By Ashley Bean Thornton

My husband and I both wear glasses.  I got mine in the first grade.  My grandmother (a long-time second grade teacher) was the first to notice that I was “cross-eyed.”  My mother didn’t take it seriously at first, but my grandmom insisted she get my eyes checked.  Sure enough, I had a Lazy Eye (amblyopia) and soon I was wearing glasses and a patch.  Not great for my popularity – but crucial for my academics.  My husband, Craig, got his glasses in second or third grade thanks to a teacher who noticed both his squint and that his grades were dropping. 

It’s been fifty-plus years since I put on my first pair of glasses and I still remember vividly the wonder of being able to really SEE for the first time.  I remember putting them on and taking them off over and over – blurry, clear, blurry, clear, blurry, clear. I remember being amazed that trees really did have leaves – individual leaves — that I could see.    The whole world changed for me with those glasses.

When I saw the news on January 24 about the ribbon cutting for Transformation Waco’s Bernard and Audre Rapoport Vision Center, I was surprised to feel tears filling my eyes.   Why was I so emotional?   

Sporting our specs, Craig and I both flew successfully through our respective public-school systems with few hitches, then on to college, marriage, careers, a pleasant lifestyle, and now, Lord willing, we have our sights set on a hopefully comfortable retirement in a few years.  Would it be overly dramatic to claim that our glasses were the keys that opened the door to that successful life?  I don’t think so.  What if we hadn’t gotten our glasses when we did? What if I had been in fifth or sixth grade instead of first grade when I got mine?  Would school have been more difficult for me?  Would I have missed out on becoming a confident reader?  Would I have missed the foundation in math I needed to succeed in high school and college?  Would I have become a behavior problem because I couldn’t follow what was happening in class?  What about Craig?  His grades were already dropping. If he hadn’t gotten his glasses when he did, would his grades have continued to fall?  Would his teachers have developed lower expectations for him?  Would he have been slotted into classes for less able students?  Would our whole lives have taken a different turn? 

Research on vision and learning shows that about 80% of classroom learning in public school is visual in some way.  Surely that does not surprise anyone.  About 20% of kids have some kind of vision problem.   Corrective lenses can correct most of those problems.  Low income kids are the ones least likely to get the corrective lenses they need.  Again, surely that is no surprise to anyone.  According to the Texas Tribune “Public Schools Explorer” 87% of students in Waco ISD are considered “Economically Disadvantaged,” 95% for the five Transformation Waco schools. That’s compared to 59% statewide.

It’s a cliché to say that education is the “great equalizer” in our country.  But, is it possible to get “equalized” at school if you can’t see the instructions written on the whiteboard?   If the words on the worksheets are fuzzy blobs?

I imagine most people in Waco have concerns about our school system.  I know I do.  With so many wonderful things happening in Waco, I yearn for Waco ISD to take its place on the ever-growing list of wonderful reasons for people to choose Waco as their home.   What will it take to make that happen? 

Certainly, it will require all the things that make any school successful – excellent instruction from caring, patient, well-prepared teachers; dedicated support staff, buildings; equipment; technology; parental and community engagement.  For us it will also take an extra helping of sensitivity and creativity.  We must be sensitive to the fact that many of our students don’t have ready access to things that students in more financially well-off districts can take for granted.  Things like transportation; nutritious food; a consistent, quiet place to do homework; health insurance — and glasses.  We must figure out creative ways to help our students get these basic supports or overcome the lack of them.  The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Vision Center is a terrific example of this kind of creativity.  It’s both a homerun for the students who get the glasses they need and a terrific benefit for the high school students who are learning to make the glasses.  Bravo, Transformation Waco and Waco ISD!  This is exactly the kind of thinking we need! What’s next?

This Act Locally Waco blog post is by Ashley Bean Thornton, she has lived in Waco almost 20 years now. Far longer than she ever lived anywhere else. She is retired from Baylor works part time helping to organize after school programs for Transformation Waco. She likes to walk. If you see her out walking, honk and wave and say, “Hi!”

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email [email protected] for more information.

By Cuevas Peacock

My mother is a teacher, a proud member of our world’s greatest profession. Her story is one I often tell when informing others about my upbringing, my namesake, and my passion for serving. Growing up, she taught me many lessons, both direct and indirectly, most not hitting home until years after her initial telling. However, some teachings stayed with me from the beginning, one of which having occurred when I was in the fourth grade. During those years, I was still finding myself, and for some reason, had chosen to follow a group of kids who decided to give our new teacher trouble by answering to the wrong name during roll call for the majority of the year. A seemingly harmless prank at the time, it is one that would come back to haunt me as the person who assumed my name for the day soon after switched schools resulting in me almost being dropped from the school rolls. As you could imagine, my mother was furious, and I got in trouble in more ways than one. Through it all, she taught me an invaluable lesson, centered around the need to always be myself and to ensure that I am always accounted for. It is a lesson I carry with me today and is a driving reason for me choosing to serve as an advocate for the Census in hopes of us achieving a complete count.

The research will show that for every person not counted in the Census, a municipality will stand to lose $10,000 worth of federal funding over ten years. This loss of funding affects us all, from housing to education, transportation, economic development, and a wide swath of other areas. Through my previous work as a community organizer with Grassroots Community Development, the Census played an essential role in helping us to develop communities. We used Census data that showed homeownership rates in specific neighborhoods to choose where we would target our building efforts, and the data also aided us in applying for grants to provide financial literacy to residents looking to purchase homes. For so many Wacoans, Grassroots and other housing organizations have helped them achieve the American dream of homeownership. It is a dream deferred without an accurate census count to provide the funding needed to support local housing programs.

