MCRD/ERR PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- Sailors from the Depot Naval Dental Center, Branch Medical Clinic and Naval Hospital Beaufort recently teamed up to adopt Robert Smalls Middle School to provide students with tutoring, mentoring and any other volunteer work needed at the school.
The sailors met with guidance counselors at the school Feb. 20 to receive a brief on the intricacies of the program and student assignments, and sailors began meeting with their students Monday.
After helping administer the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test last year at the school, school administrators decided to look to the sailors for help again this year.
"Once we did that, they called and thanked us for it and indicated that they would need help this year, saying they actually needed all the help they could get," said Master Chief William Green, Command Master Chief, NDC. "At that time, we decided that if they needed the help and the people here were interested in doing work as volunteers, then we could get them help with the students."
Help with the students includes working as tutors for those students who may need extra help in their studies. Before student assignments were given to the sailors, the guidance counselors had already determined which ones would need the extra attention.
"Some of the students were identified and considered 'at risk,' either academically or because of some circumstances, socially," said Green.
The sailors will be participating in Robert Smalls' "Lunch Buddy" program, which is a type of mentoring program, designed to help the students who were designated as socially at risk.
"The program pairs students with a sailor and allows that sailor to get to know them and aid in their development," said Green, who is also the president of the Chief Petty Officers Association of the Lowcountry.
Sailors are to begin meeting with their assigned students once a week, to increase as needed, based on the individual student's performance at school. Other sailors, who were not assigned students, will be helping out in the classroom as proctors and in assistance with reading.
Green said that he and the sailors were honored to be able to provide this type of service to the school. He feels that volunteering to help students is something vital for the local community.
"We want to be active and visible in the community, and of course, a lot of us have children who are students in the school system here," he said. "All the sailors were really enthusiastic about being able to work with the students."
The feel-good sensations that come from helping the children have led Green and the others to already consenting to volunteer at the school next year. He said they are already anticipating the partnership again for next school year.