THANKFUL & GRATEFUL story by Ashley Elvington
Valerie George
A TEACHER'S BLESSINGS “I wanted to do my part by providing students with resources that would help with their confidence and encourage them to want to attend school each day, so I decided to put together a project for sneakers the very next day. I selected a variety of gender-neutral shoes in different sizes. Within a month, the project was fully funded!...”
As a special education resource teacher, Valerie George is always inspired by her students. When she realized a large number of students were absent from school all too often, Valerie began to question why. "When I notice a student that I haven’t seen in a few days, I would say to them, 'I missed you yesterday, why weren’t you at school?' I have heard many reasons that range from not having any clean clothes to wear, to not having the proper shoes or clothes to wear, depending on the season." It was during this moment that the metaphorical light bulb moment happened - Valerie knew what she had to do. Wanting to help her students beyond the walls of the classroom, Valerie created "New Soles for Our Feet and Soles," a Donors Choose project. "I noticed students with holes in their shoes, dingy worn-out shoes, shoes falling apart, shoes that were too tight or too big, or improper for P.E. I sat in bed that night and talked to my husband about some of the things that I was noticing. I wondered if any of it was related to a student’s attendance at school. We talked about our childhood and all of the things that we were blessed with growing up and one of 32
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November 2021
the things that made us feel happy about going to school was having a decent pair of shoes on our feet." Valerie didn't want to sit around and talk about it - she wanted to create a solution and put it into action as soon as possible. "I wanted to do my part by providing students with resources that would help with their confidence and encourage them to want to attend school each day, so I decided to put together a project for sneakers the very next day. I selected a variety of gender-neutral shoes in different sizes. Within a month, the project was fully funded! I worked with our school’s guidance counselor and nurse on this first project. The shoes were given to students that demonstrated a need for them, based throughout the school year." The shoe project was a huge success and was able to help many students. The following year, Valerie chose another project called "Shoes That Feel Good on Our Feet," which was fully funded in less than a month after creation. Next up was "New School Year, New Book!" She elaborates, "I noticed that students would begin the year with brand new book bags, and about mid-school year, straps on the book
