Good news, bad news
EDITOR: The good news is our students have enjoyed summer school break for five weeks; the bad news is that school resumes in five weeks. Parents and students will soon start planning for next year’s adventure and each of us can assist with those preparations.
For the past eight years, the United Church of Cloverdale has organized the “Stock a Student Classroom” drive with other churches, community and service groups, businesses and many individuals to collect school supplies.
The goal is to support our teachers and enhance the learning environment for our students. Principals of Washington and Jefferson have provided classroom wish lists; the collected supplies will be sorted by volunteers and given to the schools in mid-August.
This program was a huge success last year with over $7,000 in supplies and cash given for our students, thanks to your generosity. Although state funding to schools has increased, the help we provide with these school supplies makes a big impact on both the teachers and students.
The community drive for school supplies starts this week and runs through the first day of school, Thursday, August 16. We invite each of you to join in the fun by purchasing supplies and dropping them in the brightly labeled boxes at various businesses, organizations and churches around town.
If it has been years since you’ve needed to purchase school supplies, here are some teacher suggestions:
Dixon Ticonderoga Pencils, small pencil sharpeners, mechanical pencils and leads; watercolors, brushes and paper for one class of 30 students; kinder paint brushes, Crayola crayons, color pencils and markers; clipboards (Masonite style), four or five class sets, composition books (wide and college rule), protractors, two class sets; glue sticks and Elmer’s glue; scissors, several class sets (Fiskars are good quality), medium sized scissors for fifth and sixth grade; poster board in a variety of colors, (approximately 28 by 24 inches); one-inch binders, 1-subject and 5-subject notebooks, binder / graph paper, 3×5 index cards, 2-pocket folders in any colors, several class sets, highlighters, yellow and other colors — and new this year — basic calculators.
Teachers have told us how important it is to have quality brands as those products provide long lasting performance.
If you prefer to make a monetary donation, checks can be made to UCC noted “Stock a Student Classroom” and be sent to United Church, 439 North Cloverdale Blvd. Please join us in helping the schools help our students reach success. While it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to support the schools. Please call 894-4493 if your group would like to be involved.
Linda Clapp, Chair, Stock a Student Classroom
United Church of Cloverdale
Fireworks not safe
EDITOR: An open letter to Assemblymember Jim Wood:
As you know, we live in an area that becomes tinder dry by the end of May. We are constantly threatened by fires. It seems it gets worse every year. It’s not a matter if a big fire comes, but when. I think that we should do everything we can to stop a catastrophic wildfire before it starts.
I ask you to consider authoring a bill that would outlaw all fireworks in the state. Many communities, Healdsburg for one, have instituted a prohibition against “safe and sane” fireworks, which are neither safe or sane. The problem is the lack of statewide uniformity in these laws. It makes as much sense as Sonoma County outlawing machine guns while in Mendocino they are legal.
Of course community Fourth of July fireworks should be allowed to continue under the oversight and approval of the local fire departments and CalFire.
Every year I dread the Fourth of July, as I’m concerned some person at the dam, or in town, will start a major conflagration. We’ve been lucky so far. But how long are we going to depend on just luck?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
C Jeff Kennedy
Cloverdale
