God is love!
COVER
Christmas at st. aidan’s
St. Aidan’s invites everyone to join us this Christmas season aLL arE WELCOmE! Christmas Eve services, Sunday, December 24
10 am Advent 4 pm Worship 4 pm Christmas Carols and kid-friendly worship with a Pageant 7:30 pm Christmas Worship with Carols, Choir and Candlelight
Christmas day, Monday, December 25 10 am Christmas Worship with Carols
Epiphany Saturday, January 6
6 pm Epiphany Service of Light
saintaidans.org 2425 Colorado Ave. Boulder, CO 80302 12
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
they burn the whole town down? Why do people stand around and not say anything?’ They see things for what it is, as it is. The kids give me hope, to be honest. They give me hope for the future because they recognize that we are a human race and we should treat people the way we want to be treated.
8) How do you measure success or progress?
It’s really tricky. We only go into classrooms once a year. When we go back next year, [the students are] in a totally different class, different grade, maybe even totally different school. And so it’s really hard for us to measure. If we could be in the schools on a more consistent basis, even once a quarter, it would be more impactful. We have evaluations, and we ask the kids if they learned something new or different, if they know how to be an ally. Students of color open up and say things that teachers didn’t know were going on in the classroom or that students felt that way. You would not believe how many times I go into these classrooms and teachers say, ‘I’ve been waiting all year for you to come.’ I’ve had teachers in tears before. When you have teachers waiting for you to come back, that says something. In BVSD, we don’t have very many teachers of color. If you have teachers that feel isolated, how do you think the kids feel?
9) What are you reading right now?
I just bought Walk through Fire by Sheila Johnson. I am intrigued by people who go through a life of hard knocks. Those
types of books inspire me to keep going. My work can be very heavy. Sometimes I think I’ll be dead and gone before I can see the fruit of my labor and all labor. We still don’t have housing for all, equal opportunity for all — all those things Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for. Yes we’ve come a long way, but we have so far to go.
10) What’s the best way for our readers to support this program?
Of course, donating money to the program, because it’s the least-funded program we have at the YWCA. Also more volunteers. I go into the schools, and I may have to read in five classrooms because we don’t have enough volunteers. We’re there all day, first to last, in every classroom, to read. My dream would be to have Reading to End Racism in all the schools in BVSD. I’d love it to be in St. Vrain [Valley School District] too. I wish more parents and more schools would sign up for How to Talk to Your Kids about Race. Having these conversations is truly important, and they do make a difference in their kids’ lives and in the community as well.
IF YOU GO: Reading to End Racism 10-year Anniversary. 4-6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 27, Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Free. Registration required: bit.ly/RTER-YWCA
BOULDER WEEKLY
