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February 9, 2014
Greetings,
When D. Esther Swain established The Swain School back in 1929, she made a conscious effort to instill 'good character' into the children in her school.
Today Mrs. Swain's legacy lives on in our "Virtue of the Month" program, just one component of our character education program. Through discussion, projects, activities, and 'teachable moments', our faculty help students explore a number of different virtues - for February it is "charity": helping others in need without expecting a reward.
Throughout the year the members of the Swain community engage in a number of activities - big and small - that focus on this important virtue. Here are just a few recent ones:
Book Exchange
Last month we asked families to go  through their books and contribute gently-used ones to our annual Book Exchange. What a great response we had!
Students could bring up to five books, and exchange them for the same number of 'new to them' books (right: Some PK kids found a good reading place in the coat cubby to look over their new books). They were welcome to bring more than five books, and many did - so many, that we needed John Getty's (dad of fifth grader Clara) big van to haul them away (below - before all 30 boxes of books were in it).
 Kristen Armstrong, our Head Librarian, arranged for the books to be donated to two local organizations. Some of the books went to a food pantry run by fourth grader Sebastian's grandmother, and the rest went to Judith's Reading Room, that supports literacy here and abroad.
Cathy Leiber, president and co-founder of Judith's Reading Room, wrote to Ms. Armstrong:
The books are wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Thank you to everyone who had a part in donating, collecting, sorting and boxing them up. I appreciate the HUGE effort that it took to get them to us.
The books are designated to go to:
- Books with CDs will go to their newest library in Bhutan. The school asked for children's books with CDs because they serve blind children.
- Multiple copies of Newbery books will go to their libraries at Boys & Girls Clubs in Philly, in Yunnan province in China, and to a brand new library they will open in the Philippines in the next couple of months as a result of a Peace Corps project.
- The baby board books will go immediately to Casa Guadalupe. They donate 400 used baby board books every month to Casa where they have a literacy initiative underway.
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Stuffed Animal Donation
While we were checking bookcases and closets for books to share, we were also looking for gently-used (and new) stuffed animals to donate.
 Thanks to the generosity of Swain families, we filled up an entire mini-van with our donations (left, just a few of the stuffed friends that will soon have new homes). The donations go to local emergency rooms and law enforcement agencies, to comfort children in times of distress.
Birthday Party Items
As we have for the past four years,  we solicited 'birthday party items' - such as cake mix, frosting, candles, paper goods, and decorations - in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. These were donated to the Northampton Area Food Bank, to help local families celebrate their own special days.
As always, our community made a generous response!
And a little closer to home...
 The old saying goes, 'Charity begins at home', and the Kindergartners in Ms. Hanlund and
Ms. Sesh's room have been asked to "plant seeds of kindness" - the children enjoy reporting when a classmate has done something nice for them, or another child. The 'seeds' have spouted into beautiful flowers higher up on the bulletin board, and they are growing deep, green roots - all the better to take hold and make "helping others" a life-long habit!
Thanks for reading this newsletter, and have a great week!
1100 South 24th Street Allentown, PA 18103
610-433-4542
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The Swain School
1100 South 24th Street
Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103 |
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The Swain School
1100 South 24th Street
Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103
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