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Sparrow Clubs inspire Parkrose students to acts of kindness

HEATHER HILL
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO

Ashley Hale, left, with sister Kim — Parkrose Middle School’s new Sparrow who motivates students to think beyond themselves — at the school assembly to introduce Kim to the student body.
PHOTO BY LAURA QUEEN
Parkrose Middle School and Sparrow Clubs have formed a bond to help students to see how their actions can have a big impact on others.

In middle school, the social circle often takes center stage, for better or worse. On one hand, alliances open windows to a different life. Friends share ideas and concerns, and when a friend needs help, friends answer. But group think also dominates here, and inclusion or ostracism may hinge on surface traits far from the heart of a person’s character. Many kids have little practice prioritizing the trivial from the relevant, leaving early friendships vulnerable to the whim of trends. This predicament inspired Laura Queen, a seventh-grade Language Arts teacher at Parkrose Middle School, to introduce a venue for students there to reach beyond their personal concerns and to grasp the true power of friendship.

Queen learned of Sparrow Clubs through her friend, Tamara Wissbaum, the luminary Mrs. Oregon, who espoused the cause as her platform. “I’m a teacher for 21 years,” Queen said, “and I have never found something where kids, especially middle school kids, think outside themselves. (Sparrow) makes that connection for kids that I have never seen before.”

Started in 1995 by Jeff Leeland, a teacher inspired by a student’s charity toward his ailing son, Sparrow Clubs pair schools with ill children, who become their Sparrow, or cause. Meeting the Sparrows and hearing their stories is intended to foster a concern that inspires students to acts of kindness. Some kids, struggling with their own issues, may also identify with the Sparrow’s hardship, and thus, the peaks and valleys of popularity are leveled by the gravity of this one situation.

“I believe deep down, kids want to make a difference. You have to give them the opportunity,” Queen said. The Sparrow Club Web site, www.sparrowclubs.org, emphasizes its objective to inspire “simple yet heroic acts of kindness,” mirroring Leeland’s experience when his school rallied around his son after the initial student’s donation. According to the organization’s brochure, Sparrow Clubs see their Sparrows as “more of an inspiration than merely a charity-case.” Sparrow encourages participants to “find your wings,” the Sparrow Club Motto, by performing such tasks as taking out a neighbor’s trash or raking leaves, services which they document on a voucher that translates into ten dollars per hour of work. Sponsors pledge the seed money of $4,060 required to start a Sparrow Club, which equals 256 hours of student community service. The students document their community service work on vouchers. The pledged money is kept in an account. The vouchers translate into money that is taken out of the account and placed into another account from which the Sparrow family can then draw from. All the money the kids “earn” go to the family, however some of the seed money goes to pay for the initial video production of the family’s story. Even though the sponsors actually pledged money to the family, it gives the kids the feeling that they are doing something to help. The kids can also raise more money through bake sales and car washes which generate revenue independent of the money al ready pledged.

Parkrose formally initiated its club in October with an assembly held to introduce its Sparrow, Kim Hale, and her family. Hale, a 13-year-old who attends Ron Russell in the David Douglas School District was diagnosed with leukemia shortly after losing her mother to a brain tumor. Her father, working full time to support Kim and her sister, Ashley, had no knowledge of the program until a medical social worker suggested that a local school sought someone to help. At the assembly, Parkrose students watched a short video on the family’s story, after which staff members explained the avenues of contribution. Later they gave students an opportunity to greet the Hales personally — some shook Kim’s hand, some gave her a hug.

“It was a pretty emotionally charged assembly because having to meet her puts a connection to the face,” Queen said. Just as she had hoped, “Middle school kids rise to the occasion. You see the tears in the audience, a lot of kids with their own personal situations or those who were simply touched by her story.” They identified and started asking what they could do to help.

Queen oversees a core group of Sparrow representatives from each grade. Together they discuss fundraising possibilities and then branch off to pitch the ideas to their respective homerooms. Queen stressed, “It can be simple. It can be complicated. It’s what they choose they want to make it. So they get some power to decide; it’s not someone telling them.”

Though still new, the project has momentum. “We raised $600 with two basket raffles before school started, and that money was put in the Sparrow account,” Queen said. “A couple of kids have put together a carwash for parents during our conferences. We have a staff versus student basketball game scheduled. Kids pay $1 admission to attend — families pay $2. So that’s how we’re trying to bring the community in. We’re going crazy with it. The ideas are coming in 90 miles a minute.”

This sentiment extended beyond the students. Until the assembly, Parkrose was still $1,000 short of the required seed money. The generous pledges by Providence Health Plans, a customary contributor to upstart Sparrow programs, and ABC Jewelers, whom Queen knew is “always looking for something to do,” fell just under the mark. But friendship prevailed. During the assembly, Queen’s friend Tom Wissbaum pledged the remainder through his CPA firm Wissbaum & Steiner.

The Sparrow Club concept metaphorically tosses a pebble into a pond, and the waves radiate outward. The Sparrow inspires kids to assume community service on his or her behalf, helping others, who go on to share the goodwill with someone else. Queen said she hopes it will teach her students to say, “‘I can be a hero,’ and if that means that they help Kim’s family in some way or they decide to go to the retirement home down the street and they make a difference in their day, and it spreads. It becomes, ‘Can I make a difference in not just Kim’s life? What can I do for my neighbor?’ I think that when you do heroic acts and you act out of kindness, it makes you a better person and you make another person’s life better, if only for five minutes.” Maybe this will teach students that the important point is not who your friends are; it’s the quality of your friendship that makes the difference.
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