Assumption Catholic School’s “Dirt-to-Dirt” Project

Students and staff from Assumption Catholic School on Cornwall Street have been growing their own fresh and organic vegetables. The produce is then sold and the funds collected go to Bellingham Community School, a sister middle school in Cambodia which Assumption School has been supporting for years.

“Part of the fact is that this is what we want to teach our children: teach the children they can make a difference in the world. This is making a difference,” Monica Des Jarlais, principal of Assumption Catholic School, said.

Assumption School has also brought over this project to Bellingham Community School. The school has donated $7,500 to Bellingham Community School to start their own garden, known as “Peace Garden” where the children and staff can grow their own produce and sell it to raise funds. The project helps Bellingham Community School to increase accessibility to fresh food and to be self-sufficient.

“We call it the ‘dirt-to-dirt’ project,” Des Jarlais said.

A group of three teachers, five students and two parents visited Bellingham Community School on Nov. 11 and stayed through the Thanksgiving holiday in Cambodia to immerse in the culture and learn how much resiliency exists within the human spirit, Liberty Sponek, one of the teachers who went to Cambodia, said in an email.

“While we were there we also bought a month’s supply of food for the 20 people living in a dorm at the school and many gardening tools so they can grow their own vegetables,” Sponek said.

“They are still desperately trying to recover educationally, economically, politically, and physically. Witnessing that struggle is something one cannot fully describe with either words or pictures.” Sponek explained. “I had done some reading before I went, but it did not come close to preparing me for this experience.”

Assumption School did many fundraising events to prepare the group for the trip. A portion of the money went into paying costs such as driver and an interpreter and the remaining funds are used to buy school supplies such as globes, computers and white boards for Bellingham Community School.

The group spent three days in the school itself and 10 days with officials from the organization.

“While we were there we all participated in sports events, games, dancing, singing, and conversations,” Sponek said.

The group provided many opportunities for the Cambodian children to practice their English language skills by having custom-made flashcards of their own lives and power point presentations focusing on school and home-life in Bellingham. They taught the children with songs such as the Hokey Pokey, Head and Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes and Itsy Bitsy Spider. This is to teach the Basic English vocabulary and have fun together, Sponek said.

Students and parents also offer their services to find out more about the health needs in Bellingham Community School.

“One of the parents is a doctor and one of the teachers’ husbands is a doctor too,” Des Jarlais said.

Assumption School has consistently sent a fund of $2,500 annually to Bellingham Community School. It also send a group to Cambodia every three years to find out about the needs and progress of the school.

“$2,000 to pay for a Computer and English teacher and $500 for the books and supplies,” Des Jarlais said.

Bellingham Community School started when a local businessman, Ham Hayes, went about asking for sponsorship to help build a middle school in Phnom Dek, Cambodia, where the rural region is still devastated by the Khmer Rouge era.

“Knowing he can’t does it on his own, he went around to places in Bellingham to ask for sponsorship,” Des Jarlais said.

The partnership between Hayes and Assumption School started in 2005 and together, they worked to sustain the salary of a teacher with English language and computer skills.

In 2006, two Assumption school families and an Assumption teacher travelled together with Hayes and his wife, Gloria to Cambodia to witness the opening ceremony of Bellingham Community School.

Ever since then, Assumption School has constantly support Bellingham Community School, not only in a teacher’s salary but towards the identified school needs as well, Des Jarlais said.

Assumption School also accepts volunteers who want to help out in their garden or financial contributors who want to support Bellingham Community School.

“We are excited to teach the children what they can do in the garden, can impact other students’ life,” Des Jarlais said. “This is part of our mission: To be a global citizen and take care of the world.”

Hope House in Need of Sustainable Fund

Hope House is in the early stage of putting a community together to gather funds that are more sustainable, Cherie Woolsey, director of Hope House said.

 “We are waiting for one of United Way’s campaign to be over before starting,” Diane Moore, a volunteer of Hope House said.

Plans to start the community will be around January. The community will head to various groups such as lottery groups and toastmaster groups to talk about funding for Hope House, said Moore who will be one of the speakers.

