Impactful Service Projects at Sage Oak - Ronald McDonald Walk and VLA Water Project

Sage Sage Studio Podcast: Prioritizing Service Projects

The episode focuses on the importance of service, discussing two upcoming service events - the Ronald McDonald Walk and a special project from the Virtual Learning Academy with Jen Gibson, the Curriculum and Events Coordinator at Sage Oak, and Carleen Maurer, Assistant Principal for the Virtual Learning Academy. Jen shares about the experience of Sage Oak participating in the Ronald McDonald House charity walk, which supports children and families who rely on their life-changing services. Benefit from this charity helped shape personalized, home-based education options for a Sage Oak student battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Carleen speaks about a new initiative called 'One School, One Book', focusing on the book 'Long Walk to Water' which explores the struggle to secure clean water in third-world countries. She shares her personal involvement in building a water well in an impoverished community in Guatemala. The goal is to draw attention to global issues and contribute positively to them as part of Sage Oaks's core values.

00:14 Introduction to the Podcast
00:39 Meet the Guests: Jen Gibson and Carleen Maurer
01:30 The Importance of Service at Sage Oak
01:45 Upcoming Service Events: Ronald McDonald Walk and VLA Project
02:02 Deep Dive into the Ronald McDonald Charity Walk
03:59 The Impact of Ronald McDonald House
05:53 How to Get Involved in the Ronald McDonald Walk
07:14 Introducing the VLA Service Project: One School, One Book
10:05 Carleen's Personal Connection to the Cause
15:06 How to Participate in the VLA Service Project
16:48 Wrapping Up and Looking Forward

For more information, visit the Sage Oak website at www.sageoak.education.

Thank you for listening to the Sage Studio podcast presented by Sage Oak Charter Schools and hosted by Tiffiny Webster, M.A.Ed. We invite you to follow the show and leave your review below. Sage Oak Charter Schools is an independent study nonclassroom based TK-12 personalized learning public charter school serving students in Southern California. Visit sageoak.education for more information.

