YCS board members, superintendent echo support for booster clubs and volunteers

Two of Yelm Community Schools’ board directors, Debbie Edwards and Denise Hendrickson, along with Superintendent Chris Woods, echoed their support and strong sentiments toward booster clubs and volunteers throughout the district during a school board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 9.

The discussion took place during the “acceptance of gifts” portion of the school board meeting, which occurred in Yelm High School’s library. Before the Yelm School Board could unanimously approve the acceptance of three donations, Edwards, Hendrickson and Woods thanked the community groups and citizens for their help and support.

The Geo Group donated $500 to Yelm High School girls basketball, while YHS Connects Booster for the YHS choir donated $7,519. Additionally, Brett Vanslyke donated $420 to the YHS CTE auto department.

“I have always, and always will, support the booster clubs. I started out as a booster club (member) many years ago,” Edwards said. “The elementaries have boosters, and we support the middle school, the elementaries, and last year, the booster club at the high school has had to do more than ever in my memory. We applaud them, and I appreciate all that the boosters do — you’re a volunteer, we’re volunteers — and your time and your commitment and your passion.
“I don’t know how the rumor got started, but my gosh, it’s a lie because we always have supported the boosters,” she added.

Like Edwards, Hendrickson also volunteered within YCS, doing so at McKenna Elementary when her son was a young student. She thanked those volunteers for their efforts and recalled many Christmas in the Park events where she was handing out hot dogs and hot chocolate on her birthday.

“I started out, my son was in kindergarten, first grade at McKenna, and I started volunteering doing the old fisherman’s breakfast at McKenna Elementary, and man did it smell good,” Hendrickson said. “I completely support the booster clubs and all that they do.

“We could not do the things that we do in this community without our volunteers,” she added. “So if somebody ever tells you that we don’t appreciate our booster clubs, our volunteers in our schools, come and see me. I’ll tell you how important they are.”

The superintendent believes, moving forward, every district is going to be making cuts “no matter what” — with or without levy dollars. Woods noted that YCS will have to continue partnering with the community as a whole in order to continue providing opportunities for students in Yelm.

“I just want to say thank you to the groups on here,” Woods said. “We have a lot of people in our community working very hard to raise funds for our students. These are people that I think are very strong supporters of our schools, supporters of the levy, and supporters of doing whatever needs to be done to help our students. It’s unfortunate we’re in this situation we’re in, but out of this, I think there’s been some positive, and that positive has been the participation of our volunteers, whether it’s boosters, PTA, PTO. I think many of our staff across the district would say that many of our volunteers are there just as much as they are.”

The next YCS board meeting will occur at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23 at the YCS District Office. An agenda will be released at ycs.wednet.edu in the days leading up to the meeting.