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Community DC Nicole Nilsson Every Child A Swimmer · Community D.C.

0:02
Speaker 1: Hi there, good morning, Thank you so much for listening
0:04
Speaker 1: to this iHeartRadio station.
0:05
Speaker 2: I'm Jinny Chase.
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Speaker 1: This morning, we're going to talk about swimming and how
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Speaker 1: crucial it is for our kids especially, but for everyone
0:14
Speaker 1: in general to know how to swim. The organization we're
0:18
Speaker 1: going to focus on is called Every Child a Swimmer.
0:21
Speaker 1: Nicole Nilsen with the organization, is going to join us here. Nicole,
0:25
Speaker 1: thanks in advance so much for your time today, looking
0:28
Speaker 1: forward to all the information you have to give us.
0:30
Speaker 3: Good morning, Thank you for having me.
0:32
Speaker 2: Nicole.
0:33
Speaker 1: What is your title your role there with Every Child
0:35
Speaker 1: a Swimmer?
0:36
Speaker 3: My title is a Capter Coordinator. And but my role
0:41
Speaker 3: is I work with all the swim schools in our program,
0:44
Speaker 3: and I am the liaison between us and them and
0:49
Speaker 3: talk to work with them on you know, on vetting
0:53
Speaker 3: them and making sure that they have they have any
0:57
Speaker 3: questions with three imbursement and and just building that relationship between.
1:02
Speaker 2: Gotcha, Well, let's jump right in.
1:04
Speaker 1: Tell us all about e c as for folks who
1:07
Speaker 1: maybe have never heard of what you guys do, the
1:09
Speaker 1: great things you do, So tell us about the program
1:11
Speaker 1: and basically, like, what is your goal, what's the reasoning
1:14
Speaker 1: the purpose behind all this.
1:16
Speaker 3: Okay, So every child a swimmer or ECAs right is
1:21
Speaker 3: under the International Swimming Hall of Fame or the spiritual
1:25
Speaker 3: mission of the International Hall of Fame. We're a nonprofit
1:29
Speaker 3: and our mission is that we're trying to get every
1:35
Speaker 3: child the access and the ability to learn how to swim,
1:42
Speaker 3: get swimming lessons, no matter of their financial situation. So
1:48
Speaker 3: we work with partners in the swimming industry, our school industry.
1:54
Speaker 3: We work with swim schools and partner with swim schools
1:58
Speaker 3: across the United States about forty four states with schools
2:03
Speaker 3: in those states that we have set up the program in,
2:08
Speaker 3: including the DC, Maryland and Virginia area, and our goal
2:13
Speaker 3: is drowning prevention. I can go into a little bit
2:16
Speaker 3: more as we keep going, but basically, we provide up
2:20
Speaker 3: to a five hundred dollars scholarship to help children learn
2:25
Speaker 3: how to send.
2:26
Speaker 1: Okay, And I do want to add that you guys,
2:29
Speaker 1: if I'm seeing this correctly, you advocate for legislation for
2:32
Speaker 1: water safety, and that is such.
2:35
Speaker 3: We do do that as well.
2:36
Speaker 2: That is such a huge thing.
2:38
Speaker 1: So I hope we're going to be able to touch
2:39
Speaker 1: on that a little bit a little bit later on
2:42
Speaker 1: tell us why this mission is so important to every
2:45
Speaker 1: child of swimmer ECAs.
2:47
Speaker 3: So one of the things that makes us different. There
2:52
Speaker 3: are other programs out there that do the same thing.
2:54
Speaker 3: But one thing that I like and that is very
2:58
Speaker 3: dear to my heart, is that our executive director, Casey McGovern,
3:02
Speaker 3: she is her daughter Ground and the May in two
3:07
Speaker 3: thousand and nine and she made it her life long mission.
