Thomas (Tom) Morgan Hometown Realty, Inc. GMAC Real Estate

Hi,

I promised I'd let you know when I got the website for Southwest Mississippi Christian Outreach Ministries up and running. Well, it's now online. Here is the address: http://www.swmsoutreach.org/ . We hope to add our PayPal account to the website soon (for donations). In the meantime, please see my previous blog on SWMSCOM . Thank you!

Coach Sam West, the new athletic director at McComb High School, spoke recently to the Kiwanis Club of Pike County. He recognized several similarities between Kiwanis and his own mission. "Being the athletic director at McComb High School, I live and die for one thing: I want to help children and adults alike have extraordinary, life-changing moments." One of the things begun at MHS this year is a scholar athletes program. "Every student who has a 3.0 GPA or higher from last year, we're going to have a big pizza party for them. We're going to give them all T-shirts with ‘McComb High School Scholar Athletes' on them, with different symbols and signs for the different sports. We've also started back our FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) again, and we believe if we can get FCA grounded and rooted back into the school system, and really put Christ, really put God, back where He needs to be in the school," West said, significant changes will be seen in the students' lives. "We meet every Tuesday morning at 7:25, and on some of those Tuesday mornings, we would love for you prayer warriors to come, and you don't have to say a word, just walk the halls and lay hands on teachers' doors. And whatever of God's spirit you've got on you, allow that spirit to just saturate and marinate that high school or junior high."

MHS scholar athletes are also involved in a reading program, where they will go into Otken and Kennedy and visit classrooms and read, "and just let the little kids see them," West said. West noted that reading to children is another way his scholar athletes program is similar to that of Kiwanis.

"We also want to make sure that our teams are very competitive. We have outstanding coaches who are able to discipline and motivate players, and can communicate to parents and the community," West said. "I'm from Natchez, and all my life there was a rivalry between Natchez and McComb like you've never seen, because of one reason: we both had green and gold! And we wanted to focus on why our green and gold was better than your green and gold!"

"The bottom line is, we want to make sure in McComb High School and the whole school district, in terms of athletics, that we're able to reach children right where they are, and take them to a level they've never been to before. We want to let everybody know that we're really serious about what we're doing." West concluded with a Biblical reference: "One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Job. If you search the scriptures real close, you'll see that on each of three occasions (when bad things happened to Job), one person was left to run and tell Job what happened. See, to me, a Kiwanis Club is that one person-there are things you can do, places you can go, people you can touch that others can't."

West also brought copies of the book Y'all vs. Us, a recently published book about fifteen Mississippi high school rivalries. In the book is a chapter devoted to McComb vs. Brookhaven. (They play again in McComb on September 19, 2008, by the way!) The athletic department is selling them for $34.95 as a fundraiser. A portion of all book sales also benefits the Mississippi High School Activities Association. The book is available with fifteen different covers, one for each athletic rivalry. Be sure to get yours now!

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he Mayor's Youth Council (Mayor Zach Patterson, McComb, Mississippi) has been actively involved in strengthening our community since its inception in April of 2008. The thirteen young people on the council represent all the area high schools. They have been developing their leadership skills through formal training and a number of volunteer community service projects, and they have a developing slate of events scheduled for the rest of the year.

Training for McComb's youth council members began with the first annual MML (Mississippi Municipal League) Statewide Youth Leadership Summit in Hattiesburg on May 1, 2008. Members also attended the 77^th annual MML Youth Track conference in Biloxi on June 24. Additional training has included the Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Service three-day leadership camps in Vicksburg and Florence, MS. They have also received public speaking training from the Toastmasters of Pike County.

Mayor's Youth Council members at the MML Youth Track conference in Biloxi, with McComb Mayor Zachary Patterson. Photo by Cornelia Gayden.

