Students helping students through Sparrow Club
About 300 students filed into the gym happy to be missing their last class of the day. An hour later many left with tears in their eyes after learning about one courageous student’s fight with brain seizures and what they could do to help her.
The Sparrow Club at Kellogg Middle School has adopted Kodie Wines-Burden, who has tuberous sclerosis and has to see a specialist in Cincinnati to have 10 tumors removed in her brain to stop the seizures. Club members plan to raise money to pay Kodie’s medical bills, help out by performing community service work.
There are 26 Sparrow Clubs nationwide. Founded last year, the Kellogg club is the first in North Idaho. The clubs encourage children to help other children in need – called a Sparrow – through community service and fundraisers.
Sparrow program director C.J. McPhail, who travels throughout the country, told the assembled Kellogg students about the club and how they can make a difference in Kodie’s life.
“I know each one of you have time and talents,” he said. “Every one of you got things you’re good at and things you’re not so good at. I’m giving you an opportunity to invest yourself with your time and talents, to invest yourself into the life of Kodie, because she needs your help.”
“This is huge for kids,” said Angie Colburn, a sixth-grade science teacher at Kellogg Middle School. “For kids who go ‘poor me, my life sucks,’ for those kids to see, ‘I have my health, I am not sick in bed’ and realize, ‘I can do the things I want to do.’ ”
Kids reaching out with compassion for someone else is just part of what the Sparrow Club is about.
There are three other components – to give purpose to a child, and to instill character and dignity by working in a community.
Finding a sponsor to put up the seed money of $4,060 is the hardest part, Colburn said. “Last year, Eagle Crest had agreed to put up the money in Bend, Ore., but didn’t have a child. So we called, and they said yes.”
Sponsors this year are Shoshone Medical Center and the Shoshone Medical Center Foundation, each donating $2,030. Half the money goes to the Sparrow to assist with medical bills and basic needs once the students perform 256 hours of community service. The other half provides educational support and materials on an administrative level.
A Sparrow voucher is given to each kid to record their community service and how many hours they worked. On the back of the voucher McPhail wants each student to write what helping Kodie meant to them. On stage with her mother, father, sister and grandparents, Kodie started crying knowing that each one of those students would tell her what it means to help her.
“It’s really touching,” said Kodie’s mother, Lynda Burden. “She is just overwhelmed that they chose her.”
After community service is performed, the Sparrow Club is encouraged to do additional fundraising directly benefiting the Sparrow family. Their first fundraiser is to collect the loose change from their pockets.
Everybody benefits from the program, Colburn said. The sponsors benefit by having their logo on the vouchers. The Sparrow benefits from an act of kindness, and the students learn communication, organizational and leadership skills.
“So many times, in schools and with kids,” said Colburn, “the people who get the most attention are the ones we call the 4-B’s, the beauty, the brawn, brain and bank account. With the Sparrow Club it gives those other kids a chance to shine through the 4-C’s – through caring, compassion, courage and their commitment.”
At the end of the assembly students lined up to hug Kodie, many with tears in their eyes.
“This is a blessing,” said Ariel Wines-Burden, Kodie’s sister.