3:14
Speaker 3: You know when she said goodbye to and the May
3:16
Speaker 3: that she would never let this. She's going to work
3:20
Speaker 3: to not let this happen to another family again. So
3:23
Speaker 3: she made her mission to help with journey prevention. And
3:28
Speaker 3: she started out in the Department of Health and worked
3:31
Speaker 3: many years in the Department of Health. And then Bill Kent,
3:36
Speaker 3: who is part of the International Swimming Hall of Fame,
3:40
Speaker 3: he and her work on some legislation together and eventually
3:45
Speaker 3: he's like, you know what your passion you need to
3:48
Speaker 3: you need to run this program for us. So he
3:51
Speaker 3: got her on board and she's been just making ways
3:56
Speaker 3: ever since. So I think it's that makes us very
4:00
Speaker 3: special that we have some skin in the game because
4:04
Speaker 3: she is passionate, she knows both sides, she knows how
4:08
Speaker 3: it feels to lose someone. And she knows how to
4:13
Speaker 3: make the swimming lessons and the education, the water education priority.
4:18
Speaker 2: And you said her daughter was in the may and.
4:21
Speaker 3: The may and the government. Yep.
4:22
Speaker 1: And do you mind if I ask when did that happen?
4:26
Speaker 2: That tragedy? Totally?
4:28
Speaker 3: She was actually And the reason that I'm involved to
4:32
Speaker 3: and I know her is because we were in a
4:34
Speaker 3: playgroup together with our daughters. So it was in two
4:37
Speaker 3: thousand and nine. She's about eighteen months old. Just real quick,
4:43
Speaker 3: I always knew Casey. She's just an amazing mom, hands
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Speaker 3: on and just pointing this out that it can happen
4:51
Speaker 3: to anyone at any time because things just align a
4:57
Speaker 3: lineup and that would have it never happened before, and
5:02
Speaker 3: things aligned that day. And that's a tragic accident that happened.
5:06
Speaker 1: So there were just it sounds like there was just
5:09
Speaker 1: there was a multitude of things that went wrong in
5:12
Speaker 1: that instance.
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Speaker 3: There was a multitude of things that went wrong with
5:16
Speaker 3: you know, you never you never think of things like
5:20
Speaker 3: the child being able to open the door, okay, you know,
5:24
Speaker 3: making sure your doors are locked, making sure the gates
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Speaker 3: are closed on the pool, making sure that you know
5:30
Speaker 3: you don't have full floats in the pool where a
5:33
Speaker 3: child's going to want to get in there and get
5:34
Speaker 3: something like that. Because again, she was, she's she is
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Speaker 3: the best mom ever and it just everything aligned.
5:45
Speaker 2: To have the have it happen.
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Speaker 1: Oh, Nicole, it is really uh tragic and unfortunate that
5:52
Speaker 1: we have to have this conversation. Sadly, as much as
5:55
Speaker 1: we'd like to wish that things like this did not occur,
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Speaker 1: they do. It is the reality of life. Can you
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Speaker 1: tell us maybe give us some insight into the drowning
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Speaker 1: statistics locally, like for I don't know what all you
6:09
Speaker 1: have there, but just any spots in the DMV that
6:12
Speaker 1: you can share some of that info with this would
6:14
Speaker 1: be I think would be helpful to kind of really
6:16
Speaker 1: drive home how important this is.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, first of all, drowning is the number one
6:24
Speaker 3: cause of death and children ages one to four across
6:28
Speaker 3: the United States got so that is and that's been
6:32
Speaker 3: that way for a while. Also, if you didn't know,
6:38
Speaker 3: ages five through fourteen, it's the number two cause of
6:41
Speaker 3: death across the nation. So and then fifteen through nineteen
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Speaker 3: that still ranks up in the top three per three
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Speaker 3: reasons and causes of death across the nation. So another
6:54
Speaker 3: thing that I think is important is to say is
6:57
Speaker 3: there's about fifty five percent of all adults I've never
7:02
Speaker 3: taken a swimming lesson. So it's generational. We see that,
7:06
Speaker 3: you know, kids are not in getting lessons because maybe
7:10
Speaker 3: their parents didn't take lessons or their parents are afraid
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Speaker 3: of the water. So I think that's a good statistic
7:17
Speaker 3: to throw out there. I did do some research in
7:22
Speaker 3: the DMB area. DROWNNY remains the leading cause again for
7:29
Speaker 3: ages one to four, And this was interesting. In Virginia
7:36
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five, there was an article that was
7:40
Speaker 3: put out by the department. It was on July seventeenth.
