The inmates, who are participating in a Grand Valley State University-run educational program which is funded by the Kellogg Foundation and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, helped bring $1,500 worth to school supplies to the school. The supplies were donated by Meijer.
COVERAGE OPPORTUNITY: The supplies will be delivered Monday, Sept. 12 in an informal ceremony at the Henry Paideia Elementary School, 419 Henry St. S.E. in Grand Rapids. News media are invited to cover the ceremony, which begins around 9:15 a.m.
The donation was the initiative of 13 inmates at the Muskegon Correctional Facility. These men are participants in the Community Working Classics Program, which has inmates take courses in philosophy, English, history, art, and other humanities. The program was developed by Michael DeWilde, assistant professor of philosophy at Grand Valley. At the heart the program is the value of a liberal arts education that prepares students to be educated and active citizens -- a concept that gets lost in today's emphasis on career-building, DeWilde said.
After the inmates heard a talk given by William Noakes, the chief counsel for the Meijer Corp., they decided they wanted to do something for the Henry Paideia Elementary School. Contacting the company through Noakes, they were able to arrange a donation of $1,500 worth of bookbags, basketballs and footballs for the school. The inmates themselves got together enough notepads and pencils to supply the entire school as well.
"The school serves a low-income community much like the community most of these guys came from," DeWilde said. "They all see education as the ticket out of what are pretty bad circumstances and they wanted these kids to have things they didn't have."