Members participated in the Keep Pike County Beautiful Great American Cleanup on two occasions in the spring, and they recently partnered with United Blood Services to assist in their blood drive projects. A major community service project continuing through October 10, 2008, is the 1,000 Toothbrushes Project for the American Red Cross. Members of the public are asked to donate new, unopened toothbrushes. The donated toothbrushes will be placed in comfort bags to be used in the event of a disaster. Drop-off locations are McComb School District's Tiger Activity Complex (TAC), McComb Sports Park, and the main offices of McComb and North Pike High Schools.

Upcoming events planned for the Mayor's Youth Council are the following:

*Monday, Sept. 22 at 5:30 PM-Officers and members will be introduced at the city board work session, at which the officers will make a formal presentation.

*Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 12 PM, Days Inn of McComb-Officers Donovan Hill and Morgan Smith will give a formal presentation to the Kiwanis Club of Pike County.

*Saturday, Oct. 4 at 8:30 AM, Edgewood Park-Members will turn in the money they have raised for the March of Dimes and will participate in the March for Babies.

*Saturday, Nov. 1, Edgewood Park-Members will operate a teen awareness booth at the Camellia City Festival.

*Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2:00-6:00 PM, Tiger Activity Complex (TAC)-- Members will operate a teen health and wellness awareness booth for the Student/Community Health Fair.

An important goal of the Mayor's Youth Council is increasing communication between the city's young people and the city council members. Youth members, with the support of adult mentors, develop and lead community initiatives affecting young people. Members also train and involve their peers in service leadership.

As an expression of association with the city board, the Mayor's Youth Council meets at the Tiger Activity Complex (TAC) on the second and fourth Mondays at 7 PM, the same time city work sessions are held. Cornelia Gayden is the steering committee chairman. Officers are as follows:

Chairman: Donovan Hill, McComb High School
Vice Chairman: Donnisha Young, North Pike High School
Secretary: Charlene Green, South Pike High School
Parliamentarian: Morgan Smith, Parklane Academy
Historian: Quartavia Winding, McComb High School

New members of the Mayor's Youth Council. Photo by Cornelia Gayden.

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Are you looking for a way to help others in need? Then Southwest Mississippi Christian Outreach Ministries (COM) needs you! At a recent meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Pike County, members heard how COM serves our community in a number of ways, from running a thrift store and food pantry to assisting home fire victims and providing job training to area women.

Inside the thrift store.

The thrift store, located in Pike Center Mart along with the rest of the outreach ministries’ facilities, may well be the neatest, best-organized collection of thrift items you’ll find anywhere! The staff at COM will gladly receive your gently used items to add to the store. If either you or someone you know is moving, and would like to lighten your load, consider donating furniture, appliances, dishes, cookware, bedding, or towels, along with clothing!

COM Director Jean Spring related to the club that the food pantry is serving more and more elderly people as the cost of living increases. Food donations are always needed, whether it’s frozen deer or hamburger meat or canned foods or cereal. Spring suggests donations of canned soft goods, such as stews, tuna, and fruit that are easy on the teeth of elderly clients. Monetary donations are also always welcome!


The food pantry.

The word ministries in the organization’s name has real meaning. The entire mission is a Christ-centered one. The group offers free Bibles and Christian literature to anyone who visits their operation. They also pray with clients and offer the plan of salvation to them. The staff at COM also offers assistance (by appointment) to those who need help with paying for medications and utilities, along with food and clothing. Client interviews are conducted first to determine the individual’s needs. “We do not assist people just because they come in and want their light bill paid for them; that’s not the way we operate,” Spring said. In some extreme emergency situations clearly beyond an individual’s control, the mission will help out in unplanned ways. “If God says do it, we just do it” Spring noted.

The mission is also active in a nursing home ministry, providing various items needed by patients who have no family that can or will assist them with their personal needs. “We currently have fifty-seven nursing home residents just in Pike and Amite County that we are serving. Some of these residents do have family, but they just choose not to go by and check on them,” Spring said. One of Spring’s favorite services to the nursing home residents is the “general store” set up at the nursing home, where patients are given Monopoly money to “purchase” groceries and other items. “You haven’t lived until you see about 25 wheelchairs lined up with their Monopoly money waving, ready to go shopping!”