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Speaker 3: They said that eight children under the age of five
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Speaker 3: accidentally drowned in Virginia pools since Memorial Day. So that's
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Speaker 3: more children the drowned in each of the last three years.
8:00
Speaker 1: So my gosh, that is that is like that is
8:04
Speaker 1: a very sobering thing to try to try to grasp.
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Speaker 3: It's a crisis everywhere. So the other things that I
8:12
Speaker 3: found in the Maryland, Washington, d C, in the Virginia
8:16
Speaker 3: areas is that these these these drownings are occurring not
8:22
Speaker 3: just in the pools, but they are occurring in the
8:25
Speaker 3: map the spas the outside ponds. So it's just you know,
8:31
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter where the water is, it can happen anywhere.
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Speaker 3: Montgomery County again is the same. It's got it's it's
8:40
Speaker 3: the number two cause of death for children zero to
8:44
Speaker 3: four at this time. And then this is one other
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Speaker 3: statistic that I found. The children with autism are one
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Speaker 3: hundred and sixty times more likely to drown than their peers,
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Speaker 3: so they're neurotypical. So that's another big thing that I've
9:03
Speaker 3: been getting a lot of information on, or a lot
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Speaker 3: of leading for us to have funding for special needs
9:10
Speaker 3: autistic children. So it's called adaptive lessons. And we do
9:15
Speaker 3: have locations that do offer that. Hudson Valley Swim is
9:21
Speaker 3: one of them.
9:22
Speaker 1: Yes, shout out to Hudson Valley Swim, two locations in Gaithersburg.
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Speaker 3: That's something that we really need to start looking at,
9:30
Speaker 3: I believe, because it's it's serious. They are those children.
9:35
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is, but it's something with
9:37
Speaker 3: the they love that, they're fascinated with water and I'm
9:41
Speaker 3: drawn to it, so.
9:43
Speaker 1: Not know that, oh my gosh, yes, that is certainly
9:47
Speaker 1: a whole another piece of the discussion.
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Speaker 3: We're actually going to be having a discussion about that
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Speaker 3: with some local hospitals talking about what else we can
9:58
Speaker 3: do on that topic with autism.
10:00
Speaker 1: Wow, again, learning so much here. Let's talk about you
10:03
Speaker 1: mentioned the swim scholarships. Let's talk about every child a swimmer,
10:06
Speaker 1: providing these scholarships to income qualifying students. Tell us more
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Speaker 1: about this aspect of your program.
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Speaker 3: The program, we provide learn to Swim scholarship up to
10:16
Speaker 3: five hundred dollars, and we require our swim schools to
10:21
Speaker 3: make sure that they give at least twelve lessons. They
10:24
Speaker 3: have to be thirty minutes long, and they have to
10:27
Speaker 3: be if they're in a class size. They are in
10:30
Speaker 3: a group setting, they have to be in a class
10:32
Speaker 3: size of no more than one to six ratio, So
10:35
Speaker 3: that's one instructor to six children. That's a little high,
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Speaker 3: and most of our swim schools they are about one
10:42
Speaker 3: to four.
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Speaker 2: It's a ratio.
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Speaker 3: Again, this is a learned to swim program, we hope,
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Speaker 3: and we require actually the child to be able to
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Speaker 3: get in and out of the water safely and unassisted.
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Speaker 3: That's what we want them to know by the end
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Speaker 3: of their lessons. So if that child, after twelve lessons
11:01
Speaker 3: can't do those things, then we expect the swim schools
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Speaker 3: to give them more lessons.
11:07
Speaker 2: Okay.
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Speaker 1: This isn't like your a parent and you want your
11:10
Speaker 1: child to have a perfect freestyle or breaststroke. This is
11:13
Speaker 1: more about basic safety and service, learning to swim and
11:18
Speaker 1: surviving when you are in a water environment. Okay, got it? Yeah,
11:22
Speaker 1: now I know you. I know there are some qualifications
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Speaker 1: to receive a swim scholarship through every child a swimmer.
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Speaker 2: Can you run down some of those for us?
