Students in Skyview’s AVID class worked together to collect donations for Cloth and Foster, a nonprofit organization based in Vancouver. Photo courtesy Paul Valencia
🎧 Skyview AVID Students Deliver 300+ Items to Foster Kids
Students in the Advancement Via Individual Determination class at Skyview High School collected more than 300 items to donate to Cloth and Foster, a nonprofit organization, completing a community project that started earlier this school year
Paul Valencia
Clark County Today
They had different ideas about the project.
At times, they argued, defending their position.
And really, there was no wrong answer here. The students in the class were trying to determine which organization they were going to help as part of a service project.
Mae Marsee, a student in the AVID class at Skyview High School, knows the people who founded Cloth and Foster and thought it would be the perfect organization to help.
The class agreed, and then they got even more emotionally attached to the project when they heard from a fellow student who was in foster care.
AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, and it is a strategy used by schools to prepare students for college. In some cases, it is for students who might not be the typical candidates to attend college or students from families with little or no college experience in their backgrounds.
Cloth and Foster is a nonprofit organization headquartered in Vancouver that provides clothing, bedding, personal needs, and more to foster children and their caregivers.
The classmate told the others that every new home presents a new challenge for foster children. Every home has different rules, for example. Also, there are times when a foster child arrives with just the clothes on his or her back. Caretakers are often asked to find new clothes, a new toothbrush, or even a new game to play. Every new item helps with a transition.
“Hearing some of the struggles they go through shows that it is a real problem, a real issue,” said Gracie Fanning, an AVID student.
“I jumped on board,” added Jose Mendoza Cruz. “I’ve never been a foster kid, but I know some friends who are, and they go through so much. It really touched me because I could be helping people who could be my friends.” A service project is just one of the things colleges are looking for during the application process. AVID also hopes to grow a student’s confidence in a number of ways.
The class came up with a plan to spread the news about the project, asking students from throughout the school to donate to the cause.
Some of the students in Skyview’s AVID class were on hand last week at Cloth and Foster to deliver more than 300 items that the students collected for the class project. Photo courtesy Paul Valencia
“We came up with a lot of different promotion ideas,” Marsee said. “For a lot of people, it helped get over social fears by going up to people and telling them about something. It made it easy because (Cloth and Foster) was so important to us.”
“It was a good exercise to work on communication and standing up for something that you want to happen, promote an idea you think people should be interested in,” student Ella Bennett said. “It was a good way to use those skills in real life.”
The 22 students in Mindy Williams Cleeland’s AVID class divided the work and took turns staffing a booth at lunch, getting the word out to the rest of the student body. Some wrote announcements. Others made posters. There was a deal made to exchange coffee for every donation. One person kept a detailed spreadsheet of every item.
“It was just a lot of things combined together, just pushing and pushing to get the word out,” Fanning said.
In all, the Skyview AVID class donated more than 300 items to Cloth and Foster, bringing the supplies to the organization’s warehouse last week.
“For us, it’s a joy that someone wants to invest in a community that is a little underserved,” said Aric Clapp, co-founder of Cloth and Foster. “If kids can have that buy-in, and have that view early on as they continue to grow in their education, as they continue to transition into adulthood, they know the world is a little bigger outside of them.”
Clapp said he acknowledges all service projects that schools promote. In this specific case, he appreciates that Cloth and Foster was the recipient.
“We love the lessons that (these projects) teach them,” Clapp said. “We are also grateful that we are now able to take the resources that others have hustled and collected to provide for families that need them.”
A service project is one of the many goals associated with AVID. When done right, it is a memory maker, as well.
“In the beginning it was pretty hard for all of us to get along and work together,” student Mason Fuhrer said. “Toward the end, we got it figured out and we accomplished a lot.”
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