Center News

We hope you and your family shared a wonderful Thanksgiving together. All of us at the Center and Wings on Words Preschool & Kindergarten (WOW for short) certainly enjoyed being with our family and friends over this traditional American holiday. And, in the spirit of sharing and giving that surrounds us at the end of the year, we want to focus this month’s article on the steadfast Reception Volunteers who share so much of themselves with the teachers and children at WOW. If you come and visit, you’ll enjoy their welcoming smiles.

• On Monday, you won’t be able to miss Ruth Hoffman. She will be busy greeting parents and children, putting covers on nap mats, writing receipts for tuition payments, answering the phone, and lending a helping hand to teachers when they need it. During special school events, Sparkle the Clown often comes in her place. The kids absolutely love her face painting and helium balloons! As a great plus, Ruth also coordinates all the volunteers who help at the school, and is always looking for others who want to join the fun. Be sure to call her at 296-5282 if you’re interested in volunteering for a morning or afternoon, even if it’s only once or twice a month.

• On Tuesday mornings, Lynda Gross will be there to greet you. In addition to answering the phones and helping teachers, she also makes sure that tuition payments are entered into the computer and that the children’s accounts are up to date. Making sure that tuition payments are in is crucial because they make up more than 60% of the funds needed to run the school. The rest come from fundraising. She has also been a great help in setting up the underlying system that maintains the accounts and keeps them current. This system will be increasingly important as the school expands and tuition payments cover more and more of school expenses. The goal is for tuition to cover all normal operating expenses, with fundraising supporting scholarships and outreach projects.

• On Wednesdays, several volunteers take turns "holding down the fort." If you visit, you will be greeted by either Dotti Mercer, Mary Brown, Mary Harrison, or Barbara Chapman. Dotti Mercer and Mary Brown come all the way in from Green Valley! Now that’s really a WOW! Because Wednesday’s volunteers come in the middle of the week, their time is often filled with preparing teaching and therapy materials. Not only are coloring, cutting, sorting, and laminating fun, but they really help the teachers spend their time directly with the children. If you haven’t cut and colored for awhile, come try your hand at volunteering. You’ll love it!

• On Thursdays, Val Hughes will again be with us in January. She has been volunteering in the children’s programs since before the school opened, and her kindness and concern for the children are apparent in everything she does. Indeed, when we were renovating the Speedway school, Val’s gifts helped us build the playground wall and furnish the lobby. She even made the beautiful stained-glass windows (featuring Scotty Bear holding a clutch of balloons) on either side of the front entrance. Be sure to admire them when you visit. The children love to stand in the pool of colorful light that streams into the reception area.

• On Fridays, Phyllis Wood and Wilma Compston make sure that the school’s week draws to a successful ending. Phyllis comes in the morning and Wilma comes after lunch. So much has to happen on Fridays! Lots of checks come in and need receipts, the phone seems to ring more than usual, parents need extra help, and cases for the nap mats need to be washed, dried, and folded. Phyllis has also taken charge of collecting the General Mills’ Box Tops for Education," and everybody works on the Scholastic Book orders. In addition, both of these wonderful volunteers help us troubleshoot the constant little needs that go with having a building (Phyllis finds us a plumber for the stopped up drain; Wilma asks her amazing Fred to fix a leaky roof or build a dutch door for the kitchen). We are delighted to say that whatever still needs doing by Friday gets done thanks to this dynamic duo!

Several volunteers help us on different days of the week, whenever Ruth calls for help.

• Betty Raske is one of our longtime, faithful volunteers. Last year, she was a regular volunteer at the school, but problems with her knees now make it hard for her to get out. Nevertheless, she continues to substitute for others when they cannot come. Her winning smile and gentle ways are a real hit with the children. Betty has been supporting the Center’s children for many years, and along with her late husband, Ralph, helped to develop the Fry’s Dollars for Scholars campaign for the school. (By the way, if you haven’t already activated your VIP card at Frys to count toward Wings on Words rebate checks, please get a bar code from Larry Knight in the Scottish Rite office

• Joe Roberts is also a special volunteer. He is just back from Montana and has again volunteered to help. Joe helped us last year and we know he is great at greeting families and answering the phone. In addition, he developed all the press releases for last year’s spring benefit – The Paniolo Fiesta: Feast of the Hawaiian Cowboy. We’re hoping he can lend us his advertising talent this year too! Look for details of this once-a-year fundraising "fun fest" for the children in next month’s Rite Words article. The event will be held on Saturday, March 23^rd at the Reid Park Zoo. Be sure you mark the date on your calendar. It will be loads of fun!

• Marianne James has also been a long-time helper at WOW. This year she comes in to help us keep our teaching materials and special projects moving along smoothly. She’s also great at lending a helping hand to teachers as they prepare snacks and escort children from one place to another. It is certainly the case that her caring smile is a reassuring presence for parents, children, and teachers alike.

• Leona Loveland has also been a generous volunteer in our reception area, helping in any way that the families and teachers needed. This fall she is taking some time off to help a loyal supporter and dear friend of the children, John Moore, as he negotiates a series of doctor appointments. Take good care of John for us all, Leona!

• We also want to welcome three new volunteers who will be joining us soon at WOW: Cleone Lavitschke, Joy Winner, and Emma Smith. We look forward to having each of them with us as we all work together to help little children give wings to their words. We hope every volunteer finds their time at the school to be a very rewarding way to spend a morning or afternoon.

For all of our wonderful volunteers, we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We could not do our work without you. Your presence offers a reassuring smile and trusted information to families, comforts a little child who needs an extra moment of TLC, and supports all our teachers with help that saves them precious time and makes their teaching more effective. Please know that your gifts of time and talent are making a real difference in the lives of many. Thank you all!

The spirit of sharing exemplified by each of these volunteers is a shining example of how each one of us can make an important contribution to the Scottish Rite effort to prevent early speech and language difficulties from becoming life-long obstacles to effective communication and learning.

• Tax Credit Opportunities: At the end of each calendar year, the State of Arizona offers a $200 tax credit to people who donate to the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation. We are eligible for this credit because we serve a significant number of children from low-income families. This tax credit actually means that your contribution costs you nothing; you simply keep this money working right here at Scottish Rite instead of sending it to Phoenix in state taxes. It’s is the State’s way of encouraging nonprofit organizations like the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation to keep up their good works! The only catch is that your check must be received by Scottish Rite by December 31^st of this year. Larry Knight and Bob Wainwright can give you complete details.

• Jim Click has made us an offer we can’t refuse! This year, the Jim Click Automotive Team has offered charitable organizations a wonderful way to raise funds. They are raffling off a brand new, "fully-loaded" 2002 Thunderbird and the charities that sell the tickets get to keep 100% of the proceeds. Each ticket costs $100 but only 20,000 tickets are being sold. The Charitable Foundation has initially been given 100 tickets to sell. That means that if all tickets are sold, $10,000 can be raised for the children’s programs. WOW! There is really no down-side risk to this offer because unsold tickets can be turned back in to the Jim Click organization. They also want to display the car at our March 23^rd Wings on Words 2002 Benefit! Every charity in town will be taking part so our job is to get out early and give everyone we know a chance to win the car (or its cash value of $42,000), and most importantly really help our children’s programs. What a great challenge! Please contact Larry Knight or Marvin Hoffman if you would like tickets.