and we serve the public and as often as possible, if we can get the public involved in the schools whether it's spending your time or paying attention to what's going on and offering some input and advice it strengthens our schools and strengthens the system and it provides a better future not only for individuals but for families and for our communities by having good educational opportunities and experiences throughout these years. And I've always seen that as part of the purpose of public education is to build that strong foundation in our communities and in our individual lives and families. And you mentioned this time of year and I think it's worth noting that almost every school this time of year does some sort of a charitable activity, a drive, collecting and gathering things, fundraising things like that, and often those, the focus of those charitable activities, are other schools in our community or other organizations in our community. That again, it's a way of our schools strengthening our community and individuals and families.
Speaker 2:I think that's great. We're all here to help each other. I want to thank you both so much for sitting down with us and taking the time to talk about your experiences with the district, and thank you as well for just the no doubt hundreds and thousands of hours you've both donated to our schools. We've seen your impact firsthand and it's a beautiful thing. And thank you for listening to Connect Canyons. If there's a topic you would like to hear discussed, you can send us an email to communications at canyonsdistrictorg.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to this episode of Connect Canyons. Connect with us on Twitter, facebook or Instagram at Canyons district or on our website, canyonsdistrictorg.