Whiz Kids celebrates accomplishments of Alice Coachman Elementary students

ALBANY — More than 25 first- and second-grade students from Alice Coachman Elementary School who participated in the local Whiz Kids program were recognized Wednesday during a celebration at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

The child/mentoring partnership between the Dougherty County School System and community churches reaches out to struggling students and provides one-on-one tutors once a week, focusing on reading skills in an attempt to bring the children up to grade-level.

“Whiz Kids is all about the community involving and engaging themselves in public education,” Whiz Kids Director Lee Don said. “I was a public educator and I think God has a really good sense of humor because I taught high school and we work with elementary kids. We try to teach the children how to care for one another.”

The seed for Whiz Kids was planted in 2007 when Lee Don and her husband, Dale, moved to Albany from Atlanta to be closer to family. Alarmed by Dougherty County’s low reading scores in the first and second grades, the Dons reached out to Covenant to provide space for a once a week tutoring/mentoring program to help struggling students.

Today, the program has nine elementary schools each in partnership with a local church to provide tutoring.

“I’d like to say thank you. I wish we’d had Whiz Kids when I was growing up because I would have learned a little more,” DCSS Superintendent Butch Mosely said. “But seriously, when a community reaches out like you have I know the parents appreciate all of the volunteers who have given their time. This is a labor of love. It’s a team effort. The school system benefits because Whiz Kids provides us with better students, the better our system looks and the kids will have better opportunities in life as they grow older.

“And that’s what it’s all about.”

Don said community involvement has helped the program tremendously, pointing out that $2,500 grants from the Albany Rotary Club are used specifically to buy school supplies at new Whiz Kids site. The Kiwanis Golden Key Club has also contributed money in addition to supplying tutor/mentors.

Don added that the Whiz Kids philosophy is not complicated.

“Keep it simple at one-on-one mentoring. Care for the child, help with any problems they are having, academically and emotionally,” Don said. “We can’t change the world, but we can change one life at a time. Our tutors and mentors are the true treasures of Whiz Kids, and they get as much out of it as the children do.”

Local churches and their partner schools participating in Whiz Kids this year are Covenant (Alice Coachman), Evangelical Faith Vision Ministries (West Town), First Baptist Church (Jackson Heights), Porterfield United Methodist (Live Oak), First Freewill Baptist (Sherwood Acres), Victory Tabernacle (Turner), Pleasant Hills Missionary Baptist (Martin Luther King), Byne Memorial (Northside) and First United Methodist of Leesburg (Twin Oaks and Leesburg elementary).