Kids & Education

The fourth show in the series hosted by Brian Simmons features studio guests Mary Molsky of Beaumont Middle School who will speak about the Gummy Bears Club, promoting random acts of kindness throughout our state’s schools and how this is helping students with special needs better understand appropriate social skills. Karen Napier with Metro United Way will discuss the high school drop out rate and nonprofits working to educate our children. On-Location stories include Kentucky’s only children’s museum, the Explorium of Lexington and Kentucky Child Now’s statewide Great Kids Summit initiative.

Mary Molsky, a special education teacher at Beaumont Middle School, is also the founder of the original Kindness Is Power Club, The Gummy Bears. Created in 2007, the club has been recognized as an outstanding peer mentoring program throughout the state of Kentucky. Referred to as a model program in two research studies, a Kentucky State Legislative Research Commission and a University of Kentucky Doctoral Research study. This mentoring program whose motto is “Look With Your Heart” started with 12 children and today has grown to have more than 150 members. Watch This Clip Only

For more information on the Kindness Is Power Clubs please visit: http://staff.fcps.net/bmsgummybear

Karen Napier, the Director of Education Initiatives at Metro United Way, works closely with community-based agencies to provide technical assistance and other resources so that nonprofit agencies can help children from kindergarten through high school. Karen has over 20 years experience working in the non-profit arena and working for local and state governments including her work with First Lady, Jane Beshear and the Governor’s Office on the Graduate Kentucky Initiative.

For more information on the Graduate Kentucky Initiative please visit: http://www.graduate.ky.gov

Children’s museums are known for their large number of interactive exhibits and educational programming. Kids of ALL ages can engage in hands-on experiences making learning quite a bit of fun. Over 25 years ago, some very creative citizens in Lexington presented the idea of such a resource to the mayor. A whole lot of planning & development took place and in 1990 the state’s first and only children’s museum opened its doors. Renamed Explorium of Lexington in 2005, over 85,000 visitors tour the museum annually, and community programs inspire another 10,000 children from schools throughout central Kentucky. Since 1990, over one million visitors have enjoyed nine discovery zones filled with interactive exhibits designed to inspire imagination and curiosity. Watch This Clip Only

For more information on the Explorium please visit: http://www.explorium.com

GoodGiving.net:

Reading Camp‘s mission is to conduct summer camps for low-income and at-risk children that incorporate a holistic approach to literacy education. They aim to empower and encourage children to be strong readers, engaged students, and responsible members of their communities. In the last three summers, Reading Camp served over 400 children who are at least one grade level behind in reading, and over 90% receive free or reduced lunches. One week of camp provides over 15 hours of intensive remedial literacy education, along with afternoon enrichment activities which are incorporated into the literacy learning process.

For more information or to donate to Reading Camp please visit: https://readingcamprocks.org/

The mission of the Wilderness Trace Child Development Center in Danville, Kentucky is to provide educational and therapeutic services to children, from birth through five years of age, with and without disabilities. These high quality, intensive services and therapies in an inclusive and natural environment serve children from Boyle, Lincoln, Garrard, Mercer, Casey, Jessamine and Pulaski Counties. The impact of these services includes better communication, gross and fine motor skills as well as improvements in overall sensory ability. Wilderness Trace Child Development Center is working to receive an increase charitable giving so that they may expand preschool programming and begin a specific and comprehensive strategic planning process .

For more information or to donate to Wilderness Trace please visit: www.wtcdc.org

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For other segments from this episode click here, here, or here.