AIRAN SCRUBY
News Editor
Underprivileged preschoolers were met with games, bounce houses, a fire truck and smiling Pepperdine volunteers Tuesday for Jumpstart for a Day.
“It gives the kids an opportunity to see a life outside of their world,” junior and Jumpstart Corps member Rebekah Adams said.
Adams and 105 other Pepperdine students, volunteer to spend time with preschoolers in Santa Monica, Malibu and Reseda twice each week. Visiting schools in teams of five to nine individuals, Corps members engage kids in a one-on-one learning environment.
Jumpstart for a Day, an annual campus event, allows the preschoolers, who meet with Jumpstart volunteers regularly, to see Corps members’ school.
This year, 300 children were invited to the event from 11 early education centers, together with their teachers and parents.
“It was one of the smoothest events I’ve worked at. The kids were excited for weeks to come out,” Jumpstart coordinator Nichole Flores said.
Sesame Street character Elmo was available for hugs. The Pepperdine Fire Department workers brought a truck and equipment. In addition, Jumpstart Corps member teams created two activity booths with either games or crafts based on a children’s book, to create a carnival.
Evelyn, 4, is a preschooler from St. Joseph Center who is part of the Jumpstart program.
“I was fishing, climbing and seeing some books, and I saw a fire truck,” Evelyn said.
Bounce houses were also brought in, and the Caf catered box lunches for the children, teachers, parents and volunteers who participated.
Stephanie Fairell is a teacher with Lincoln Child Development.
“The kids had a lot of fun. It was their first fieldtrip, and they really enjoyed it,” Fairell said.
New to this year’s event was a free book, in either English or Spanish, for every child who attended.
First Book, an organization that helps children from low-income families to develop personal libraries at home, provided grants for each group of Corps members at Pepperdine to provide each child in the program with six books over the course of the school year.
Though the participating preschoolers arrived on campus by school bus at 9:45 a.m., Jumpstart Corps members were working to set up the event and prepare for their guests at 5:30 a.m.
“It started off really early, before light was even showing, but it’s all worth it,” said freshman Nicholas Bardales said.
Worries about a forecast of possible rain persisted until the night before the event, but the weather eventually cleared.
“We were so excited,” Flores said. “It was a beautiful day.”
Jumpstart was started in 1993 at Yale University. The program includes more than 9,000 preschoolers and 2,500 college students nationwide.
Jumpstart is in its fourth year at Pepperdine and requires a one-year commitment from volunteers. Flores said the program on campus has grown by about 30 percent this year, and Pepperdine students are visiting preschools in Reseda for the first time.
Georgina Becerra, the mother of one participant, has two other children who participated in the program during preschool. Her son, Joseph, 4, said he wants to come back to Pepperdine again.
“It’s a good experience, I think,” Becerra said. “I think it’s great for the kids to see all of this.”
03-23-2006