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Speaker 3: Okay, So what I'm going to tell you is, if
11:32
Speaker 3: you are a parent, you're going to go to our
11:34
Speaker 3: website and you're going to put in your address and
11:39
Speaker 3: see if there is a swim school partner of ours
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Speaker 3: located near you, and you'll see that and know that
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Speaker 3: by a emblem that's on the side of it. Online.
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Speaker 3: We have a huge list of swim schools online, but
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Speaker 3: they may not be our partner and set up yet
11:55
Speaker 3: to give the scholarship. So once you go in, you
11:59
Speaker 3: find one of those partners that are nearest to the
12:02
Speaker 3: only requirement that we have is that you it's a
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Speaker 3: financial need qualification and that is, the child has to
12:10
Speaker 3: come from a household income of fifty thousand dollars or less.
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Speaker 3: We can give you a scholarship for three of your kids.
12:17
Speaker 3: You know, it doesn't matter how many kids, but the
12:20
Speaker 3: financial need with is the biggest qualification. So as long
12:24
Speaker 3: as you're you know, in that need base, they should
12:27
Speaker 3: be able to take you at the swim school. You're
12:30
Speaker 3: going to have to provide them income information so that
12:34
Speaker 3: they can qualify you with that. The other thing for
12:37
Speaker 3: our scholarship, we want the child to be at least
12:41
Speaker 3: one year old, and that's so that they will be
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Speaker 3: able to have the muscle memory to really get something
12:47
Speaker 3: out of the scholarship and the lessons and stuff. And
12:52
Speaker 3: again this is just to learn to swim scholarship. We're
12:54
Speaker 3: not trying to reach those kids that already know how
12:56
Speaker 3: to swim. We're trying to reach the ones that don't.
13:00
Speaker 1: And again we're talking life saving skills here. We just
13:03
Speaker 1: cannot stress that aspect of what you do enough. Just
13:07
Speaker 1: again to reiterate, where are the lessons held.
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Speaker 3: So they are held that are highly qualified and experienced,
13:15
Speaker 3: a swim school that we have partnered with, embedded with
13:18
Speaker 3: and they understand the program and understand what we have
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Speaker 3: wanted the child to get out of the lessons, which
13:25
Speaker 3: was again to be able to have those basic fundamentals
13:29
Speaker 3: of getting in and out of the water safety and
13:32
Speaker 3: holding a resting ploat or learning treading water. So you
13:36
Speaker 3: have to be income based for fifty thousand dollars or
13:40
Speaker 3: less household income. And so in order to show that,
13:45
Speaker 3: you will need to provide documentation and you can use
13:48
Speaker 3: either foster care information, you can do a WIT card,
13:54
Speaker 3: snap card, any income based programs like that. Unfortunately, and
14:00
Speaker 3: reduced school lunches does not qualify because sometimes that's just
14:06
Speaker 3: a given in a certain area. So we do we
14:09
Speaker 3: are more specific that we want you to either provide
14:12
Speaker 3: a text form or a social services program card.
14:17
Speaker 1: Understood, and that's it. Let me put your website out there.
14:20
Speaker 1: It is every Child a Swimmer all together, Every Child
14:24
Speaker 1: a Swimmer dot org. And that's where anybody needs to start.
14:27
Speaker 1: They if they are hearing this information, they go, wow,
14:30
Speaker 1: I am taking steps today.
14:32
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, that.
14:33
Speaker 3: Is our website. And on the website you would just
14:36
Speaker 3: go to find lessons.
14:38
Speaker 1: Once again, today we are talking with Nicole Nilsen. She's
14:41
Speaker 1: the chapter coordinator for the nonprofit organization Every Child a Swimmer.
14:47
Speaker 2: Let's continue.
14:47
Speaker 1: I'm curious as far as the total number of swim
14:50
Speaker 1: schools in our area, the area that participate in the DMV.
14:54
Speaker 1: Do you know roughly how many that you have that
14:56
Speaker 1: are part of the network I.
14:58
Speaker 3: Do throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia area. We do have
15:03
Speaker 3: about twenty five to thirty participating in schools there partner schools.
15:08
Speaker 3: They are located in the Montgomery, Fairfax, Prince George counties
15:14
Speaker 3: as well as the district. Most notably we have Hudson
15:17
Speaker 3: Valley Swim. They do a great job.
