Vera Bullion Memorial Award
This year, the NISD Council of PTAs won the Vera Bullion Memorial Award for our TItle 1 Project. The Vera Bullion Memorial Award is presented at the Area 7 Spring Conference to a local unit or council PTA for an outstanding program or project that implements the Objects of PTA.
The Vera Bullion Memorial Award was established to honor a wonderful woman. Vera was an active member of PTA and served in many capacities, including San Antonio Council of PTAs President, District 20 (now our Area 7) PTA President, and Texas Regional Vice President. She is best remembered for her kind words, gentle nature, warm smile, and a saying or quotation for any occasion. She treated everyone with respect and practiced inclusivity before it became an issue. Vera is no longer with us, but we will continue to honor her memory with the Vera Bullion Memorial Award.
The Purposes of PTA are several and support the PTA Vision which is “Every child’s potential is a reality”. As we look at some of the PTA purposes we discover that these basic needs are relatively easy for many children across our district to attain, while almost impossible for others. Almost 50% of NISD schools are Title 1 schools. Many children do not have school supplies when they arrive at school or a backpack to carry books, homework, or supplies in to and from school. In the colder weather they do not have jackets, closed toe shoes or items that are basic needs to keep them warm. This often translates into them being sick, missing school, poor grades, and low self-esteem. It begins a cycle which in some cases may have been completely avoidable had these children had the necessary tools to give them the same opportunity as the child who had basic needs filled from the start.
NISD Council of PTAs started the Title 1 Project to help children across our district. We reached out to all local PTAs asking for their help. Council PTA organized a list of Title 1 schools and schools if they would like to adopt a school and to do so by emailing their choice of a school to Council. We encouraged local PTAs to use this project as one of their programs in the 3-to-1 program-to-fundraiser ratio recommended by Texas PTA. We provided examples of letters they could use for different types of donation drives based on the needs of the schools they were adopting. Examples of the types of donation drives were: shoes, backpacks, warm clothing, Thanksgiving Dinner meals delivered, socks and mittens, pants, and books. Not only does the project benefit young people with the donations but it teaches them the spirit of community service. There is no example more evident of this than Jay HS who themselves is a Title 1 school. Their National Honor Society collected prom dresses for girls at their school and Holmes HS (another Title 1 school) and also provided free makeup. Girls that otherwise would not have been able to go to prom were able to do so because of the efforts of these young people.
Approximately 40% of our Title 1 schools have been reported to us as “adopted”. Often we find others are being helped but just haven’t let us know it so that we can document it. We believe that our program follows PTA purposes because (1) basic needs must be met for a child to function well in home before they go out to the school and community; (2) we are helping to raise the child’s standard of home life with basic food, clothing, and necessities; (3) with school supplies and parent/school interaction we can better educate children; and (4) we are uniting efforts across our local school boundaries, the district, and helping neighbors so that all children have the same opportunities physically, mentally, and socially by having proper shoes to take part in PE, books, nutrition and self-esteem for mental and social skills which are all important to the whole child.
Four of the five purposes of PTA are carried out by the Title 1 Project:
- To promote the welfare of children and youth in home, school, community and place of worship
- To raise the standards of home life
- To bring into closer relation the home and the school, that parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the education of children and youth
- To develop between educators and the general public such united efforts as will secure for all children and youth the highest advantages in physical, mental, social and spiritual education
By helping children and their families with basic needs such as clothing, food, books, school supplies or other specific needs of that local school we are contributing positively to the life of adults and children in the home. Our goal is for all Title 1 schools to be adopted and we will continue to work towards that goal. We feel very good about the differences we can make in the life of a child and believe strongly that every child’s potential should be their reality!
Title 1 Project
In the fall of 2009, the NISD Council of PTAs launched a community service project called the Title 1 Project. The goal of this project was to help the 46 Title 1 schools within our district by adopting them in some form. We sent out information explaining the project and coordinated setting up schools with partners so that we could cover as many schools as possible. Our district is large and very diverse. Children in one area have needs different from those in another and we are thankful that so many of you were able to help. Council would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the schools who participated in adopting a school for the Title 1 Project.
State PTA suggests a 3 to 1 guideline for program-to-fundraiser ratio. The Title 1 Project can fulfill the requirements for one of these programs while benefiting schools in our district that are low income schools. This program does not require you to amend your budget, does not require a lot of time and is a program that helps many children. The steps in doing this project are simple:
- Adopt a school or schools. (You can choose more than one and spread the community service.)
- Discuss with the adopted school what their needs are and select dates for the donation drive. You can do more than one type of drive throughout the year if you choose.
- Send home flyers explaining the project. Be sure to include the type of items requested, due date, and any other pertinent information. We can provide you sample letters.
- Have a secure place to store the items until you arrange for transfer between the schools when the drive is over.
- The receiving school should have counselors and/or administrators give out the items instead of parents handing them out. Some families are embarrassed asking for help if they know that other parents at the school are aware of their situation.
Not all of our Title 1 schools were adopted last year. This year we will be adding an additional school as a Title 1 school which brings our total to 47. If you participated last year we hope you are able to continue to support the school you adopted and that this program will build relationships between schools that continue from year to year. If you were unable to participate last year we ask that you look at the possibility of trying to participate this year. Some secondary schools had NHS, GT or other organizations within the schools also participate with exciting results. The Jay High School National Honor Society supported a Prom Dress Drive for students from Holmes and Jay who could not afford to buy a dress on their own. This allowed many girls the opportunity to attend their senior prom that otherwise would not have been able to go.
Some examples of drives could be food, backpacks, school supplies, warm clothes, shoes, socks/gloves. No matter what type of donation drive it is, we know it will make a difference in the life of a child. Both the children at the receiving schools and the giving schools will learn the importance of community and helping those who may be less fortunate. Helping every child is part of PTA’s mission. This program enables us to do so. For additional information or copies of sample letters please contact Donna Smith, Council President, at or at 422-0949.