The primary goal of the community is to raise funds and increase donations for Hope House.

“Everything we got is donated. We do get grant from United Way funding and donations that people give but we need more money to buy hygiene items, diapers and food. Items which people don’t usually donate,” Woolsey said.

“The great thing about this is that people can decide where their money goes,” Moore said. For instance, when someone signs with United Way, they can request for United Way to take out $20 from their pay every month and have it donated to Hope House.

The service center receives $7,490 from United Way of Whatcom County. Hope House will receive a percentage [the fund of $7,490] of the Safety Net Fund until 2014 at which the service center may be able to reapply for funding for the next three-years-cycle, Tamara Tregoning, communications manager of United Way of Whatcom County said in an email.

Hope House opened in Oct. 2000. The white one-storey multi-service center is a joint effort between Assumption Catholic Church and Catholic Community Services. Located next to Assumption Catholic Church on Kentucky Street in Sunnyland, the service center is for the low-income and homeless to ‘shop’ for free with the items donated by residents.

“We see ourselves as a basic need provider,” Woolsey said. “Providing needs like clothing, food, hygiene items and baby items all free-of-charge.”

Hope House used to serve an average of 10,000 people a year but the number has increased to 20,000 in the past three to four years due to economy, Woolsey said. Twenty percent of the people who use the service of Hope House are homeless and 80 percent are either low-income or part of the working poor or senior citizens.

“People are getting laid-off that’s why we get more people,” Woolsey said. The clients in Hope House come from as far as Lynden too. With the increase in clients, Hope House faces a challenge with the lack of funds.

With the raised funds by the community, Hope House wants to give a big push of the money towards getting priority items like food for its clients as well as items that are rarely donated.

Bigger items like sleeping bags, backpacks, pots and pans and toilet rolls are items that seem so trivial yet are a necessity which we do not notice, Moore said.

Expensive items such as baby formula and diapers are one of the priorities too which Hope Hose wants to buy with the money as these are items which are rarely received.

“They can spend $15 on getting more items instead of just $15 on a baby formula,” Moore explained about the reason why the items are rarely donated by people.

Clients do come to Hope House too when they need financial assistance help. For instance, when clients need money to pay for water or electric bills but are faced with financial challenges, they will go down to Hope House and request for direct financial assistance which comes from a special funding.

“People do come in and request for bus tickets home too,” Moore said.

A lady had thought living with her mother was not a great idea so she ran away with her boyfriend. But when situation became tough, she realized her mistake and came to Hope House to request a ticket to get her back home, Moore said. St. Paul Church, Assumption Catholic Church, Hilcrest Chapel and Sacred Heart Catholic Church came together to gather donations to help the lady get a ticket back home.

Though Hope House tries to help all its client, its primary focus is still providing the basic needs to its clients.

“When we run out of items for our clients we have to ask them to come back another time and hope it is available,” Moore said.

Requests are also placed on the church’s bulletin board or made during church service’s announcement whenever items run out.

“We’re thankful and appreciate the effort of the volunteers and donators,” Moore said. 

I&I Project seeks more volunteers

Sunnyland has been selected for the Central Basin Inflow and Infiltration project due to the way the system is built in it. The straight sewer mains collects together at the south end of the neighborhood which allows easy monitoring of the flows and measuring the impact of the project on reducing unwanted water. 

43 percent of 342 affected property owners in Sunnyland have signed a side sewer replacement agreement which gives the city and their contractor permission to do sewer work on their private property. Craig Mueller, project engineer of the Central Basin Inflow and Infiltration project, is looking for 75 percent and more to achieve better results for studying.

The Central Basin Inflow and Infiltration project is a pilot study to determine the effectiveness of addressing private sewer services [the pipe from a house to the sewer main] and the main piping and manholes. 

Inflow and Infiltration is the problem of excess water that flows into sewer pipes from groundwater and storm water.  Groundwater [infiltration] are water that seeps into sewer pipes through holes, cracks, joint failures and faulty connections while storm water [inflow] flows into sewers from roof drain downspouts, foundation drains, storm drain cross-connections and through holes in manhole covers.

