The End of Summer Means Back to School

School starts next week. And soon most children across the state will be back in a vaguely familiar world.  Teachers, secretaries, aides, food service professionals and staff will become regular fixtures, working as the backbone to our children’s success. Successes both present and future.

Bellewood children across the state in residential treatment, transitional and independent living programs and therapeutic foster care attend school like other children. They learn geography and math, love taco Tuesdays and still pretend to not understand Shakespeare. To our children at Bellewood, school is a steady facet of daily activities in a not-so-stable life.

Our first job at Bellewood is to make our children and families feel safe and feel loved. Our second responsibility is to give them hope for the future by educating them now.  There are no shortcuts in that job.

In a 2009 speech to Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, President Obama said to a group of students, “Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.”

We invite you to take a few moments and write an encouraging note to our children and wish them luck and support during this upcoming school year. Tell them that what you’re doing is worth it. Tell them that there is nothing more important than getting an education. Remind them that math is still important and reading is priceless.

Notes will be posted around Bellewood for our students and staff to see. Write it below or you can handwrite a note and send it to Ryne Dunkelberger, 11103 Park Road, Louisville, KY 40223.