Think VU takes a break during the summer? Think again!
Recently, we have been reflecting on the previous school year and how we might continue to improve the program for our students and volunteers come fall. Our goal is to continue expanding our volunteer group, hopefully allowing us to return to a four-day program this upcoming year. The more volunteers we have, the more children we can help…and we currently have a waitlist of 15 students! During the summer months, we use our time to reinvigorate planning towards meeting our program goals.
In preparation for the upcoming school year, we also end up undergoing a lot of “administrative” tasks, like cleaning out the student binders, organizing the office, and gathering supplies. This might sound boring, but truthfully it can be a welcome break from the day-to-day.
This summer, we have been extremely lucky to have received incredible donations from local organizations. We have spent a lot of time sorting through the donations (there are so many!)
We received an enormous amount of school supplies from the teachers and staff at Forestville Elementary School, including books, markers, decorations, and curriculum planning materials. So many wonderful items that will help us as we work with our students. We set aside a few books for the Herndon Neighborhood Resource Center as well, so that community members who come in for assistance will be able to choose a free book to take home.
Reading is Fundamental (RIF) of Northern Virginia also helped us tremendously! At the end of the school year, the local chapter provided a thoughtful selection of books, carefully tailored to our children’s reading levels and interests. The students will be thrilled to have newer books—and we are so happy that we can provide them with books they will want to read. We can’t wait to show our children the updated library!
There is still a lot more work we need to accomplish before the start of the school year. It’s only June, but summer will fly by and before we know it, we’ll be back to another school year and off to new adventures with our children.