Supply Our Students

As the school year closes, we have had an opportunity to reflect on our goals and celebrate our accomplishments.

One of the most significant achievements was Glenwood Academy’s campaign, Supply Our Students.  This campaign was tremendously successful because of you! 

Nearly 50% of Glenwood’s students are from underserved and marginalized communities including our surrounding suburbs; another 30% hail from neglected neighborhoods within the city of Chicago. By sending their children to Glenwood, our parents understand the necessity of providing a safe harbor for kids where they are inspired to live, learn and succeed.  

The KidShop is one of Glenwood's creative outlets that has a monumental effect on a student’s life. Because of your support, student’s imaginations flourished, their self-confidence grew and their creativity expanded. We believe that these experiences are so necessary during childhood. Our teacher guides students to think outside the box and challenge the norm. Just this spring, students created amazing watercolor paintings; built an Adirondack bench, constructed ping pong paddle folk art fish, made an American flag out of baseballs and turned gorgeous, one of a kind wooden pens on a lathe.

These creations were truly amazing and may not have been possible without your continuing support. Thank you so much for supporting the Supply Our Students campaign!

One of the wonderful and absolutely amazing things that happens in Kidshop is the depth and breadth of creativity.  I firmly believe if you create a space where kids feel free from criticism and judgment and are allowed to just "go with the flow" some amazing stuff happens. Quite often, the kid who is quiet, unassuming, and seemingly just "floating through life" can come up with the most amazing ideas when you least expect it.  I continue to be amazed by this and am so thankful for the support the Kidshop has had over the years from so many staff and volunteers and donors to make these moments possible.

I tell you this because it happened again last week when I met with my students to discuss the plans for the 30,000 plastic bottlecaps we have collected.  We were talking about what the mosaic should look like and where it would be and when I said we could put it on the wall in school or outside somewhere like the wall of the Shop that faces the soccer field one kid lit up.  He said, "I think we should spell out the word WILDCAT and make a big picture of our Wildcat logo that is the logo for our sports teams."  This young boy has never shared his ideas before. He is quiet, unassuming, and struggling in other aspects of his life at Glenwood, but he is just blossoming in the shop. Everyone turned and looked at him and almost in unison said, “YES! That is a fabulous idea.” If you could have seen the look of total surprise on his face turn to pride it would have made you grin from ear to ear. He finally had status. He is also one of our blossoming artists in the watercolor classes.

Sharing stories like this it adds a sense of humanity to what is accomplished at Glenwood in big and small ways.

This year in KidShop we have been up to:

*The "City of Dreams" is completed and mounted in the shop.

* We refurbished all of the outside Christmas decorations (words that spelled things like Feliz Navidad, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, etc.) that were installed around campus prior to the Holiday Dinner and Pledge Service.

*New Christmas decorations for the dining hall were built and installed. A group of high school girls helped the third graders design and color their "reindeer costumes" for the Santa song at the Holiday Dinner.

*The "bottle cap mosaic" theme has been chosen. The design element is the next step and the construction will probably begin in the fall.

*The beginner 8 week introduction to water color painting has just concluded with ten young ladies of varying ages.

*The next beginner 8 week class for water colors begins next week with ten aspiring Picasso's.

*The focus right now is on items for the Community Celebration. [An upcoming special event with a silent auction.]

*We (Chuck Michaels, our water color instructor and I) will select four students to concentrate on 16X20 paintings for the auction. This is a new approach. Rather than do one large landscape with one or two students we will be doing two portraits and two other pictures which may or may not be landscapes.

*We are using recycled objects to build two "folk art" fish sculptures. One will be free standing and the other to hang on a wall. You have to see them to understand what I am talking about.

*We will be making a perpetual calendar out of wood.  This item will be designed by the kids and hand carved. If you have seen pictures of the "hand carved lazy susan" we did last year the same tools and process will be used.

*If time allows, another volunteer, Dave Hewchuck [a house parent], will teach kids how to make bowls on the lathe.  He has been working this fall on teaching how to make wooden pens on the lathe. Perhaps we can make several sets of pens for the auction as well.

*With the help of one of our volunteers several kids will be building an Adirondack bench.

*We will make an enlarged (4'x8') picture of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, with the face cut out so kids (big and small) can have their picture taken with their face in place of the scream person face at the Community Celebration.  Once we have the enlargement completed I will talk with Colleen [Glenwood’s school principal] about involving the fourth graders in "coloring in" the picture.  

*If I can find the students with enough patience, we may have two encaustic paintings for the auction.  These are paintings done in hot wax. 

As you can see, we are busy little creatures in the shop. These activities are able to happen because of your donations. You have made a huge impact on these students’ lives. You gave a quiet, unassuming child the strength to find his voice. Thank you for all that you have done for the students of Glenwood Academy!

Links:

• Glenwood Academy's website