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Lower School sends students flying
Jan 29, 2004 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
Darlington assisted the Midday Optimist Club in mid-December with a community service project that helped Southeast Elementary School achieve a literacy initiative under the new America’s Choice/Georgia’s Choice school reform program.
The Midday Optimist Club has been organizing rewards for students when they reach certain reading goals, with their most recent reward theme being about flying. The top prize was an airplane trip around Rome for students who achieved the goal of reading 500,000 words or more. Most of these students had never been in an airplane before, and their trip was arranged with the help of the Young Eagles Program.
Lower School Assistant Principal Diane Lumpkin got Darlington involved with this program by representing the school at a meeting of local children’s advocacy groups. The meeting was the brainchild of Katie Dempsey, a city commissioner, who wanted to find a way for community service groups with needs to find other groups and businesses with resources that were willing to help. After the meeting, Nathan Roberts of the Midday Optimist Club called Lumpkin to see if Darlington could help with transportation for the literacy rewards program.
To get the winning students and their parents to the Russell Field Airport in Rome for their trip, Fred Errigo, ARAMARK director of facilities, arranged for four Darlington school buses and drivers to pick them up in the morning and return them in the afternoon. The event, with the help of all the parties involved, turned out to be a tremendous success.
The Midday Optimist Club has been organizing rewards for students when they reach certain reading goals, with their most recent reward theme being about flying. The top prize was an airplane trip around Rome for students who achieved the goal of reading 500,000 words or more. Most of these students had never been in an airplane before, and their trip was arranged with the help of the Young Eagles Program.
Lower School Assistant Principal Diane Lumpkin got Darlington involved with this program by representing the school at a meeting of local children’s advocacy groups. The meeting was the brainchild of Katie Dempsey, a city commissioner, who wanted to find a way for community service groups with needs to find other groups and businesses with resources that were willing to help. After the meeting, Nathan Roberts of the Midday Optimist Club called Lumpkin to see if Darlington could help with transportation for the literacy rewards program.
To get the winning students and their parents to the Russell Field Airport in Rome for their trip, Fred Errigo, ARAMARK director of facilities, arranged for four Darlington school buses and drivers to pick them up in the morning and return them in the afternoon. The event, with the help of all the parties involved, turned out to be a tremendous success.
