Volunteer Group Provides Homework Help and A Lot of Fun

It’s about 4:20 p.m. Wednesday and the community room is ready at Lighthouse Point Townhomes, 541 Shelbourne Court. Within minutes, 13 grade schoolers come bounding in, shed their winter coats and line up for a snack choice of baby carrots, sweet red peppers, sweet yellow peppers and ranch dressing.

Then, it’s off to take seats at one of eight card tables set up around the room where volunteers are ready to help with language arts, math and other homework.

The makeshift study center is soon abuzz as some students copiously practice spelling words, others are drilled with math flash cards and still others solve workbook problems.

Welcome to the weekly LIFT (Learning is Fun Together) after-school program.

“It’s a happy place. The kids come in after being in school all day and are willing to stay and work,” says Nancy Tobias, a LIFT volunteer. “There’s never a day when I don’t want to come.”

The students from Wind Point Elementary School seem to feel the same way about the LIFT program, now in its fifth year.

“I always have fun when I’m here,” says third grader Dayshanae Williams, 8.

LIFT was started as a neighborhood outreach by members of Trinity United Methodist Church, 3825 Erie St.

“As we asked around the neighborhood, schools and the kids were most often mentioned,” says Ellie Boldus, a LIFT organizer and a retired elementary school reading teacher. So, the church representatives contacted nearby Wind Point Elementary School with the idea of starting an after-school tutoring program.

Lighthouse Point Townhomes offered the use of its community room, volunteers were recruited from among church members, friends and families and LIFT was on its way.

This year, LIFT serves 16 students, from grades 1 through 5. Students, identified by teachers as needing extra help in reading, spelling or math, are encouraged to attend. Because nearly all of the students live at Lighthouse Point, a school bus drops them off near the community room and they walk home or are picked up by family when the session ends.

“There’s an academic aspect, but we’ve also wanted to have an impact on student confidence,” says Boldus.

Irene Nahabedian, Wind Point Elementary principal, welcomes the involvement.

“The church and those volunteers have really gone all out for these students and their families,” she says. “They’ve built some terrific relationships.”

The payoff has been improvements in academic performance and behavior, she says.

“The kids really like the attention—that someone is taking the time to help them learn,” says Nahabedian.

The volunteers are glad to be able to give attention and make a difference.

Marie Sorensen, a retired Wind Point Elementary third grade teacher, serves as liaison between the LIFT program and the school. She’s been joined by two other Wind Point retirees as program volunteers—Mary Shawl and Marty Hunt.

“I think you get so used to doing for others that you feel useless sitting at home,” says Sorensen.

LIFT has also attracted volunteers from the ranks of RUSD students. At a recent session, Emily Piehler and Deejae Kober, both eighth graders at Jerstad-Algerholm Middle School, were assisting second and third grade students. They chose LIFT as their community service component of the confirmation classes at Trinity United Methodist. Meanwhile, Stephanie Besaw, a Case High School senior, has been a LIFT volunteer since 2008.

LIFT may someday gain a volunteer from among the Wind Point students. Dashaun Jackson, 11, a fifth grader who has been attending the program since its beginning, told volunteer Cathy Dugdale that when he’s in eighth grade he’d like to return as a volunteer.

As the hour session wound down, each student visited the LIFT book table to choose a book or two to take home and keep. Volunteers and friends donate used books found at rummage sales and other sources.

“Fortunately, we usually have so many books available, that everybody gets two to take home,” says Boldus. “Getting those books in the homes where they will be read is a good thing.”