15:20
Speaker 1: I really want to talk about five hundred dollars scholarships.
15:23
Speaker 1: How is this program funded? I would imagine you are
15:26
Speaker 1: constantly in the need for more donations.
15:29
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes, we are funded completely by generous donations. So
15:35
Speaker 3: we work very hard to get our program known and
15:38
Speaker 3: get it out there. And we have a bunch of
15:41
Speaker 3: wonderful generous partners and donors within the pool industry without
15:48
Speaker 3: out of the pool industry. So we have our website
15:51
Speaker 3: that anyone can go on and there's a there's a
15:55
Speaker 3: location on our website to donate as well.
15:58
Speaker 1: Okay, and again, Every Child a swimmer dot org. Can
16:02
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about your advocacy efforts
16:05
Speaker 1: as far as legislation goes, What's what's really behind that
16:08
Speaker 1: we are now in we.
16:10
Speaker 3: Passed the Every Child of Swimmer bill. It's now a
16:13
Speaker 3: law in several states. And basically what that is is
16:18
Speaker 3: that requires all the school districts and school communities to
16:24
Speaker 3: put out at the beginning of the school year information
16:27
Speaker 3: on water safety and information on where they can find lessons. Okay,
16:32
Speaker 3: so in those packets every in the beginning of the year,
16:35
Speaker 3: which we all hate to fill out that paperwork, some
16:38
Speaker 3: of it is very.
16:38
Speaker 1: Important, absolutely, Nicole, you said a couple of states. Obviously,
16:42
Speaker 1: we need this type of campaign to expand nationwide water education.
16:49
Speaker 2: Water safety education is the key.
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Speaker 3: So the more people that are, you know, educated about
16:55
Speaker 3: the risks and how to behave around the water, then
16:58
Speaker 3: the more I think life that we can save. I mean,
17:01
Speaker 3: because not everybody will have access to the swimming lessons,
17:04
Speaker 3: but they will have the education about what to do
17:09
Speaker 3: around the water.
17:10
Speaker 1: Now I would imagine too being fully funded by donations.
17:13
Speaker 1: You do fundraising events. Can you maybe tell us about
17:16
Speaker 1: a few of those real quick?
17:18
Speaker 3: Yes, we have a fun little thing on our website
17:22
Speaker 3: or if you contact us that we can help you with.
17:24
Speaker 3: It's kind of like a go fundme, but it's called
17:26
Speaker 3: give butter, and we kind of we will set up
17:30
Speaker 3: like let's say you have a maybe a business, you
17:34
Speaker 3: could actually have a contest on who can raise the
17:36
Speaker 3: most money online doing that, So we have something like that.
17:40
Speaker 3: We also ask everybody to just go out into their
17:43
Speaker 3: communities and you know, if anybody wants to donate to
17:50
Speaker 3: the school, their local school, they can do that using
17:53
Speaker 3: us as their non provide nonprofit excellent, and we will
17:57
Speaker 3: earmark the funds to the school.
18:00
Speaker 1: Is it true that you have businesses some sponsors that
18:03
Speaker 1: do donation matching.
18:05
Speaker 3: Yes, they match, then we would match as well, so
18:08
Speaker 3: they could maybe triple their impact.
18:11
Speaker 1: Wow, that is outstanding. A couple of those sponsors. Let's
18:14
Speaker 1: give them some recognition. Goldfish Swim School also the American
18:18
Speaker 1: Red Cross, the American Swimming Coaches Association, along with the
18:24
Speaker 1: DPA that is the National Drowning Prevention Alliance.
18:27
Speaker 3: I do just want to say that if there is
18:30
Speaker 3: anybody out there that has any kind of contacts in
18:34
Speaker 3: the you know, in the political realm in their local
18:38
Speaker 3: area and in their state. We would love to be
18:42
Speaker 3: introduced to them talk about this bill that we're trying
18:47
Speaker 3: to get in every state. So if anybody has those contacts,
18:51
Speaker 3: we would love to be in front of them give
18:53
Speaker 3: them a presentation about our program and about how important
18:56
Speaker 3: it is to get that bill pass.