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Transcript

0:14

Welcome to another episode of Sage Studio. I'm Tiffiny Webster, and I'm really looking forward to today's podcast because it is all about service. And here at Sage Oak, service is such a high priority. And I'm so excited to introduce you to our guests today because they are really bringing some excellent service projects and opportunities to our families here at Sage Oak. I'm going to let them introduce themselves to you. Jen, Welcome to the podcast. Give everybody a little reminder of who you are and what you do here at Sage Oak. Sure. Thanks, Tiffiny. I'm Jen Gibson. I am the Curriculum and Events Coordinator at Sage Oak. And this is my second year in this position. Awesome. We appreciate all the work that you do here at Sage Oak to make sure our families are well equipped with the curriculum options and also in touch with all the details for the events that your team is putting together. So great to have you. On the podcast today and Carleen, welcome to our podcast. Introduce yourself. Thank you, Tiffiny. I'm so glad to be here. My name is Carleen Maurer. I am currently the Assistant Principal for our Virtual Learning Academy, which serves our TK through eighth grade virtual learning students. That's such a great program. And I know so many of our families really love everything that's going on at VLA. I am really excited to talk about service because as I mentioned at the beginning, you know, service is a part of our Sage Oak core values, giving back to the community also part of our student learning outcomes. So I know this is really an important topic for Sage Oak. So today, what we want to talk about is two events really that are happening this spring. One is the Ronald McDonald walk and another one is a special service project that our Virtual Learning Academy students are involved with. So Jen, I'm going to start with you. Tell us a little bit about the Ronald McDonald charity and the walk and just how did this all come to be something that Sage Oak participates in year after year? So it's an annual community fundraiser and supports the children and families who really rely on Ronald McDonald House for their life changing services. And the programs that they provide. So it's really the Sage Oak. It's a family friendly event. They really call on volunteers. companies, donors within local communities to join together and really help keep these families close when they really need it the most. At Sage Oak we started participating in the Sage Oak back in 2019. So that we're going on our fifth year. Okay. Wow. In 2019, we had a teacher who reached out and asked if she could organize a team event for the Sage Oak because she had a student who had utilized the Ronald McDonald house when he was diagnosed. with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age three. So fast forward a couple years and he was enrolled in Sage Oak. And really one of the reasons why he was enrolled in Sage Oak was because of the ability to school from home, that independent study aspect where he was not exposed to germs. it was a great opportunity for us to really showcase some of the things that we offer our students and personalization and then also get to create an opportunity for our families and our staff to really give back. And so we've been doing this since 2019. I've participated in a couple I've organized for the last couple years, but I've also been able to participate in the walk. a few times. It's really great. You just feel like you're part of this community of people who are just banding together to really support our families and our kiddos that really need it most. So it's so great that this is an opportunity to help raise funds for this great cause. And I want to just back it up a little bit. And, you know, for those that might be listening that are unfamiliar with the Ronald McDonald house, I know I myself was unfamiliar with it until I was a part of Sage Oak and learned more about it. Just tell us a little bit about what Ronald McDonald house does. To begin with, and then we'll talk about how that connects to our students. So what is the main supports that Ronald McDonald House gives to families? so many times the Ronald McDonald House will have locations set up near children's hospitals. So when kids are diagnosed and they are admitted to hospitals, they will offer rooms to families that so the families can then stay nearby because many times when a child is admitted to a children's hospital, it's not in, you know, the family's hometown. So they have to travel. And so they offer a place to stay. They offer hot meals. They offer support, camaraderie, you know, they're just in a space where they feel they're with people who are going through very similar things. And So that, that's really the main gist of the Ronald McDonald House is that they just support those families through these really trying times. Yeah I mean, I can see now how much that does align with Sage Oak and the support that we love to get our families, right, all all the time. And Being part of a charity that is designed to support families when they're going through a tough time or going through a struggle is very much in alignment with the core values. So I can see how knowing then that we had a student that was impacted by this, why they would bring it to, to Sage Oak. And I love that connection that you made was that not only did the charity support the family, but then Sage Oak was also able to support the family as it turned to more of the the place where the student was ready for some education, but needed it in a very personalized, special way that could be on their schedule and in a way that worked with the student's health requirements and things like that. So that's great to see that this really came together in those ways. Okay, so I love that. You said that if our families want to get involved, it's not just like a 1 day event or a 1 place event, they can look to our website as more information is posted and more dates come in about the various locations across Southern California where they could sign up to participate in these walks. Is that right? That's correct. And you know, we like I said, We try to We ask our staff to step up and become a team leader so even If we don't have team leaders for every location, anyone can go on to the Sage Oak website. They can donate, they can sign up, so it's $25 if you are 18 and above. 18 and older, it's 25 to walk. Kids 17 and under are free. Some locations also offer virtual walker options as well. So even if we don't have a team captain for certain locations, you can absolutely log on to the Sage Oak website and donate or participate individually. So good. Thank you so much for sharing that. It's such a great way for our families to get involved in our students to, to get involved with something that has impacted our school personally. I know we've also had teachers that have benefited from the Ronald McDonald house with their own families and their own children who. were going through some medical challenges. So really great to see that this organization really has a place in the heart of Sage Oaks, staff members and families for sure. So Carleen, now tell us a little bit about the service project that you are bringing to VLA because I know that service is something that you as an academy really prioritize. So tell us a little bit about the service opportunity that you guys are working on. