Schools pitch in to help students in need

Schools in the Clark County School District go above and beyond traditional services to help their most needy students. Like parents, they teach them, feed them, clothe and clean them and often go unrecognized.

Whitney Elementary School principal Sherrie Gahn has worked for years to help feed and clothe her students, about 85 percent of whom are homeless. The school, at 5005 Keenan Ave., received national attention in recent months after being featured on comedian Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, which led to a $100,000 donation from Target. Teen pop singer Justin Bieber is scheduled to perform at the school Friday and is expected to make a donation.

Gahn's efforts have paid off and will benefit students for years to come.

Some schools have not yet caught their big break. Hollingsworth Elementary School, 1776 E. Ogden Ave., is one of them.

One in five students at Hollingsworth is homeless. About 98 percent of students are in the free and reduced lunch program, and every student receives a free breakfast. A second-floor closet contains clothing, school items and hygiene supplies.

Every student receives a backpack at the beginning of the year with school and hygiene supplies.

The school also has sleeping bags that it gives to kids without a bed. Kids with vision problems can receive free glasses, and every kid gets annual teeth cleanings at an on-site dental office.

"My kids are children of poverty," said principal Diana Albiston. "We have some kids come to school with no socks, no underwear. We do as much as we can. We do a lot of things outside of just basic education."

The district also receives help from Three Square food bank, 4190 N. Pecos Road, to feed its students. The food bank provides after-school meals at 25 sites for students who might not get dinner otherwise. The Kids Café program, which started in 2009 with about 475 meals a day, is up to 2,500 meals, said Three Square spokeswoman Brittany Markarian.

Three Square also provides food for over the weekend for Hollingsworth students and those at more than 220 other schools as part of its BackPack for Kids program.

Students receive 11 different shelf-stable, kid-friendly items that are enough food for six meals. The program started in 2008 with 300 bags of food at 10 schools. Now Three Square gives out more than 7,000 bags each week and expects the number to grow to 8,000 by the end of the school year.

Markarian said the need is much greater, as more than 150,000 students qualify for free lunch.

For more information or to donate to Three Square, visit threesquare.org.

Schools also accept donations from the public. Coats, scarves, gloves, hats and blankets are in high demand for winter break, Albiston said.

Contact View education reporter Jeff Mosier at jmosier@viewnews.com or 224-5524.