According to Mueller, the central basin area is divided into two areas, the pilot area and the control area.  The areas have flow monitors installed to record volume of flows. Also, the pilot area will receive new sewer main piping, manholes and sewer services. 

Property owners who signed the replacement agreemnt will have their pipes replaced known as pipe bursting, a trenchless technology method.

“A hole is dug on each end of a pipe to be replaced and a cable run through the existing pipe.  The cable pulls a new pipe through the existing pipe, shattering the existing pipe as it goes through.  Using pipe bursting, nothing gets disturbed between the two holes which is important due to all the decks, fences and garages that are built over the sewer services,” Mueller said.

The side effect of this technology is temporary noise and access disruptions from construction. As physical work has to be done, each property is disconnected from their sewer for no more than eight hours while it is being service. As the sewer service takes place only at specific area, impact will only be to one specific block for about week. Property owners do benefit from the service as well. The pipe replacement will provide a lesser chance of potential sewer backups into their homes and no cost is included with the project. Each property also receives a new sewer service at no cost which if fails outside of the project, can cost the property owner about $3,000 to repair. 

“Most sewer mains were built between 1905 and 1910 and they are in poor condition.  City permit records indicate many property owners applying for permits to replace their sewer service over the last 15 years, still have the old sewer services made of clay pipe,” Mueller said.

The aging infrastructure on public the aging infrastructure on public and private property resulted in Inflow & Infiltration thus maintenance and replacements are needed. The excess water also contributes to increase treatment costs at the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant.

On a dry day, the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant treats eight million gallons of wastewater, on average. And on a rainy day, the amount can increase to 72 million gallons per day. The excess water comes from the Inflow and Infiltration sources.

“The cost for this is borne by everyone who pays a sewer bill in the form of higher rates,” Mueller said in the email.

Once the flow coming into Post Point Wastewater Treatment plant exceeds the capacity of the plant, the wastewater bypasses it and is discharge to the bay untreated.

The project seeks to find property owners who are willing to volunteer with the project to gain better results from studying the Inflow and Infiltration and to help the neighborhood solve the untreated discharge excess water. 

Pre-School will Help Children in Elementary

Imagine not knowing the definition of lion and going into a class where everybody knows it and talks about it. You just sit there in a corner listening and trying your best to understand while feeling left out.

Loneliness and lost are some of the psychologically vulnerable feelings a child who has not attended pre-school feels while he/she is in a class with children who had attended and know their answers.

Pre-school is important as it teaches the children the skills they would need to excel in elementary school.

“You have kids coming to school and they are so ready to go and they had pre-school,” Katy Ackerson said, librarian of Sunnyland Elementary school who joined into the conversation. “And then you have kids facing the wrong way and they don’t have a good vocabulary and they don’t have skills for listening.”

As important as pre-school is the parents’ education. Parents are responsible too, in educating their children before sending them to elementary school. Some kindergarteners enter school without skills such as reading or what is known as ‘life experience’. The ‘life experience’ signifies children who are able to go on vacations, field trips, zoos or activities that enable them to learn about general knowledge such as colors, numbers or animals.

The difference between the children who received the ‘life experience’ and the ones who do not have the opportunity is known as an achievement gap.

“I don’t know, I think sometimes parents are working and they don’t have time,” Mary Anne Stuckart said, principal of Sunnyland Elementary school.

As Sunnyland Elementary is a Title 1 school, the Federal Government has given the school more funding to provide one-on-one guidance for children who needs it. Still making up a difference of five years is tough for Sunnyland Elementary. The school is trying it’s best to help the children.

“We do our best to get them caught up,” Stuckart said.

Teachers work with the children in reading and the Title 1 guidance work with them individually.

“Instead of making a year’s growth, you’re trying to make a year’s and a half growth,” Stuckart said.

