By Greta Lieske
IV Leader Editor, May 7, 2009
The new Illinois Valley Community College’s Support Staff 2009 Project will be under way come fall semester, which will focus on making improvements to the college’s Early Childhood Education Center in order to accredit the Center with The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
According to Crystal Loughran, safety services administrative assistant, the support staff annual project is about engaging and helping “students, faculty and reaching out to the community” and the ECE affects all three groups.
Students and faculty can leave their children at the ECE for daycare to allow them to take classes or teach, but the center also is a training site for students in the Early Childhood Education program.
The ECE is “just a wonderful service here on campus because children are our future,”
Loughran said.
The first step of the project will be to gain accreditation from the NAEYC, but, according to the service project proposal, improvements must be made to the center that “directly enhance the learning opportunities” for the children enrolled, which leads to the second step: fundraising money for an outdoor classroom to the ECE in order to incorporate nature into the curriculum.
The proposal explains that “children love nature” and that it is “our greatest teaching tool” because it “can bring out a child’s curiosity, creativity and motivation to learn.”
Money raised will be used to purchase outdoor equipment to create the outdoor classroom.
On the list of items are a full-size picnic table that seats 12 children for $835, a double-station fence easels that are ADA friendly for $139 and a neptune sand and water table with a lid for $159.
Raffles will be conducted during the next year in an effort to raise money in addition to Penny Wars, a holiday art and craft fair, a Christmas bake sale, a gently used Christmas sale and the Great Book Giveaway.
Students can volunteer to help with the project and can contact Loughran at (815) 224-0558.
Faculty, members of the community, parents and grandparents of students are also welcome to volunteer.
The Support Staff 2009 project champions include the following: Theresa Carranco, Mark Grybowski, Judy Kurtz, Jeannette Mathis, Mary Tully and Loughran.
Members of the staff that proposed the project were Virginia Pokryfke and Loughran.
The Support Staff has just completed its 2008 campaign, which raised funds for area animal shelters.