Visits the
Little White
Schoolhouse by Cheryl Ladd
Director, Drive Smart
Evergreen/Conifer, Colorado
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The photos below are from the Little White Schoolhouse in Conifer, Colorado. My student teachers are from a Leadership class at West Jefferson Middle School. Their teacher sponsor is Patty McClennan. Carla Mink is the director of the Little White Schoolhouse. She is so supportive. We visited the Little White Schoolhouse two days - January 30 and 31st. We have had BUCKLEBEAR visit this school for the last 5 years. The BUCKLEBEAR program with DRIVE SMART Evergreen/Conifer has been active since 1997. We received our initial 3 year funding for the program from a grant - Colorado Action for Healthy People - based in Denver. We have continued the program without additional grants but through the generous support of our mountain community. Our annual fundraiser-Skate the Lake - is a New Years Eve skating party at our local lake - Evergreen Lake. Under the lights and at the base of our beautiful log Lakehouse, Evergreen Park and Recreation and many local civic groups and over 180 volunteers help us host a family night, alcohol free skating party. the evening includes; music, food, sleigh rides, animal characters skating and fireworks at 8 pm and midnight. From funds received at this event we help carry on the BUCKLEBEAR program. The program visits about 1000 preschoolers, kindergarteners and first graders annually. We use our middle school helpers as the teachers of the program. One of them dresses up in the life-size BUCKLEBEAR and also leads the smaller children through rhymes and songs. After that we weigh and measure the height of every little child and send them home with this information, coloring books, stickers, hand stamps and important safety information for the parents about safety seats and booster seat. We also give teachers the same information and a set of BUCKLEBEAR posters for their classroom. Some teachers extend this information with additional activity pages. We also invite parents to advertised car safety seat checkpoints to have the seats checked on their child and in their car. This program is well received in the Evergreen and Conifer mountain communities. Our student mentors/teachers come from 2 local middle schools - Evergreen Middle School under the direction of Nancy Visocky and West Jefferson Middle School under Patty McClennan. The 14 mountain area preschools and elementary schools participate in this program during the calendar school year. BUCKLEBEAR makes additional cameo appearances at local car safety seat checkpoints, Skate the Lake and Safety Fairs held at local schools. We are very proud of our mentors and for the Middle schools continued support and for all the area preschools and elementary schools that beg us to bring the program to their students. I feel safe in saying the BUCKLEBEAR is here to stay and has positively influenced these young children and their parents and made good role models out of our middle school helpers.
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