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Tiffiny. So something new this year that the Virtual Learning Academy is taking part in is a program called One School, One Book. And this is a reading program that's designed really to reinforce reading instruction, increase parental involvement, and bridges the home-school connection. We really want to make a conscious effort of building a community between our school, our families, our teachers, and our staff. And so this is one way to do it. And our wonderful principal, Lana Beshara looked through the resources of one, one school, one book and decided to select a book called Long Walk to Water, which also has an affiliate book for the littles, the TK through second graders called Naya's Long Walk. Because she thought what a great way to align this program with our core value of service and the idea behind a long walk to water. It's really meant to explore the true story of a man from South Sudan who after the civil war broke out, lost family members and really struggled specifically to travel in order to acquire clean water. And so the book really dives into those issues of people all over the world in third world countries that don't have access to clean water. So along with the book Miss Beshara wanted to reach out to a program. That's called water for South Sudan that helps schools actually fundraise in order to raise money to not only build water wells across the world, but also repair water wells and just support the overall service mentality of providing clean water to more people around the globe. Wow, what a important cause and what a great awareness to bring to students. You know, I think something like clean water is something that is so easy to take for granted, right? Because it's so accessible to so many of us on a daily basis for so many of our different needs. And just really having to think about the impact that would make in your life if you couldn't access it with ease is just really is actually, very hard to fathom. So I think it's a great concept to bring to students. Great awareness to bring to those students. And I also do love that you diversified it with the different levels of text to go with this cause. So important. Now, aside from all of that incredible work that is happening to fundraise for this cause and bring awareness to this cause. I understand that you also just happen to have a personal connection to this cause as well. So tell us a little bit about your story and your connection to this. Yes. Thank you. I really do. Due to some medical things that happened in my life around 2014, I became extremely passionate about people having access to water and being able to hydrate their bodies and started thinking what if people didn't, weren't able to do that, you know? Sure. You're right. It's so hard to fathom, especially just living here in the United States. We don't really think about that. So along that journey and when with that passion that I was new to, I decided to research that and my family and I decided to raise money to support an organization that does build water wells across the globe for people. And we got so involved, and I became just so passionate about the cause that we actually raised enough funds to go with a team to Guatemala and be a part of building a water well for an impoverished community in Guatemala. Oh, my goodness. What was that experience like when you got to see firsthand the struggle that these people were going through? I mean, what does that actually look like? You can read about it. You can hear about it. But when you saw firsthand, what were you seeing? Yeah, it definitely was so eye opening and just incredible to me. What I saw was a community that had to travel probably about 10 to 15 miles to one river source that was the entire community's water source. And often the women would travel there with their children and try to bathe them in this. very contaminated river So much so that we saw mostly women with sores all over their body from the contamination, a lot of disease, a lot of dysentery A lot of Children that were sick. You know, they the community did try to boil water as much as possible, but just for having lack of resources to carry the water into order to boil it. That wasn't always possible. So it's significantly impacted. I would say mostly the health of that community, but also the safety because many times little children were tasked to make This trek, you know, alone to go get water for their families. That was very, I mean, it was just very impactful. I mean, and then on the flip side to then spend a week there and be able to build a water well. Which essentially just dug miles into the core of the earth. And there is enough water in the aquifers of our earth to provide for this family, which is just incredible to me as well. And it's there, it's just about access. Exactly. It's there. It's natural. They just didn't have the means to access. We watched this community pour money into seven different members of their community to let them take off work so that they could help us build this water well. And it was like the entire community was around us cheering us on. And It was magical. And then to finally break through and get that water was like the biggest party you would ever see. I mean, just little kids. It was like this shout of water from a hose that just started coming through almost like a fire hydrant. Wow. And just little kids running around and letting it, you know, soaking themselves in this clean water for the first time. And just everybody was emotional and, Oh, I can't even, I'm getting emotional listening to you tell the story because I just cannot imagine the joy that they would feel, the relief that they would feel, the security, the safety, like all of those emotions, right? Coming out all at one time, which is that, wow. What an incredible story. I can definitely see why you were moved by that and what an amazing thing too, that in this moment to have this service project aligned with that personal experience of yours. I mean, I just can't imagine anything that is more. Meant to be, I know I were talking about. I feel the same way. Tiffiny, as we were saying, you know, it's a huge coincidence if we could even call it that. But I had nothing to do with picking this project and then to come over to the Virtual Learning Academy and see that our service project has to do with providing clean water to a community is just amazing to me. And I'm so excited about it. So great. And you know what I love about you sharing your story and again, I appreciate you being so candid with it is, you know, it really does make that connection for our students there just is something so special in both of these service projects that we get together as a community, that we bring bring people together over shared causes and shared interests and shared desires to make an impact. And wow, it just goes to show you know, how much impact can really happen when a few people get together to, to pour themselves into a cause. So great. I love that. For both of these service projects if. Our families want to get a little bit more information. I'll start with you, Carlene. Where should they go to get more information on that project? We put out some information in our Sage News so if you didn't get that please check that out there is a link to follow where parents can get all of at home resources to read the book with their children. We will also continue to put the information in future Sage News publications. And then I would love for families to join us on April 19th. This is like our official launch. For our Sage Stage at 9 a. m. It's on a Friday at 9 a. m. And our Sage Stage is led by one of our very own VLA teachers, Miss Lake. She's fabulous and she will be interviewing a member of the organization from Water for South Sudan. So that will be a great opportunity just to learn more about that organization, what they do, how they help communities, and to see if parents want to be involved in this project. I love it. Awesome. So good. Sage Stage is always so much fun, and I'm sure that's going to be a great interview. And it's such a great way for the kids to connect as well, because Sage Stage is all geared towards students. And for this to really be a cause that can be at their level and show how their involvement really makes a difference is a great thing. So I'm glad to hear that you're having that guest on Sage Stage. Good idea. and if I could just say too, I think that it will be so great for students to read the book along with this, because then they will have more perspective of the need for communities to have access to clean water. For sure. Awesome. So good. Thank you both so much for being on the podcast today, sharing those stories and really all the work that you're doing to bring these service projects to Sage Oak. I know that our families really appreciate the chance to be involved. And obviously the communities that you're supporting are really going to be benefiting from all of this service and support. So thanks so much. Appreciate it. Always good to have you keep us posted on how both of these events go.