Due to COVID19 restrictions the in-person Camp Middle School program was suspended for 2020.
This year there was a virtual program to replace the face-to-face event to help support the transition from elementary school to middle school for Stokes County Schools 6th graders.
On August 6th Insight Human Services hosted a webinar for rising 6th graders and their parents. Below is the content that was shown during the webinar to help prepare 6th graders for the upcoming school year.
If you have any questions about the content below please contact Chestnut Grove Middle at 336-983-2106
You can contact Mr. Bennett, Principal, at david.bennett@stokes.k12.nc.us
You can contact Ms. Lessane, Assistant Principal, with free/reduced lunch questions at eyanna.lessane@stokes.k12.nc
You can contact Mr. Richardson, Assistant Principal, with bus transportation questions at matthew.richardson@stokes.k12.nc.us
Due to COVID19 restrictions the in-person Camp Middle School program was suspended for 2020.
This year there was a virtual program to replace the face-to-face event to help support the transition from elementary school to middle school for Stokes County Schools 6th graders.
On August 5th Insight Human Services hosted a webinar for rising 6th graders and their parents. Below is the content that was shown during the webinar to help prepare 6th graders for the upcoming school year.
If you have any questions about the content below please contact Southeastern Middle at 336-591-4371.
You can reach out to Mrs. Jackson, Principal, at rhonda.jackson@stokes.k12.nc.us
You can reach out to Mr. Ross, Assistant Principal, with any bus transportation questions, at david.ross@stokes.k12.nc.us
Due to COVID19 restrictions the in-person Camp Middle School program was suspended for 2020.
This year there was a virtual program to replace the face-to-face event to help support the transition from elementary school to middle school for Stokes County Schools 6th graders.
On August 4th Insight Human Services hosted a webinar for rising 6th graders and their parents. Below is the content that was shown during the webinar to help prepare 6th graders for the upcoming school year.
If you have any questions about the content below please contact Piney Grove Middle at 336-593-4000.
You can reach out via email to Mrs. Pendleton, Principal, at heather.pendleton@stokes.k12.nc.us.
You can reach out to Mrs. Mounce, Assistant Principal, about any bus questions at 336-593-4000.
You can reach out to Mrs. Williams, School Counselor, at anna.williams3@stokes.k12.nc.us.
There is data showing that off-premises retailers in North Carolina are selling record numbers of beer, wine and liquor. How does that translate to youth alcohol use?
Youth are home now more than ever and may be unsupervised.
Adult use rates of alcohol have been increasing state-wide.
The possibility of an increase in youth alcohol use is something that should be considered.
Data from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey in regards to alcohol use by youth. This is the last Youth Risk Behavior Survey data collection available and can be found here https://nccd.cdc.gov/youthonline/App/Results.aspx?LID=NC.
Did You Know: Before COVID19…
The #1 place youth got alcohol is from their own home.
Over 1,800 college students died from alcohol related injuries each year.
In the US alcohol kills more than all illegal drugs combined.
Teen girls rival teen boys with consumption rates of alcohol.
Every day 7,000 kids younger than 16 years old consume their first alcoholic drink.
Kids under 15 years old who consume alcohol are four times likely to end up alcohol dependant as an adult than if they waited until they were 21 years old for their first drink.
How can this be changed?
Parents and guardians can make a positive impact in their communities by doing a few things.
Monitor and secure alcohol in the home.
Purchasing in quantity is more cost effective but it is harder to keep up with 24 beers or a case of wine than it is a 6 pack or bottle.
Only purchase what you will consume.
Even if it costs a couple dollars more this tactic regarding alcohol storage will make less alcohol available for youth resulting in fewer youth consuming.
Storing alcohol in cabinet or unmonitored areas of the home allows youth access.
Keeping alcohol stored appropriately, like firearms and dangerous household chemicals, will keep youth from consuming alcohol.
How youth see alcohol consumed in their environment determines their perception of alcohol.
During events at the home (birthday parties, cookouts, holiday celebrations) make sure alcohol is not the focal point of the event.
Don’t glamorize alcohol use.
Show youth that a good time can be had without alcohol.
Parents rationalizing youth use.
Parent provided parties are not the answer.
Parent provided parties are dangerous.
Parent provided parties normalize alcohol use by youth.
Follow these guidelines to help reduce underage alcohol use in our communities.
On July 16th we hosted a virtual lunch and learn where the film “This Place” was shown.
Following the film was a discussion about underage alcohol use and how it impacts communities in Stokes County.
“This Place” is an award-winning, 15-minute film that dramatically captures today’s youth drinking culture. This film shows the alcohol-saturated environment kids are exposed to and the impact of underage drinking. It also offers an important glimpse into communities that are taking action to reduce alcohol problems.
If you are a parent/guardian, caregiver to youth, coach, teacher, community member, faith leader or are interested in creating positive change in your community this film will allow you to be better informed about underage alcohol use and introduce concepts to help decrease alcohol misuse in your community.
A local parent of three students who are in the Stokes County School System viewed the film and had this commentary to provide.A local provider specializing in substance use disorder and mental health had this commentary after viewing the film.
