BLACKSBURG, Va. – Margaret Beeks Elementary School in Blacksburg has started a care closet to help any of its students with their basic needs.
“As educators, we understand how important it is to have a child’s basic needs met before any learning can begin,” said Samantha Jones, special education teacher at the school. “We wanted to create a space that had all those essentials”
Margaret Beeks Elementary is supporting its school community with the creation of its Bear Cave Care Closet.
I talked to Jones about the care closet and she said they created it to give students and families immediate help with no questions asked.
“While we do have great programs that can provide great resources in the county, sometimes we need things right now,” said Jones. “So, we just wanted to be able to just come up the hall, pack them a bag, and make sure that they were good to go.” She said when the kids do not have to worry, they can then start to learn.
“A lot of kids maybe don’t want to come to school because they didn’t have clean clothes that day, or because they were too tired or hungry to make it to school,” said Jones. “We decided, you know what, if there is something we can fix at the school we want to do that.”
Principal, Dr. Megan Hawley showed me some of what they have in the care closet as she brought in some more donations.
She said she’s done this at a previous school and has seen how it can help.
“I saw the impact that it had on supporting our families,” said Hawley. “That school saw a great reduction in their chronic absenteeism”
Jones said having a program like this available to families is special
“It’s one more thing that we can take off the parents, and one weight that is lifted off of them so they can focus on the other stressors that they have at home,” Jones said.
Leaders with the school said anybody in the community can make a donation to the school to help the students.