18:58
Speaker 2: Yeah. Is there anything else you want to add in
18:59
Speaker 2: the before we wrap up this morning?
19:01
Speaker 3: One thing I want to tell you about the fundraising
19:04
Speaker 3: and how we can help. How you guys can help
19:06
Speaker 3: us raise money is you know, sometimes it's as simple
19:09
Speaker 3: as We had a lady that did a swim across
19:12
Speaker 3: the English Channel. She did her own thing. She went online.
19:17
Speaker 3: She said, I'm going to swim across the English Channel
19:19
Speaker 3: and I want all my if you want to support me,
19:22
Speaker 3: support me by fundraising for every child a swimmer. Right.
19:25
Speaker 3: We had another boy that was a YouTuber and he said, Hey,
19:29
Speaker 3: I'm gonna for today. We're going to have everybody. Let's
19:32
Speaker 3: raise money for this site every every child a swimmer.
19:36
Speaker 3: Now we didn't know him, he didn't know us, but
19:39
Speaker 3: he raised four thousand dollars in twenty four hours, so
19:42
Speaker 3: it was really cool. And then lastly we have the
19:46
Speaker 3: women in the industry up in NESPA, which is are
19:50
Speaker 3: out of NESPA, which is the Northeast Bahn School Association.
19:53
Speaker 3: They are having a witty walk they call it. They
19:57
Speaker 3: are raising funds for us as well, and very simple
20:00
Speaker 3: to do. They just you know, put it out there. Hey,
20:02
Speaker 3: we're gonna we're gonna walk, We're gonna we're gonna walk
20:06
Speaker 3: or run. You can do it virtually. And they are
20:11
Speaker 3: going to put all the funds towards us or give
20:14
Speaker 3: all of us the funds. So I think that's great.
20:17
Speaker 1: Well, I do too, big kudos to them. Nicole Nielsen,
20:20
Speaker 1: Chapter coordinator for Every Child a Swimmer, thank you so much.
20:24
Speaker 1: You have given us so much important information. Honestly, we
20:28
Speaker 1: always say the goal with our with our public affairs segments.
20:31
Speaker 1: If one in this case, if one parent here's this
20:35
Speaker 1: and decides to really prioritize this as far as things
20:39
Speaker 1: that their children learn as they are growing up, you know,
20:42
Speaker 1: swimming needs to be top of mind. And it's so
20:45
Speaker 1: great what you guys are doing, and you're making that
20:47
Speaker 1: possible for folks that might not be able to, you know,
20:50
Speaker 1: to do it without your help. So thank you, thank you,
20:53
Speaker 1: thank you for what you do. I'm sure all the
20:54
Speaker 1: parents listening appreciate it.
20:56
Speaker 3: And I really want you all to be as inspired
21:00
Speaker 3: as I am every day, and I want you to
21:02
Speaker 3: be part of our impact in drowning prevention. So come
21:07
Speaker 3: alongside us and help.
21:09
Speaker 1: Us join the cause again. Our topic this morning has
21:12
Speaker 1: been water safety for kids and drowning prevention. I feel
21:16
Speaker 1: like I just can't say this enough. Drowning, whether it
21:19
Speaker 1: be in a pool, a hot tub, a bathtub, any
21:23
Speaker 1: body of water, drowning is the leading cause of death
21:26
Speaker 1: for kids ages one to four in the DMV.
21:29
Speaker 2: You can get involved.
21:30
Speaker 1: You can start spreading the message by going to every
21:33
Speaker 1: Childaswimmer dot org. Thank you again for listening to this.
21:37
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio station. I'm Jenny Chase. I hope you have a
21:39
Speaker 1: wonderful rest of your weekend. Take care.