These national statistics provided by the Monitoring the Future Survey show the bigger picture of underage alcohol use. This may be a snapshot of the nationwide average but this is an issue that impacts Stokes County communities.
Monitoring the Future Survey from 2019 highlights the youth alcohol use rates for lifetime consumption.Monitoring the Future Survey from 2019 highlights the youth alcohol use rates for past year consumptionMonitoring the Future Survey from 2019 highlights the youth alcohol use rates for past month consumption.If you would like more information please reach out to us.
For more information on how you can make a positive impact in your community, reduce underage alcohol use or reduce adult alcohol misuse reach out to us. dvickers@insightnc.org or 336-287-2411
Underage alcohol use can have many short-term and long-term impacts that youth may not realize. Listen to Mary Beth Uberti explain the dangers of alcohol use among teens and how parents can intervene to help keep their children healthy and safe.
More information about Operation Parent and their free resources for parents and guardians can be found at https://operationparent.org/resource-manager/
As the daughter of a disabled Vietnam veteran, Heather French Henry has experienced the pain and suffering that can come with military service. Throughout her life she followed her father into the halls of VA hospitals for treatments, experienced his night terrors and stood by his side in his miraculous journey “home” from the terrors of war.
After winning the title of Miss America 2000 she traveled over 300,000 miles across the United States on a national speaking tour entitled “Our Forgotten Heroes: Honoring Our Nations Homeless Veterans.” Throughout her year she not only visited veterans facilities meeting and talking with veterans but her platform often took her to our nation’s capital to lobby members of Congress and Senate on veterans issues and legislation.
During her tour veteran’s healthcare issues became another serious focus and a second campaign began entitled “Fighting the Silent Enemy: Hepatitis C.” Touring the country with Hepatitis C advocates screenings were held and hundreds of veterans were screened and made aware of the dangers of Hepatitis C.
In Heather’s own words: “I will always be the daughter of a veteran and therefore I will always honor those who fell by continuing to serve those who live.”
Dr. Patricia Purcell shares information and talking points about vaping and e-cigarette use by teens that parents and guardians can reference. She is clear and uses language that we can call understand. The webinar below is an hour long but well worth a listen for any parent, guardian, grandparent or caregiver of youth.
More information about Operation Parent and their free resources for parents and guardians can be found at https://operationparent.org/resource-manager/
This free webinar from Operation Parent will be held on Monday June 15th from 2:00pm-3:00pm.
Since Operation Parent’s webinar on alcohol in March, communities across the country have seen instore and online sales of alcohol skyrocket, and some parents relaxing abstinence rules at home to placate and bond with teens.
Additionally, easing of social distancing orders in many parts of the country are coinciding with the start of summer, which is already a time of risk for alcohol abuse and drinking and driving with teens. Cooped up teens might be looking forward to blowing off steam…in unhealthy ways.
Let’s discuss how we can be prepared to parent during these times of transition and uncertainty to keep our teens safe.
Presenters are Christine Storm and Kate Appleman of Caron Treatment Center. The Caron Treatment Center is an inpatient treatment facility with location in Florida and Pennsylvania. They have been providing innovative, specialized addiction & behavioral health treatment for over 60 years.
More information about Operation Parent and their free resources for parents and guardians can be found at https://operationparent.org/resource-manager/
Operation Parent started when parents, who needed help and couldn’t find one central source for trustworthy, practical information on tough day-to-day parenting issues. From that, their organization was born.
A platform sourced with the “must know” material for anyone raising teens and preteens, curated from leading experts and our own experiences as parents.
The world our kids are growing up in is different than the one we grew up in. It changes constantly. We keep up with those changes and share the information parents need to know to keep their children healthy and safe. Parents that connect with us learn to:
Raise their awareness and confidence
Initiate meaningful conversations with their child(ren)
Set age appropriate boundaries
Recognize early warning signs
Prevent addiction, bullying, suicide, violence and more
What makes them unique?
It’s personal to them.
They are parents and they have encountered many of these issues on our parenting journey. They’re passionate about family and want to do all they can to help parents stay connected to their children during the challenging teen and preteen years.
They provide ongoing prevention education.
Prevention is a process…not a one-time event. Prevention happens when parents are educated and supported along their parenting journey. Operation Parent wants to walk alongside parents throughout their journey and find the best time to connect is in elementary school and stay connected through middle and high school.
“Our library has always kept hand sanitizer available at the circulation desk for our staff and patrons. Little did we know how important of a role this safety measure would play in keeping our patrons safe during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic.”- Ann Nichols
How has COVID19 affected the King Public Library?
When I walked out the library doors on March 27th, I sat in my car, and shook my head in denial. I never had imagined that the library doors would be closed to the public. It had been a trying day. I was proud of my staff that day, as we all worked together to provide curbside service to our patrons, while continually cleaning the building, and getting the word out about our many online services. I knew that at some point all libraries in our Northwestern Regional Library System would have to close, so I had been busy providing the staff with work from home tasks, online trainings, and other assignments. We had publicized on our Facebook page for patrons to stock up on books and other materials, just in case.
