September 6, 2016

Raise Those Juice Boxes and Let’s Toast To the New School Year!

Summertime has slipped away and school is back in session. Last week, as part of our annual “Back to School Launch,” Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo (CIS) staff came together to prepare for the new school year. Joe Barth, Data, Tracking & Quality Coordinator for CIS, led 66 staff in an exercise in which we learned that, together, we have 695 years of experience working with kids in schools!

Later in the day, when O’Neal Ollie, CIS Success Coach for Loy Norrix High School stood up and read an impromptu poem he wrote, we were reminded that it is important to take breaks and nourish ourselves so that we can continue to support students and the many wonderful volunteers and partners who work with us throughout 20 Kalamazoo Public Schools. Here’s the poem he read to us:

A Lunch Poem

I’m starving, yes, in the mood.
plain and simple: I need food.
Lunch will be ready pretty soon
and during lunch you can leave the room.
Just remember to be back by one
so we can continue the fun.

Now I say,
good bread, good meat.
Good God, let’s eat!

Thank you for adding to our 695 years of experience by donating, volunteering, partnering and working with Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo. Working together, may our combined passion, talent, and experience help children grow more than ever this year, academically, socially, and emotionally. Cheers to a new school year!