Talking with Swift Creek Principal Bob Umstead about Volunteers
November 30, 2009 - Swift Creek Elementary Principal Bob Umstead says that volunteers are important for every school. Umstead answers questions about volunteering at Swift Creek Elementary.What is your philosophy on volunteers?
UMSTEAD: My philosophy is similar to that saying that it takes a village to raise a child. I think it could very easily be said that it takes a village to teach a child. So our philosophy is to get as many people involved in helping the students of our school as possible.
How do you do that?
UMSTEAD: Well, we do that by a lot of means. We first offer training for parents so that they feel comfortable coming in and helping, but we also have grandparents and aunts and uncles that come in and help us. We have some outside folks that come in and help us. We have folks from the Rotary Club, a Helping Hands mentor that comes in. We have some NC State students that come and help with us. The biggest piece is doing the training so that they feel comfortable coming in and helping the students.
When you talk about help, what sort of things are you talking about? Is this mainly classroom instruction activities?
UMSTEAD: A good majority of it is that. We feel that one-on-one and small group time is very critical for students and parent volunteers can help provide that for them which helps differentiate the learning and work on the needs for the individual students.
But there are a lot of other things volunteers do.
UMSTEAD: There’s a tremendous amount of things that they do. Sometimes they just come into the classroom and help teachers with organizing, get the Tuesday folders ready to be sent home. Sometimes, they’re here helping with committees for the PTA, doing fundraising. There’s a variety of opportunities for a parent to come in. It doesn’t have to just be instructional. There’s a lot of things they can come and do to support the school.
There are big events that the school puts on. Volunteers are active in helping with them.
UMSTEAD: Our biggest fundraising event is our Cougar Fun Run. It takes a lot of volunteers for that to happen because we try to do all of our fundraising with that one event. It goes on all school day long. We probably have 150 or more volunteers that come out and help with that particular event.
How important is to encourage different groups such as businesses or churches to help schools?
UMSTEAD: We are very fortunate here. My school guidance counselor goes out and gets business sponsors that actually sponsor every classroom in our building for $150. That provides materials for each classroom. But she also gets some of those same people to come in and volunteer their time helping in classrooms, or with our events. We have some other businesses that are close by that always provide help. Several businesses came out for the Cougar Fun Run to help support the volunteer effort. We have a church that’s just around the corner. Once a month, a circle of women there provide goodies for every one of our teachers. It makes our teachers feel valued by the community.
Does the community get insight into the school by volunteering in the school?
UMSTEAD: I think that’s a big piece because they get a chance to come in and see the school culture, understand your mission and vision and really see what a school day is like. They have a greater appreciation for what goes on in a school, what the challenges are for the teachers and other staff members in the school.
What should people know about volunteering?
UMSTEAD: If they are interested in volunteering and maybe concerned because they don’t know what to do, we provide training for that. They can come, contact us and we can get the training set up for that. There’s a lot of things people can do besides coming into the school. Sometimes parents don’t have the opportunity to come to the school during the school day, but they can send in supplies for the classroom that the teacher may need, or do other things that the teacher may be requesting through newsletters so that they are involved in the classroom without stepping foot in the door.
Anything else you want to tell us about volunteering?
UMSTEAD: “I don’t think any of our schools in Wake County would be as successful if we didn’t have our parent volunteers doing the support that they do because they provide an extra person to help work with students. Particularly now that we have had cutbacks in the classroom, I think that volunteers are more critical than they have ever been.”
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