Vashon Partners in Education (PIE) continues its support of teachers and students through its annual phone-a-thon, which takes place Oct. 9 to 11. Since its inception, PIE‘s mission has been to support programs that enrich the standard curriculum. By funding grant requests written by individual teachers and students, your donation goes directly to the classroom.
It has been a long-standing tradition for islanders to donate their time and money to ensure an excellent education for our children. PIE partners with other organizations to deepen the educational experience and make teachers’ dreams come true. PIE helps to fund the Vashon Center for the Arts’ program, Artists in the Schools. Visual artists, actors, photographers, musicians and multi-media specialists collaborate with teachers to create new ways to experience and understand specific curriculum at all levels in all three schools.
Through this program, storyteller Merna Hecht taught my students how to interview island elders and turn those interviews into narrative plays to educate other students about life during the 1930s and 1940s. The tradition of learning from our elders continues today through a PIE grant that partnered with the Vashon Heritage Museum. During the past school year, seventh graders studying Washington state history, participated in the “Up Close and Personal” program. McMurray teachers worked with island experts to offer a series of field trips to historic sites on Vashon, giving the students “living” history lessons.
Hands-on experience is the best kind of learning. From small to large grants, your donations to PIE have made that possible. Last year, second graders worked with cedar bark and discovered how Native Americans used natural resources for practical purposes. In conjunction with the local Audubon Society, PIE helped fourth graders to take a birding field trip to KVI and to visit the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge to observe native birds. Students in the entire Vashon High School biology and Advance Placement Environmental Science classes participated in Vashon Nature Center’s hands-on-science projects, collecting data in the field.
Your donations funded requests for specific books in all three schools, enriching the collection of books with a human rights focus at Chautauqua, “Exploring an Everchanging World” at McMurray and augmenting the selection of books aimed at supporting the social studies department at Vashon High School. These specific program requests came directly from our school librarians and are vital to maintaining the quality of our school libraries.
Since 1987, you have donated over $1.3 million and helped PIE fund more than 1,300 grants. We look forward to speaking with you on the telephone, or you may make a donation at vashonpie.org. Thanks so much for your continuing support.
— Martha Woodard is a former teacher and PIE board member.
