Principal of Indiana School Raises Money to Buy Her Students Shoes!

Dear Commons Community,

Here is a great holiday story about Nissa Ellet, the principal of Heth-Washington Elementary in Indiana, who upon seeing too many students with tattered shoes, initiated a fund-raiser to buy them new footwear. As reported in The Huffington Post:

“Nissa Ellet, principal of Heth-Washington Elementary in Indiana, became concerned for her students after noticing that many of them owned shoes that frequently needed mending, according to WDRB. So she did something about it.

“Throughout the year we have repaired — I can’t even tell you how many shoes,” Ellett told the WAVE3 News. “We’ve used duct tape and staples and I started really noticing this is a much bigger problem than I realized.”

Many students’ families had fallen on hard times in the past few years, and poverty had risen to about 75 percent at the school, according to WAVE3 News. So Ellett reached out to the community through social media for donations to go toward new tennis shoes for the children, calling her program, “Shoes For Students.” While her original goal was to raise $6,000, the community shattered her expectations.

“We ended up raising $17,000 so we expanded, we reevaluated … what else can we get for our students,” the principal told WDRB.

Along with new tennis shoes, Ellet used the money to buy snow boots, gloves, hats, scarves, a school hoodie and candy for every student, WHAS11 reported. And earlier this month, the excited children were brought to the gym for a special ceremony where they received their surprises. It was an event that left many kids in the Christmas spirit.”

We celebrate Ms. Ellet and educators like her throughout the country who understand that much of what our schools do for our children goes beyond academic matters.

Tony

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