Another unfilled need many people probably are not aware exists in this area is that of a homeless shelter. “On three occasions, I have walked out to our back loading dock area to find that someone had made a bed there. They had stuck boxes around them to keep the wind off,” Spring recalled. “It happens in big cities, but it shouldn’t happen here in McComb, Mississippi.” The mission would like to open a homeless shelter, and is looking for the right building. If you or someone you know has the means and desire to donate a house that can be used for a shelter, Mrs. Spring would love to hear from you!

In addition to the above-mentioned services, COM aids the public by providing disaster relief to both victims and emergency workers, and providing motel accommodations during emergency situations.

Next on the agenda at the Kiwanis Club meeting were representatives of the Christian Women’s Job Corps (CWJC), a women’s training service operating under the umbrella of COM. Edith Parkman is the CWJC site coordinator, and Shari Mancuso is her assistant. Established in 1994 by the Southern Baptist WMU (Women’s Missionary Union), the job corps takes a “Christ-centered approach to preparing women for whatever comes to them in life,” Parkman said. The service is greatly needed today because so many women today are heads of households. The CWJC combats the “welfare mentality that is passed down from generation to generation. It’s time for that to stop,” asserted Parkman.

The CWJC is composed solely of Christian women helping women. “Women are able to understand other women, listen, and feel what a women feels” in a way that men cannot, Parkman noted. There are three main goals of the CWJC: 1. to bring the women into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (prospective participants must agree to attend Bible study classes to qualify for the program), 2. to provide job skills, and 3. to increase self-esteem (“If you don’t feel good about yourself, then you will not be able to pass down to your children the self-esteem they need, also,” Parkman said.) Some of the job and life skills participants learn in the classroom are computer proficiency, anger management, nutrition, goal setting, budgeting, resume writing, job interviewing, and dressing for success. Regarding nutrition education, Parkman observed, “It’s one thing to go to COM and get groceries, but if you don’t know how to come back and properly prepare the meal—if you come back and grease it up with fatback—you’re still in trouble!”

Every CWJC participant is required to have a mentor who has agreed to spend at least one hour per week for about a year assisting the client—working on goals, both celebrating victories and working through challenges. “The mentor is there for support, not to solve all the client’s problems for them, but to help them solve their own problems,” Parkman said.

The CWJC is actively looking for women mentors, women volunteers who can teach any of the above-mentioned classes (after proper training), and business professionals who are willing to give the “graduating” participants a chance in the workplace. In addition, if you know of a woman who would benefit as a participant in the program, you can contact Parkman or Mancuso at COM.

Southwest Mississippi Christian Outreach Ministries is located in Pike Center Mart, 1200 LaSalle Street, Building #1. Phone: 601-250-0177. Email: swmscom@bellsouth.net . Mailing address for monetary donations: P.O. Box 2278, McComb, MS 39649. (SWMSCOM is a 501(c)3 tax-deductible organization.) [The website address is www.swmsoutreach.org. We have a PayPal account that enables us to receive donations online. Of particular need at this time is financial assistance for our planned domestic violence shelter. The thrift store is open 9 AM until 5 PM, Monday through Saturday. For other needs, please call for scheduling.

At a recent meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Pike County, Dr. Sharon Slater-Smith, principal of McComb High School, spoke about her vision for this coming school year.

Her first goal is to increase overall student performance. Referring to the state tests that measure students’ achievement, Slater said, “It is my position with my students that we are to exceed the limit set on us by the state tests. I don’t want us wondering when our scores will be back and crossing our fingers until they come in July. I said to my teachers, ‘If you are actively engaging children in the learning process, you don’t have to worry about it—you will see the results.” As a personal example, Slater mentioned that her son, who is taking Spanish at MHS, recently came home and excitedly spoke some Spanish for her. “Half his words were messed up, but what I heard behind those messed up words was a passion for learning Spanish. If we can create a passion for learning something, the learning will take care of itself.”

