| A Super Mom Plants a Seed that Grows into a Playful Opportunity for Her Entire Community Louisville, Ky. - The following is our interview with Myrdin Jhana Thompson (shown right with her daughter), a mother of three (shown below, left), PTA board member for the past several years and currently the Byck PTA President for the 2008-2010 school years. Myrdin and her friend and fellow board member, Kassi Clifford, are recipients of a KaBOOM! grant. Read how they've grown that opportunity into a community-wide movment for play. Why are you an advocate for play?
As a child, my parents encouraged me to explore all my interests: dance, drama, art, science. Both of my parents are visual artists: my mother is a ceramicist and my father is a painter. Every day there was something new to dabble in, whether it was accompanying them into their studios or having an adventure in the neighborhood, my bother and I were always active. I certainly never forgot my capacity to play; I simply had to put it on hold when I was in college pursuing my degrees--it was a different kind of fun I suppose. When my oldest son was born I realized that if I wanted him to have the same confidence in himself, I would have to be truly an involved parent, a get on the floor and build with blocks for hours, a go to the park and push him in the swing until he wanted to stop. It is only now that I have three children, I realize that not every parent has the time or available facilities in which to encourage their children to just play. That there are many kids who don’t have play as part of their daily routine--that it is now a luxury. When my kids started at Byck, there was only a tarmac and a lot with trees. No playground. Not even one they could walk to! How did you take action?
I simply began by asking the principal why there wasn’t a playground and found out that the school had been told not to build because of lead levels in the soil. But this was misinformation passed from one outgoing principal who many felt just didn’t want to challenge the status quo. My friend and fellow board member, Kassi Clifford, and I decided that if we could build it we would. We started contacting local officials and the school to ask if it was possible. We started web searches on how to get a playspace built, we came across KaBOOM! and Kassi and I said, "Let’s try for a grant--they can only turn us down." But we didn’t get turned down. WE GOT THE GRANT! I think Kassi and I danced in the school hallways that day telling everyone who would listen that the playground was a go. The excitement was contagious! How did you garner support for your effort?
We thought - what next? We have the grant, we have the playground equipment chosen, we just need to match the grant (and put everything in place by June 1, yikes!). So Kassi and I asked for donations from anyone we talked to. We had a booth at the talent show with photos of the playground equipment so everyone could visualize the plan. We wrote what seemed like a million bits of information to every school parent and family, to the media, to public officials, just to get on their radar and gain support. As a Tap into Fitness school (a school that encourages healthy lifestyle choices and eating habits) we knew we needed more than the tarmack for four-square. The Heuser clinic (who runs Tap into Fitness) suggested that Kassie contact the Cralle Foundation. So she did, and they donated over $5,500! Once that happened, it was like the clouds opened up and everyone wanted to support this playspace. What are some of the future actions you will be taking to promote play at your school/community?
Byck Elementary is a Title I school (83% receive free/reduced lunch) located in the Russell Neighborhood. Byck is also the Gifted and Talent Arts magnet for Jefferson County as well as having a Waldorf program for students K-5. As part of the Waldorf curriculum and teaching philosophy, students are to be exposed to and experience nature, both in the classroom and outside. For this purpose, the PTA, along with the Waldorf teachers and students, propose to create a seven raised bed garden area that will enhance the Waldorf philosophy and serve as an educational supplement to the school’s core curriculum. Waldorf education approaches schooling in a unique way. The curriculum is designed to meet the various stages of a child’s development. For example, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students learn primarily through imagination and imitation. One of the goals of a Waldorf classroom at this age is to develop a sense of appreciation and reverence for all living things which will lead to an eagerness for the academics that follow in the later grades. If we garden and show children how enjoyable gardening is, the hope is that they too will learn an appreciation of gardening and nature that will guide them throughout their lives. Our proposed garden area will consist of seven raised beds. Each bed (pre-k-5) will contain native or regional plants and flowers that bloom and grow during all four seasons. Our children will then experience and learn about seasonal changes first hand. Each bed will be primarily tended by a Waldorf class. The complexity of each bed will change as the children age. Each student (and their families) will be encouraged to join our new gardening club, the Byck Botanists. Our club motto is “Better Agriculture than no culture at all.” T-shirts with this statement and the Byck school logo will be available for purchase and allowed to be worn on gardening days. The funds raised from the sales of the t-shirts will again be considered “seed money” for the garden club and garden area. This gardening project will also continue to enhance the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” and greening efforts of Byck Elementary. This past year on Earth Day our first grade students participated in a campus wide clean up. Our students also created recycled art objects that were placed on display at Jefferson Mall. Staff from Heine Brothers Coffee’s new project, Breaking New Grounds, will be assisting our students with a composting area. Breaking New Grounds will then be educating our students about the benefits of composting and natural gardening that does not harm or impact the environment in a negative way. It is also our future plan to create a rain water collection system where water can be collected from building rooftops into cisterns and will allow our students to water the plants as needed. Thus we again create a connection with nature as a provider and our students as the recipients. This again connects our students to the importance of “reduce, reuse, recycle” and “going green” by implementing environmentally sound choices. It is our goal that this garden will encourage not only our Waldorf students to appreciate the importance of nature, but that it will teach all Byck students the importance of being in tune with their environment. We also believe that this garden will continue to show the residents of the Russell Neighborhood that Byck is an essential and vital part of their community. We hope our students learn a lesson in responsibility: that lovingly nurturing a seed to a mature plant or flower will serve them in other areas of their lives. That by “growing green” our students will learn that they have an infinite amount of potential to course their own lives, which the garden they grow today will lead to a better future tomorrow.
“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.”
-Hodding Carter (1907-1072) How are you attempting to engage the community on the importance of safe and healthy playspaces?
August 5th, 2008 is Byck’s annual Ice Cream Social and Orientation. We have invited Mayor Jerry Abrahamson, Congressman John Yarmuth, Representative Riner, Senator Perry Clark, Metro Councilwoman Judy Green, Wave-3 anchorwoman Dawn Gee, and various people from the media, as well as the Cralle Foundation and Sonic (without whom the playground would not have happened). We are going to ask that the Mayor proclaim August 5th as “All Play the Byck Way” day and that all of our attending families sign up as playmakers on the KaBOOM! site. I speak weekly to staff members at Congressman Yarmuth’s office as well as email everyone I can think of to make them aware of how many schools have to struggle to for limited play equipment. That playgrounds are an essential part of childhood education and development and children should not go without a playspace simply because of the socio-economic demographics of their neighborhood or zip code. What challenges have you faced in trying to make time and space for play in your school’s community? How are you trying to overcome those challenges?
At the same time we were building our space a brand new multi-million dollar school was also fundraising for a playground. They were able to raise over $65,000 for their playground and received all the press you could ask for. In fact one article’s headline was that they “finally” received their playground. Needless to say, as great as that is for those kids at that school, here was our title I school, neglected neighborhood, no parks nearby just struggling to raise $10,000. And we did it all by word of mouth and without the attention of the media. It is our hope that now that we have a basic playspace, and that the Mayor is promoting a healthy hometown movement and calling Louisville the “City of Parks” there will be more attention paid to those schools and locations that are really struggling. As an advocate I say this: start writing letters to the editor, to local officials. Make calls to radio stations, to the media. Ask for help from any source you can think of and rally parents together to have strength in numbers. Choose one person to be your “public” face, who is comfortable and willing to put themselves out there and speak at meetings or to the media. Simply ask a vendor or business to donate, all they can say is no and if so, you move on until you have one who says yes. Have the kids write thank you cards or request help-they are the one’s who this is for anyway.
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