Friday, September 13, 2002
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Friday, September 13, 2002 |
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Bon L makes huge donation to school system Employees of the Bon L Manufacturing Company spent last week handing out about 1,700 pocket dictionaries - one for every third-grade student in the Coweta County School System. The generous donation is part of Bon L's commitment to education and work as a business partner with the Coweta County School System. It's an investment in the community and the school system, said Bon-L General Manager Don Moore. "We're glad to do it, and we hope to make this an annual thing. This is one way we can help improve schools and reading skills," said Moore. "I don't think the school system and the educational community working alone can do everything to solve problems." "We don't want to stand on the sidelines," said Moore. "We want to help, and this is our cause." Superintendent Peggy Connell was on hand to meet with Moore and Bon L Marketing/Product Manager Sam Harkness as the pair handed out dictionaries at Jefferson Parkway Elementary on Thursday. Bon L is specifically a business partner with Jefferson Parkway, as well as a long-time partner of the entire Coweta County School System. "The dictionaries are perfect for third grade, because this is where they start learning dictionary skills... it is a wonderful gift," said Dr. Connell. "Bon-L is a model of a school business partnership," said Connell. Connell said that Bon L involves itself in a reciprocal relationship with the school system, in that it supports the school system, with an eye toward involving itself in school improvement. "Its important to make sure that we are doing things that business needs for us to do," to help students be good employees and good citizens. On Thursday, Moore and Harkness visited each class at Jefferson Parkway, passing out dictionaries personalized with each student's name. They told each student about what Bon L does, and students learned a new phrase - "aluminum extrusion." "Do you know how a Play-doh fun factory works?" asked Moore. Students certainly knew how a ball of clay is squeezed out of a press through a die to make a long shape. "Well, that's what we do with aluminum," said Moore, to make parts for products like shutters and door frames and even the aluminum rims on the children's bicycles at home. "Reading and math are so important to our business," he told students. Moore and Harkness played dictionary games with each of the classes, giving out prizes to students who could look up difficult words the quickest and then read the definition aloud. The scene was played out in every third grade classroom in Coweta County, as Bon L employees visited every elementary school with dictionaries in hand. Bon L's Newnan factory displays "Thank You" cards from those classes today. "We're so pleased by the gift, but more so with the relationship we've enjoyed with Bon L for several years," said Jefferson Parkway Principal Sue Rickenbaker. "They were one of our first partners when opened nine years ago, and they still stay so involved." "I don't think that we would call it as much a gift as an investment," said Harkness. As a part of that investment and of Bon L's partnership, Harkness has served along with other Bon L employees in mentoring and tutoring roles in the school. He also serves on the school's new School Council, as a business partner. "Being a business partner is an opportunity for us," said Harkness. "It's tough for the educational community to do it alone - it takes a community." Aside from its commitment to the school system, Bon L's inspiration for the dictionary project was found in a Wall Street Journal article featuring a similar project in South Carolina. Also inspired by the project last school year was Virginia Bach's Adult Discussion Group Sunday school class at First United Methodist Church in Newnan. Bach and a group of fellow Sunday school class members purchased pocket dictionaries and donated them personally to Ruth Hill School's third grade classes. "I take the Wall Street Journal, and I saw the first article about what a woman had done in South Carolina," followed by three letters-to-the-editor saying they had followed the same thing in their community. "Our class decided we needed a community project either within or outside the church. So we decided on this project." "We wanted to donate the dictionaries before the end of the school year, so that students would have them in the summer and carry them over into the fourth grade," said Bach. Back - who is a former school librarian from California - knew that in many cases the dictionaries could be a help to spur an interest in education in parents as well as students, "so we agreed that was a double blessing." Just as Bach's class did last year, Bon L employee Mark Fields came by Ruth Hill last week to donate dictionaries to third graders at the school. "I think it's been a wonderful experience for our students to have received that kind of support from the church group and the Bon L company," said Ruth Hill principal Nancy Royal. "The visits in the classroom were great for the students also. And the dictionaries will certainly be put to good use." "We always appreciate this kind of community support and involvement," said Royal.
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