Slater’s second goal is an increase in parental involvement. “We need our parents to become involved so we’re going to them first. I’m starting in the churches and in the community events that take place. Everywhere I go I say to them, ‘I need you to be involved with your children. Make sure you’re asking them, ‘Did you do your homework? What did you learn today?’’”

Her third goal is an increase in community involvement. “McComb High School is a phenomenal school, made of phenomenal children. You all can help us with your words. Words have power. When someone asks you about McComb High School, you sell us big, and we will live up to it!” Slater’s humorous nature showed itself as she said, “Sell us in the best way you can—sell the principal like she is the Queen—‘You know I heard they’ve got this outstanding, intelligent, beautiful principal up there!’”

“Whenever people ask me what I do,” Slater said, “I tell them I work for McComb High School. When they ask me what I teach, I tell them I’m the principal, and they say, ‘Oooohhh; I sure hate that you got that job!’ That shouldn’t be. The minute I tell people I’m the principal, they should say, ‘I wish had your job!’ We’ve got to get the community thinking that way. Teaching is not the worst profession in the world—it’s the greatest! And being the principal is just wonderful, because I get a chance to develop teachers, and teachers then get the opportunity and the tools and the resources to develop children. What better job is there than to develop children? They’re not our future—they’re our ‘right now.’”

One area Dr. Slater wants to decrease is the achievement gap. “It once was a race thing, but now it’s more of a poverty gap, where our low-resource children score lower, and our high-resource children score higher. But that just shouldn’t be. Our children at McComb High School are going to receive quality instruction—I don’t care what their background is. I don’t care if they come from the old projects, new projects, or the future development projects--they’re not project children when they come to McComb High School, they’re just children. Yes, they think they’re half-grown, but to me, they’re children. And one of the ways out of poverty is to become educated. I tell people I’m proud of the fact that we were just dirt poor when I came up in Bogue Chitto. I know the reason I made it from poverty to where I am now--which I call a huge success because I get to work with kids--is education. Teachers never saw me as this little poor kid. ‘Sharon, you can read this book. Now you’ve got ten minutes, and then I’ve got another book for you to read!’ And I was like, ‘Bring ‘em on, bring ‘em on—I’ll read ‘em, then!’ So education makes a difference in a lot of our children who are impoverished, and we are seeing a gap based on their resources; not everyone has the Internet, or laptops, or a computer. I want to decrease that gap by what we do at the school. When they come to school, they are all even to us, and we’re going to make sure that they receive an even education. Impoverished students, the affluent—everybody’s going to get the best that we have.”

Slater told of her method of educating each child to the fullest through rigor, relevance, and building relationships. “Rigor means we’re going to involve the children and raise their level of engagement. Teach for a while and then ask the kids questions. Slater engaged the club members by asking them to give as many uses they could think of for a big book. Responses ranged from becoming more knowledgeable to using a book to stand on to reach a cookie jar! The more a child understands the ‘why,’ he’ll always remember the ‘how.’ The next time a child wants to get cookies out of a jar, he’s going to know just how to do it. At McComb High School, we’re not just teaching on a surface level; we’re digging a little bit deeper. When children are forced to make something relevant to their lives, they never, ever forget it.”

Teachers at MHS are going to make sure that what they teach is relevant--something they can use in their lives. “Not just ‘Memorize the 27 prepositions; you may never need this in your lifetime—memorize them, anyway, because you’ve got nothing better to do.’ We’re not teaching that way anymore. If it’s not relevant—who cares? Kids today are smart enough to just ask, ‘Why do I have to learn this?’” Both teachers and students are instructed to not only identify the learning material, but also the ‘why.’ “We put this in the teacher’s handbook,” Slater said.

Slater and other administrators are also trying to build better relationships with children. “Administrators now have appointment forms. If a child wants to see us, they fill out an appointment form, and we sit with them one-on-one. You would be amazed what that does for a student, to know that he or she just had a one-on-one conversation with the principal, talking around the table, not across the desk from each other. That’s building relationships.”

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***Comments are welcome and encouraged--please click on the "Comments" link below!