21:42
Speaker 4: Our thanks to Jenny Chase, who does Middays at WASHFM
21:45
Speaker 4: and does such a terrific job with this interview. Always fun,
21:49
Speaker 4: entertaining and insightful. So thank you, Jenny. Since we have
21:51
Speaker 4: a few minutes left in the program, I want to
21:53
Speaker 4: play a bit of an upcoming interview that we're really
21:55
Speaker 4: proud of that we'll be having with one of our
21:57
Speaker 4: regulars on the program. Denise Corbo, who is the founder
22:00
Speaker 4: of Storybook Treasures. They're nonprofit in Northern Virginia that provides
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Speaker 4: customizable literacy kids to schools that foster a love of
22:08
Speaker 4: reading in children and support their families. The program aims
22:10
Speaker 4: to boost academic achievement by giving children books to build
22:13
Speaker 4: their home libraries, engaging families in literacy, and offering professional
22:17
Speaker 4: development for teachers. The kids include books, treasures related to stories,
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Speaker 4: and activities designed to grow a child's a grade level. Now,
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Speaker 4: Denise and Storybook Treasures has chosen their inaugural Teacher of
22:28
Speaker 4: the Year, along with one thousand dollars to Caroline Onneia,
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Speaker 4: who teaches kindergarten at Parkridge Elementary and Stafford, Virginia. Here's
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Speaker 4: a tease of that outcoming show and my conversation with
22:37
Speaker 4: Carolyn and being chosen as Storybook treasures first ever Teacher
22:41
Speaker 4: of the Year.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, Carolyn Goodning Tennis.
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Speaker 4: Congratulations on winning the inaugural awardess Teacher of the Year
22:47
Speaker 4: for Storybook Treasures. I imagine that you're honored, may be surprised.
22:52
Speaker 4: I don't know we can talk about that, but congratulations.
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Speaker 5: Thank you so much. Yes, I was very surprised.
22:58
Speaker 4: Tell me about what this award means to you. I
23:00
Speaker 4: know there's a thousand dollars. It's always cool when teachers
23:03
Speaker 4: in schools get money. That's always a big bonus. But
23:05
Speaker 4: what does it mean to you?
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Speaker 6: Just the involvement with Storybout Treasures has been amazing and
23:11
Speaker 6: such an experience to go through and then to be.
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Speaker 5: Acknowledged as someone that.
23:17
Speaker 6: Does well with it was extra special and it was wonderful.
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Speaker 6: They did the award in front of the whole school
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Speaker 6: during the kindergarten graduation ceremony or celebration ceremony, and I
23:31
Speaker 6: actually gave back even though it was a wonderful amount,
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Speaker 6: I gave some of that back to Storybook Treasures because
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Speaker 6: I really believe in this program and wanted to help
23:41
Speaker 6: keep it going.
23:43
Speaker 5: And it was just extra special.
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Speaker 6: And then I put the rest into classroom supplies and
23:48
Speaker 6: took my family.
23:48
Speaker 5: Out to dinner.
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Speaker 2: That is wonderful.
23:50
Speaker 4: I love that. So everybody wins, and you paid it
23:53
Speaker 4: back forward too, so that is wonderful. You know, I'd
23:56
Speaker 4: love to hear your opinion, because you know how we
23:59
Speaker 4: all feel about teachers, especially on community seeing this program
24:02
Speaker 4: is that you're underpaid. Your overworked blah blah blah. You
24:06
Speaker 4: know the story. But we love what you do. And
24:08
Speaker 4: I know you work with kindergartens, which is a real
24:09
Speaker 4: special age. But reading is so important, and we've heard
24:13
Speaker 4: over the years about you know, how people aren't reading
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Speaker 4: books as much as it used to tell me about
24:19
Speaker 4: what Storybook Treasures means to you, this teacher of the year,
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Speaker 4: your children and the age that you teach. I know
24:25
Speaker 4: that could be its own podcast for thirty minutes, but
24:27
Speaker 4: tell us a little bit about that.
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Speaker 6: Sure, Yes, kindergarteners come in, some from preschools, some not,
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Speaker 6: some head start. It's just all kinds of backgrounds, and
24:37
Speaker 6: we give them a survey at the beginning of the
24:39
Speaker 6: year of the parents that they fill out, and one
24:42
Speaker 6: of the questions is how many books do you have
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Speaker 6: at home? And some of them have the area zero
24:50
Speaker 6: to five checked. So many of the students at this school,
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Speaker 6: or my previous school especially it didn't have a home library.
