Area residents are making teachers’ wishes come true. Through donations as inexpensive as glue sticks and disinfectant wipes or as expensive as teachers’ chairs and cassette recorders, the community’s generosity is filtering into classrooms across the Emporia school district.
The district’s “Grant-a-Wish” program began last year, according to Nancy Horst, USD 253’s community relations director.
Dave Leiker, web and electronic media manager, wrote the program for the two-sided system that allows the community to look at the wish list while simultaneously providing a private side for teachers to submit their wishes via e-mail to their principals.
“Once a principal approves it, it automatically goes on the board,” Leiker said.
The board is posted on the Grant-a-Wish page of the district’s web site. A list of wishes that have been granted also appears within that section. Names of the donor are listed adjacent to the item; however, donors may choose to remain anonymous.
Response to the project has been good, Leiker said.
For Andy Battenfield, having his wish granted meant giving his students health tools they could use throughout their lives.
Battenfield, a physical education teacher at Lowther South Intermediate School, had requested an Omcron 306 Body Fat Analyzer. Until Williams Automotive responded with a donation, Battenfield had to resort to using a Body Mass Index calculation. The BMI correlates height and weight to determine the percentage of body fat in an individual. The results often were unreliable, Battenfield said. He cited Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example of that unreliability. At the height of his bodybuilding career, Schwarzenegger’s mass of muscles raised his weight considerably.
“If you would have calculated his BMI at that time, he would have been grossly overweight,” he said. Battenfield needed something that would provide more accurate results, and the Omcron Body Fat Analyzer seemed to be the answer.
The Omcron uses a small electrical impulse that zips from one hand, through the body, to another hand before producing a readout on body fat. The faster the impulse travels, the higher the body fat reading.
“The electricity travels faster through fat than with muscle,” Battenfield explained.
Those percentages give Battenfield knowledge that helps him structure his classes to suit the health needs of the students, both now and in the future.
“I can change my program,” he said. “Hopefully, I can teach them how to lower their body fat. ... They can take that with them and use that the rest of their lives.”
Other teacher’s wishes also have been granted by individuals and businesses alike. Horst said that the Grant-a-Wish program also provides a good opportunity to Christmas shop for teachers.
“Lots of times the kids will want to get the teachers something for Christmas, and we said, ‘You might want to go online and see if that teacher wants something,’” she said.
Wishes currently posted on the web site include 35mm film, peanut-free snacks, fun stickers to use as rewards, bowls for science experiments, double-sided rolling easels, simple books written in Spanish and a variety of other needs. The full list can be seen at https://www.usd253.org/wishes/.
“Lots of wishes,” Leiker said, “no waiting.”