Beloved Community On Ice

by Kyle Lambelet

Dec. 5, 2007

What do skating fish, community-based education, and Beloved Community have in common? An evening of celebration and community building for students and education organizers Arletha Jowers and Erica Mayo.

On Friday, November 30th, Arletha and Erica rewarded eight students from Gilespie Elementary and Jones Elementary with a trip to Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo. While it may seem a little out of place, within the context of the ongoing education organizing emerging from the Beloved Community Center it presented an opportune moment to connect students, parents, and community members in celebrating positive school engagement.

Erica reflected, "I feel like taking these children showed the parents that we are taking responsibility with them for their children."

The fourth and fifth graders were chosen both to reward good behavior and growth as well as to give children an experience they may not have otherwise had.

"It gives the kids an incentive, something to look forward to, something they never would have gotten to experience except for the BCC," shared Arletha. "The surprising thing to me was that some of these kids never get out of their side of town, it was good to expose them to something they wouldn’t have been able to be exposed to. That is in itself building a sense of community: doing something for someone that they wouldn’t have been able to do for themselves."

Erica and Arletha plan to use this experience to continue building a coalition of teachers, parents, students, and community members to encourage the educational system to be accountable to parents and the wider community.

For more information on this ongoing work, contact Erica or Arletha at the Beloved Community Center (336) 230-0001.

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