25:00
Speaker 6: And so Storybook Treasures brings classic and also current books
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Speaker 6: that are just wonderful and engaging to the home. So
25:10
Speaker 6: we teach it for a week in school and with
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Speaker 6: those five year olds, they end up experts on the
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Speaker 6: book on the standards. It's hitting every one of our lessons,
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Speaker 6: hits either art or science, different types of literacy lessons,
25:27
Speaker 6: all combined to make the students experts by.
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Speaker 5: The end of the week.
25:31
Speaker 6: The best for the classroom use is the program is
25:36
Speaker 6: set up using PowerPoint slides and it just walks the
25:39
Speaker 6: teachers in the class right through.
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Speaker 5: It's super engaging.
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Speaker 6: The students when they see it's a storybook Treasures week
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Speaker 6: get so excited and the treasure, especially at the end
25:51
Speaker 6: of the week when they get to take home, really
25:53
Speaker 6: seals the deal for them. The boxes that Denise sends
25:57
Speaker 6: to us, huge boxes full of every kind of supply
26:02
Speaker 6: and the kids you would think it was their birthday
26:04
Speaker 6: the way they react when these supplies come in. Once
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Speaker 6: they realize after the first fact that we do what's coming.
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Speaker 5: It enhances any literacy program. But I mean, I wish
26:17
Speaker 5: we just had it every day. But yeah, it's just amazing.
26:21
Speaker 4: Well that's huge, And I also would love to hear
26:23
Speaker 4: about feedback. And I don't know how much you've heard
26:25
Speaker 4: from the faculty and parents on this award, and I know,
26:29
Speaker 4: like everybody else and you guys know it. Intimately we're
26:31
Speaker 4: talking to Denise about this, about she's feeling a really
26:34
Speaker 4: large gap that's missing, probably in every school in America,
26:37
Speaker 4: about more books, more reading, having these kind of partnerships.
26:40
Speaker 4: What kind of feedback are you getting from everybody?
26:42
Speaker 6: Yes, my team and my team at my other school
26:46
Speaker 6: too loved it and said that they notice because the
26:51
Speaker 6: students are so engaged, and because the lessons bring out
26:55
Speaker 6: student discourse and ways to teach that to five year olds.
26:59
Speaker 6: How do you have a conversation about your opinion or
27:03
Speaker 6: about your connection And it's completely built into the lessons,
27:07
Speaker 6: and that teaches these little kids to engage with each
27:12
Speaker 6: other about that.
27:13
Speaker 5: And then the parents see that at home because.
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Speaker 6: There's even a parent bookmark and a bilingual one for
27:19
Speaker 6: parents to be able to talk to their children about it.
27:21
Speaker 5: And then we hear from parents all the time.
27:23
Speaker 6: How kids are revisiting this book throughout the year years later.
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Speaker 5: It's just fantastic.
27:29
Speaker 6: And everyone gets a shirt, a T shirt that says
27:31
Speaker 6: Storybook Treasures.
27:32
Speaker 4: I love that cute.
27:33
Speaker 6: Graphic and kids wear them forever because you know, for years, kindergarten,
27:38
Speaker 6: first grade, second grade, and they're so proud of it.
27:40
Speaker 6: And when they see any of the kindergarten teachers.
27:42
Speaker 3: In the hall.
27:43
Speaker 6: You know, they're big smiles and thumbs up, like, yep,
27:45
Speaker 6: I'm still rocking Storybook Treasures.
27:47
Speaker 3: Well, they're so proud.
27:49
Speaker 4: That's huge. Well, listen, I'm glad you were featured on
27:51
Speaker 4: this program but also acknowledged as teacher of the Year
27:55
Speaker 4: for Storybook Treasures in this inaugural Teacher of the Year ward.
27:57
Speaker 4: And I know you know this, and so does Deniece.
28:00
Speaker 4: There are thousands of Carolyn's out there that are working
28:02
Speaker 4: their tails off but needing that extra help, and that
28:05
Speaker 4: your acknowledged and the kids and the parents and the
28:07
Speaker 4: faculty when and the school too, is just wonderful. So
28:10
Speaker 4: congratulations on the award, and thank you so much for
28:12
Speaker 4: joining us at Community DC. We really appreciate it.
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