You may not even know what that means. My four children attend a Title 1, public school. To qualify as a Title 1 School, at least 50% of your students must qualify for free or reduced lunch. At White Oak Elementary School, about 70% receive free or reduced lunch. The U.S. Department of Education provides supplemental funding to local school districts, like ours, to meet the needs of at-risk and low-income students and bridge the gap created by poverty.

I didn’t really understand poverty until I enrolled my children in public school. Children sleep on couches routinely and where I would have once thought to find them a bed, now I know that there is no room in the inn for a bed. Children are hungry, really hungry and unlike my picky children, they eat their school lunch in its’ entirety. Homework doesn’t always get done and now I know that many places called home have no quiet spot, no desk, not even a pencil.

Field trips.

A substantial number of our kids have never gone further than the county line. Almost 70% of our children have never set foot in a zoo or an aquarium. They will have a chance this Spring though, the field trips are planned and now we need to raise the money. This Fall we raised money for swimming lessons and children that were petrified of the water learned to swim across a pool, half of them had never been in a pool that was any bigger than one purchased from Rose’s.

Real life in Edenton is not all charming history and home tours. No, it is poverty and hungry children and wonderful schools and outstanding teachers struggling to provide everything. It’s been twelve years since our school received local moneys designated for field trips. If we want our kids to see the world beyond their bus routes, then we must raise the money ourselves and so, our PTA has set up a go fund me page.

And, if you wonder why I use my blog as a diving board for a field trip fundraiser at my children’s school? Quite simply, I’ve witnessed the wide eyes of a child catching their first glimpse of the sea.

Checks made payable to: WOS PTA Address: White Oak Elementary 111 Sandy Ridge Road

Edenton, NC 27932

Also, can contribute to WOS Go Fund Me!
https://www.gofundme.com/white-oak-elementary-field-trip-fu…