thankful thursday: part III
part three of three
January is Thankuary, the final installment!
If you missed our e-newsletters last week and the week before, you may have also missed that we have deemed the month of January "Thankuary" -- to acknowledge the support from the kind and compassionate people in this community (like you!) who are helping cultivate student potential every day and in every one of Olympia's public schools.
This week, we're focusing on how your support is helping ensure students' urgent basic needs are being met with both immediacy and benevolence through the Principal's Emergency Fund (PEF).
Your generosity is making it possible for:
students who have been sleeping in vehicles in sub-freezing temperatures during the recent cold snap to stay warm overnight with extra blankets, wool socks, mittens and hand-warmers;
families who don't have access to a washer and dryer to clean their students' clothing with our laundry vouchers, which are redeemable at Westside Laundry; and
aspiring-musician students to have the sheet music and instruments they need for orchestra and band.
These are just a few examples of how your support is making a difference in the lives of students every single day. You can read about more efforts to help students who have urgent basic needs below.
principal’s emergency fund
Just since the start of the school year in September, your support has made it possible for hundreds of students -- in every one of Olympia's public schools -- to have access to nutritious food in their home on the weekends, and during holidays and breaks, when they lose access to school meals. Their families are able to redeem grocery vouchers at several locally owned stores, including Ralph's and Bayview Thriftway, and the Olympia and Lacey Grocery Outlets.
Helping students stay housed, avoid hunger
While the Principal's Emergency Fund (PEF) immediately provides students with urgent basic needs, such as clothing and shoes that keep them warm and dry, eyeglasses that allow them to read their school assignments, and toiletries that keep them clean, so far this school year the two most common PEF expenses are for housing -- either rental or move-in assistance -- and groceries.
Just since September, your support has provided rental assistance for 87 students -- helping them escape the trauma of being evicted from their home. What's more, because they were not displaced, these students can continue to thrive from the stability of attending the same school, learning from the same teacher, and being in the company of the same friends every day.
We want to thank Help Us Move In-Thurston County and the Puget Sound Energy Foundation for each providing a $10,000 grant for rental assistance and move-in expenses -- stretching your support even further!
Grocery vouchers also continue to prove invaluable. They have accounted for nearly 13 percent of PEF expenses so far this year.
Your support has provided grocery vouchers, redeemable at locally owned businesses like the Olympia and Lacey Grocery Outlet, to hundreds of K-12 students, most of whom rely on free breakfasts and lunches to sustain them during the school week. Without you, they may not have had fresh food in their refrigerators on the weekends and during school holidays and breaks.
a success story
Click on the image above to learn how a combination of dedicated school staff and your support made it possible for a high school student, who started the school year homeless, to graduate last spring -- and go on to post-high-school studies.
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