Opportunity knocks, visits Orrville Lions

  • March 1, 2010
  • 738
                        
The Orrville Lions Club learned a great deal about what the Opportunity School in Wooster is all about from Principal Chuck Fleming. Fleming has been a member since 1986 of various Lions Clubs around the world, as he and his wife, Carol, spent time working in a number of foreign countries as well as locations in the US. Since moving to Wooster four years ago, Fleming has been instrumental in the evolution of the Opportunity School. What started in 1995 to serve a handful of 17–19 year-old male students, today serves 54 students in grades 7–12 from Wooster, Orville, Chippewa, Creston, and other Wayne county communities. “These are not at-risk students, they are high-risk students,” Fleming shared. He secured a $440,000 21st Century Learning Grant last year that provides for after-school and summer activities geared towards academic and behavioral choice success. Last year he also secured funding through private and community organizations to pilot and then expand on an equine therapy and mentoring program called Change through Chance. The program is in place to work with students after school and during the summer months. With the support of a grant secured by Akron Children’s Hospital, the Opportunity School will be offering the Tele-Health-Kids Project, a program that will provide medical services to help students through the use of technology. He hopes to see student health issues decrease and attendance increase through its use. Also, a new program through Verizon allows students unable to be present in school to access course work online via the Internet with a loaned laptop computer. This will have a very positive impact on student credit recovery and eventual graduation. Fleming added, “these high risk students, often victims of their childhood environment, are given a chance to turn their lives around and become productive members of our society rather than face a future of community support through various government and private agencies. The benefit to the community is a savings of millions of dollars that would otherwise be spent in the support of non-high school graduates over their life time. At the Opportunity School, everyday offers a fresh start.” The next meeting of the Orrville Lions Club will feature the Browns from the Doylestown Lions Club on Tuesday, March 9, at 8 a.m., in the Community Room of Dunlap Community Hospital. The public is always welcome. For more information, contact Kathi Bond 330-683-1482.


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