Everything we were hearing on several news outlets seemed to indicate the elderly were the most vulnerable in our population. The library staff know our senior patrons well. We all were worried for them, wanting to make certain they checked out the books, DVDs, or puzzles they needed to pass the time while we waited out the virus.
Gretchen Parker, Assistant Branch Manager, reading to children at King Elementary School
We tried to be positive and upbeat, but inside we were like everyone else, concerned for our families, our patrons, and for each other. All of our staff can assist patrons with using their tech devices to check out eBooks from OverDrive, our eBook and audio platform on our NWRL.org website, but our patron’s favorite tech guru is Gretchen Parker, the Assistant Branch Manager at the King Public Library. She has an easy manner and a great smile that makes you feel as though it is as simple as sliding a hot knife through butter. Gretchen had been on the phone almost nonstop during the last few weeks, assisting our patrons with checking out eBooks, or learning how to do it from scratch.
Books that were taken out of circulation and provided for the Free Book Event that was on April 22nd, 2020.
We usually save the books for the Friends of the Library’s book sale, but I felt these books needed new homes right away. We decided the withdrawn books would be placed on carts outside the building.
We would offer the books freely to our patrons. We shared a post on the library’s Facebook and Twitter pages, and within minutes, people were stopping by to select titles. Each person looked so excited.
You would have thought it was Christmas! I remember telling the staff it was the first time I had smiled in days. Smiles are contagious, we all were smiling, the staff and our patrons outside enjoying this special treat.
Can you talk about the services offered online by King Public Library?
During work from home, the staff engaged our patrons online. Programming Assistant Melody Johnson and Gretchen Parker provided online preschool Storytime programs. Melody’s reading of Peep, Peep, Moo! By Doreen Cronin received a shoutout of praise from the State Library of North Carolina, and Mouse’s First Spring by Lauren Thompson, became a new favorite with many youngsters. Programming Assistant Cara Hiatt’s May Flowers Photo Contest with 125 entries . Poems and poem readings were posted during April’s National Poetry Month celebration, Bingo games, an interview with local author, Paula May, and much more has been shared with our patrons near and far from the video link at our nwrl.org website and on the library’s Facebook page.
King Public Library celebrated National Library Week with a livestream from local author Paula May.
Virtual programs, which we had seen as a future need, were suddenly thrust upon library staff members all over the United States. The King Public Library staff were as prepared as we possibly could be, with an abundant amount of online training and webinars, shared all over the county.
We were learning everything we could in order to improve services to the public and working to keep our patrons engaged at home. And with this, a new reality came into place; this will now be the platform on which our 2020 Summer Reading program will on take place. It was quite a shock to realize that in-person programming would not be feasible.
The safety and welfare of our patrons always takes priority.
So, as a branch and as a Region, we are developing programs that can be posted virtually on our social media sites, and on our Northwestern Regional homepage.
Our thirteen branches in Alleghany, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin Counties are working together to set up an array of programs that can be shared among all library patrons. Presenters are being contacted while we all work together to change to a virtual/streaming environment. Big crowd pleasers like Mad Science, Science Tellers, and the NC Zoo are among many that are changing the way they provide programs to our libraries.
Programming staff are still working with possible presenters for all age groups to provide an enriching and entertaining summer for everyone.
Moving forward after COVID19 what sort of programs will be available for adults at King Public Library?
The library anticipates a great need from our newly unemployed population. The Job Lab that the library and Forsyth Tech partner on together, located inside the King Public Library, is eager to help people with preparing resumes, filing online applications, providing unemployment filing assistance, and much more.
Free computer access is available at King Public Library.
Lynn Owens and Cinda Amen, our HRD instructors in the lab prepared a training webinar for all staff members of the NWRL
FTCC has increased the lab hours at the King Public Library from twelve hours a week, to sixteen hours per week.
HRD instructors Lynn Owens and Cinda Amen are ready to help as many individuals as they can when the library is able to open its doors. In order to do this safely, assistance will be made by appointment only. This will be possible by calling the King Public Library at (336) 983-3868 or by emailing us at kin@nwrl.org, when the library reopens.
What would you like to share with residents who use the King Public Library?
“The most important thing I can share with our patrons is how much we miss them and wish to meet their needs. We realize the library and its services are especially important to our community. You are never too old or too young to learn, or to enjoy the wonder of a book. The library provides that opportunity and much more. The library provides a place of learning, connecting, reading for the joy of it, a refuge from difficult times, a place to start over when seeking a different career path, and a place to come together with purpose. The staff and I feel as though we are out of our element without our patrons. We look forward to serving them again safely and enthusiastically.”
Ann Nichols, Branch Manager King Public Library
You can reach the King Public Library on their Facebook page, via phone 336-983-3868 or by e-mail at kin@nwrl.org
The world our kids are growing up in is different than the one we grew up in. It changes constantly. We keep up with those changes and share the information parents need to know to keep their children healthy and safe. Parents that connect with us learn to:
How has COVID19 affected the King Public Library?
What would you like to share with residents who use the King Public Library?