The school tracks the progress of each and every individual child too. The children are tested when they enter the school in the fall. The test helps to gauge if they require the guidance needed. Gray-area is the standard level for children who enter elementary school with ‘life expereince’. Boards with the different standards are set up in a room of Sunnyland Elementary showcasing the progress of each child.

• Intensive: Children who are below the gray-area. They are seen twice a day.
• Strategic: Children see an extra guidance and are seen every day to work on their reading.
• Standard: Children who are in the gray-area.
• Standing: Children who are really sharp. The school will have to come up with classes that are challenging for them.

The children are tested every three weeks to track their progress.

“Hope they are changing. And if they are not, the discussion is what do they need? Change our instruction? Maybe our instruction isn’t matching what they need and figure out what they do need to learn,” Stuckart said.

Stuckart recommends that children starts attending pre-school or Head Start, a free national school readiness program which is set up the Federal Government. This helps to prepare the children for early education and to learn faster when they are in elementary school.

Sunnyland Elementary school has been trying to advertise and appeal to parents about letting their children join pre-school or Head Start before entering elementary too.

The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints’ Generous Hearts

The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints is known for its worldwide humanitarian services. The LDS church on James Street in Sunnyland, heed a day of service on Oct. 8 that sent food to Ferndale Food Bank on Main Street, pillows to the Lighthouse Mission Ministries and clothes and shoes to We Care.

“It basically helps you get through months especially when you are low-income,” said Joanne Hayes, one of the clients of the Ferndale Food Bank. She is a single mother with two children and would come to the Food Bank twice a month to receive food.

“I couldn’t make it with my two kids without it,” Hayes added.

“My food stamps have gotten cut, the food bank basically is all that I’m gonna have,” said Mildred Pavone, another client of Ferndale Food Bank. Pavone has two children and is on social security disability due to cancer.

“It’s a life-saver,” said Cathay Owens, a client of Ferndale Food Bank too. She appreciates the help Ferndale Food Bank gave and the help it received too.

The purpose of the project was to have the neighbourhood help out as many needy and underprivileged people as possible, said Rebecca Brownell, organizer of the project.

Brownell, 37, grew up in Utah and has been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints since young. She moved to Sunnyland about four years ago.

Brownell said they were thinking about a project where people of ages could help and the type of communities they would like to donate to.  “We could have gone to any of them but one of the ladies in our ward has connections,” Brownell said about the chosen communities which they were helping. “She has worked with them before and also they are connected with the women’s shelter. We thought that would be a great place to donate to.”

Fliers were given out and an announcement was made during a Sunday mass to inform about the service project.

Volunteers with their families came in as early as 9 a.m. in preparation for the crowd later in the day. Tables and chairs were set up as stations in the church’s indoor basketball court. Each station represented for the different donated items: clothes, shoes and food. Two sewing stations were set up on the left-end of the court: one to do straight sewing and another to stuff and stitch the pillows. A “Letters for the Missionaries” station was placed in the center of the court for children to write letters and draw pictures on papers for the missionaries in different countries.

Volunteers and donors brought food, clothes and shoes to the LDS church. The volunteers gathered and organized the different items and delivered them to the various selected communities.

“All donations are greatly appreciated and used as needed,” said Ron Buchinski, executive director of the Lighthouse Mission Ministries, in an email.

“One in six residents in Whatcom County suffers from food insecurities. Ferndale Food Bank sees itself as a basic needs service by providing food to the homeless, displaced and senior citizens,” said Suzanne Nevan, executive director of Ferndale Food Bank. Ferndale Food Bank is supported by the government but its 4,000 pound supply was cut down to 1,400 pound.

 “Therefore, we need all the help we can get,” Nevan said. “But what I’ve learned is that: If you ask people for help, they will give it to you.”

The project was a success as about 30 volunteers and donors turned up to help and donate. “I love doing things that serve people,” said Kathleen Lord, a volunteer for The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints service project.

 “It’s fun for everybody to come together and work for service, for people who are less fortunate,” said Doreen Fife, another volunteer for the project. “What am I going to do? Right now, I’m helping the kids because that’s the “funnest”!”