Currently, through my role in higher education and my interaction with college students, I get to see firsthand the product of our public-school system. This is a system that is directly funded by the Census, where a failure to gain an accurate count is a failure to fund our local schools accurately. Census data determines the distribution of more than $14 billion in Title I grants, $11.3 billion in special education grants, about $13.6 billion for the National School Lunch Program, plus funds for the Head Start preschool program and grants to improve teacher quality. For so many of the students I see across campus, they have taken their learning to a higher level. These are the best of the brightest minds, who will be charged with carrying society forward and making it better for us all. I can honestly say we are in good hands. However, it is only because of the strong educational foundation they received in the public-school system—a public-school system funded by the Census.

Through my time on the Census Complete Committee, I have been able to work alongside a group of community leaders from various sectors to develop initiatives that will help us achieve an accurate Census count. While our backgrounds and experiences may be different, our mission is the same—Waco’s future. The fight for equity across our systems is a battle we all must be engaged in to win. The first step is making sure we do our part to ensure we are equipped with the funding to meet the challenge.  An accurate Census count is needed in order for us to obtain the funding to guarantee Waco works for all of us. Thus, Waco needs you to participate in the 2020 census. You count, so this April, make sure you are accounted for!

For more information about local census efforts and how a complete and accurate Census count will ensure our community’s future, please visit whyicountwaco.org/community-impact.

Cuevas Peacock is a community builder with dreams of becoming a poet, for he was once told that they are life’s last true teachers. Originally from Port Arthur, Texas, he is employed with Baylor University as the Assistant Director for Cultural Wealth-Community Relations. Cuevas is certified as a Professional Community and Economic Developer through the Community Development Council, a graduate of THE Texas Southern University, and is currently pursuing his Masters of Social Impact from Claremont Lincoln University. He is a member of the 2020 Census Complete Count Committee, along with being involved in a host of other initiatives working towards making a better Waco.

By Jo Ann Sharkey Reinowski

On Friday and Saturday, January 24-25, Truett Seminary is welcoming 20 leaders in innovation, entrepreneurship, non-profit, co-vocational, and creative ministry to share their experiences at the Alongside: Ministry Innovation Conference. 

The conference was born out of a need to celebrate and explore creative and non-traditional approaches to ministry. The mission of Baylor’s Truett Seminary is to equip ministers for service in and alongside Christ’s Church, and the Alongside Conference will focus specifically on inspiring, encouraging, and equipping those who have been called to Kingdom-work alongside and beyond the church.  

The conference is hosted by Truett’s Financial Wellness for Ministry, a program dedicated to helping seminary students and graduates to make healthy and sustainable financial decisions, and is funded through the Economic Challenges Facing Future Ministers Lilly Endowment grant awarded to Truett Seminary.

The Alongside Conference begins at 1:00pm on Friday with a keynote presentation from Shannon Hopkins, the Founder and Creative Director of Matryoshka Haus.  The Matryoshka Haus is a collective of entrepreneurs, freelancers, creatives, and friends all working to see hope, justice, and restoration transform our world. An extreme networker and social entrepreneur, Shannon lives in East London but is a Texas native. Her passion for community and individual transformation has launched or influenced the formation of 15 campaigns, projects, and organizations.

On Friday night at 6:00pm, Jeremy Courtney, a graduate of Baylor’s Truett Seminary and founder/CEO of Preemptive Love, will discuss how he created a leading non-profit dedicated to providing emergency relief to war-torn countries and staying to support small business start-ups.  Jeremy is the author of a new book called Love Anyway, and he speaks globally on the integration of activism, spirituality, leadership, and service. His work has been covered by CNN, the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and the New York Times. He lives in Iraq with his family.

In addition, several notable Wacoans will share how they founded their own innovative nonprofits and organizations dedicated to helping the marginalized and those in need.  Presenters include Emily Mills, founder and Chief Ideation Officer of Jesus Said Love, and Kent McKeever, Managing Attorney Partner of Greater Waco Legal Services. 

Other local leaders presenting at the conference include Ahmad Washington, Lead Advisor to the President of the Methodist Children’s Home, CEO of MovementUP, and Worship Arts Director for the Hip Hop Worship Service at FUMC Waco and Kerry Burkley, Pastor of Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church of Waco and Children’s Advocacy Center Program Director of the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children. 

The Saturday portion of the Alongside Conference will feature practitioners in the areas of co-vocational and bi-vocational ministry, entrepreneurship, non-profits, church planting, and supplemental income or side hustles.  Interviews between practitioners and experts in these areas will occur in the style of Guy Raz’s popular podcast, “How I Built This.”  Music will be provided throughout the conference by Ryan Richardson, Director of Worship & Chapel in the Office of Spiritual Life at Baylor University. 

Registration is open to the public and free unless you would like to include meals with your registration.  To register or learn more, visit baylor.edu/truett/alongside.

Jo Ann Sharkey Reinowski is a native of Houston, Texas but who has lived in Waco for nearly nineteen years.   Jo Ann enjoys working with students and she spends her days at Truett Seminary at Baylor University where she serves as the Director of Academic Services. Jo Ann is married to Brian Reinowski, a financial advisor, and they have one daughter. 

The Act Locally Waco blog publishes posts with a connection to these aspirations for Waco. If you are interested in writing for the Act Locally Waco Blog, please email a[email protected]for more information.