Children, families in need

Community Christmas card designed to help school children

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

— Many children across northwest Arkansas awoke this morning in a cold, dark house.

No gas for heat, no electricity for cooking and no food in the cupboard.

People live in poverty in throughout northwest Arkansas.

The situation isespecially hard on school children, whose only warm coat may be a hand-me-down from the clothes closet or whose only pair of shoes were broken in by someone else.

The work of school nurses and social workers is to remove the barriers that exist in a child’s life that may impede learning.

The American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau states child poverty increased 5 percent in Northwest Arkansas from 2008 to 2009, Kellems said.

Child poverty in Arkansas is 27 percent. Northwest Arkansas is at 25 percent, according to the American Community Survey.

Children often turn to their teachers or school counselors to help them through life’s rough spots. It is those same teachers and counselors who step up to provide the clothes, shoes or food their students need. They, in turn, use money donated by readers of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers’ publications through the company’s annual Community Christmas Card campaign.

Help is needed again this year.

For every $2 donation, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers will publish the donor’s name in a full-page Community Christmas Card that will be published Dec. 25. Contributors can designate the school district they want to receive their donation.

It is a gift that gives long after the lights and ornaments are packed away.

Nurses, teachers, social workers or others use the money to help children throughout the year with needs, from shoes or coats to doctors’ visits tofood to take home on the weekends.

The money they spend comes in large part from the generosity of the readers.

School officials are reluctant to discuss specific cases because of privacy concerns.

News, Pages 1 on 12/01/2010