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The Review
page 4
October 4, 2016
Head Start’s first community showcase will give people a chance to see how program gets kids headed in the right direction BY CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN
Show tell & time
Alex T. Paschal
Head Start teacher Dana Bass, 25, of Polo, works with Kole Kiro, 3, at Wallace School in Sterling. Bass attended Head Start for a year when she was 3, and credits it with helping her to get ready for kindergarten in many areas – including socialization.
Community showcase Head Start will host a community showcase from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 10 at Grandon Civic Center in downtown Sterling. Head Start representatives, including teachers who used the program when they were younger, and families who have succeeded thanks to its offerings, will be on hand. Vendors are invited to get involved. Call Amber Scavenger or April Wilkinson at 815-669-5904, ext. 113, to sign up, or for more information about Head Start.
The
Alex T. Paschal
Head Start teacher’s assistant Aeriel Williams works with four toddlers in her room at Wallace School in Sterling. Williams attended Head Start for a year at age 4, and said it helped her read by the time she Performing Arts Guild Presents was in kindergarten.
STERLING – Want to know where Head Start can help kids get? You need look no further than Wallace School, one of the program’s sites. That’s where two former Head Starters, Aeriel Williams, 25, of Rock Falls, and Dana Bass, 26, of Polo, now teach. They both took advantage of Head Start for a year a little more than 2 decades ago. “I value everything that Head Start stands for: helping lowincome families give their children education that they otherwise couldn’t have,” said Williams, a teacher’s assistant for children 6 weeks to 3 years. Before that, she spent the past 2 years in the 3 to 5 classroom. She was the only one of five siblings to attend Head Start, and credits it for helping her read by the time she reached kindergarten. “Before my mom got married to my stepdad, it was hard for her being a single mom with three kids,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing that now I get to show them all things are possible, and that dreams are possible if you work hard and dream a little.” Expect similar, heartstring-tugging testimonials Oct. 10, when the program for financially strapped families hosts its first community showcase, highlighting success stories involving its former and current families. Bass is in her first year teaching in a 3 to 5 classroom after graduating from Western Illinois University with a bachelor’s in early childhood education. She first attended Sauk Valley Community College, which is also where Williams got her associate’s degree. Both Bass and Williams relish giving kids a head start in areas such as colors, letters and numbers. In just a couple of months on the job, though, the area Bass has seen the biggest strides in is social-
ization. She admits she took that development for granted until she got into teaching. It made her think about growing up in Polo and how she needed to learn to play well with others. “We’d seen each other – Polo’s a small community – but we didn’t necessarily know how to play with each other,” Bass said. “I took it for granted ... until I became a teacher and started working with those children who’d never been out of their home before. “If you have never been anywhere but at home, you need that social interaction.” So far, the local fire and police departments, as well as state Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, have committed to being at the community showcase, and administration hopes more agencies, groups and businesses will sign up. April Wilkinson, another teacher’s assistant, said the spirit of the event is for community entities to promote each other, maybe even collaborate. That said, Head Start also is hoping for some food vendors to join the celebration. Everything’s better with a taco, a slice of pizza, or a scone. Speaking of food, did you know half-day Head Start kids get lunch before they go home? “Parents don’t have to wonder, ‘Are they being taken care of? Do I have to feed them lunch when they get home?’” Bass said. It’s all-too-often-little-known facts like that one that she’s excited to share. “I’m excited for the community to be able to show what they do to help Head Start, and how we can help our Head Start families within the community,” Bass said. “Sometimes on home visits, we talk to the parents, and they don’t realize what all we do. “Just them knowing what we’re able to offer is huge.”
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