Kids dig deep for swimsuit drive
A bright blue plastic pool tub filled with swimsuits and trunks and 47 kindergartners lined up to each drop one or two pieces of swimwear into a plastic bag for the Spokane Parks Foundation. It was just the way Jefferson Elementary School teacher Renee Rolando wanted the school year to end – with kids helping kids.
“I really just wanted to teach them about how kids can help each other,” she said. With her morning and afternoon kindergarten classes collecting swimsuits for the past two weeks, the foundation can now donate 76 swimsuits in addition to the monetary contributions already collected. Frank Knott, a board member of the foundation, handed out free coupons for a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream cone to the children.
“This is the first time a classroom has done this,” he said. Knott said that the foundation will allot another $5,000 or $6,000 for swimsuit purchases, but these 76 suits are the first the foundation received this summer. He had talked with Rolando before about the drive, but he never expected to see so many swimsuits.
“Our goal was to raise 50,” said Rolando, who sent a notice to parents telling them about the drive. “We needed about nine more swimsuits so I sent out a second notice, and then it was just this explosion of swimsuits.”
The drive, titled “Help us keep the kids wet this summer,” is in its third year – an initiative taken by the foundation after a 2003 Washington state regulation required swimmers to wear swimsuits rather than shorts. Mary Butler, executive director for the foundation, said that the policy was instated for hygiene reasons but took a lot of kids out of the pools.
“It really excluded a lot of kids, and swimming is a big deal here in Spokane,” she said. The foundation has done swimsuit drives in malls before, but never has she seen a donation like this. “We’ve never had this many suits come in at once. This probably makes up for more that 20 percent of what we get in.”
Ethan Goins, 6, and Josh Davis, 6, presented the swimsuits to Butler and Knott at an informal ceremony Wednesday.
“They are for people who don’t have swimsuits on a really hot day,” said Davis, “because then they’d be hot all day.”
The boy contributed Spider-Man and American flag swim trunks.
Rolando said that community service isn’t new for Jefferson Elementary School. Students in higher grades have raised money for wells in Africa and contributed to local food drives before.
“The kids have a sense of community service here,” she said, but she added she has an exceptional group of students. “This is not a normal kindergarten class.”