June 7, 2000

School honored for great CAN do attitude, program

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       There's no doubt about it: Interlochen CAN.
      The Interlochen Community Action Network gets things done, for both families at Interlochen Community School and members of the community at large. From emergency payments of rent or utilities bills to linking people in need with resources, I-CAN provides a helping hand close to home.
      During the past five years, I-CAN has helped hundreds of families in one way or another. It has also served as a model for two other school-based community programs, at Blair Elementary and in Kingsley, where organizers there have forged strong community-school links.
      To acknowledging the program's innovation and success, the Michigan Association of School Boards recently gave I-CAN organizers a Community Relations Achievement award.
      One of a series of awards bestowed on the I-CAN program over the years, the best reward for people like Interlochen Community school principal Glenn Solowiej or Mary Pat Randall, the I-CAN resource coach, is seeing their school alive and vibrant. Their school is a place where students are learning and parents are participating. Plus the fact that during the day and after hours, on weekends and during the summer, the school is the hub of the community.
      "If every elementary school were the heart of the community, people would go there to get help," said Solowiej, principal at Interlochen Community school for the past seven years. "We've been given nice recognition and what we've noticed is that these awards have really enhanced the community's self-esteem. Now there's a source of pride you can sense in the community."
      In the five years since it began, I-CAN's successes are clearly showing. Solowiej points to his school's improved MEAP test stores, where last year Interlochen Community placed first in writing and this year the school went up 16 percent in math.
      "What we're showing is that when you take care of basic human needs, you can approach your potential," said Solowiej, who will transfer to Blair Elementary school to be the principal for next school year. "Now for me, as principal, I'm not running around looking for hats or mittens or boots for kids. This program has given me the support I need to maintain the focus on learning."
      The idea for I-CAN began inauspiciously enough. During strategic planning sessions, school administrators identified that they had students in the school with unmet basic needs. They believed that distracted kids made for unsuccessful students because a child worried about bills or hungry has a barrier to their learning.
      "We realized that kids here did not all have the resources they needed to grow and learn," said Mary Pat Randall, resource coach for the I-CAN program. "Even basic needs like housing were missing, we had kids living in the State Park."
      Then in 1995, during what started as a typical haircut, Solowiej wondered aloud how he could help his students - one who needed this and another who needed that. That's when Vickie Karas, owner of the Cut Loose Salon in Interlochen, morphed into a fundraising dynamo. She decided that members of the community would be the ones to help, starting with herself.
      Karas proceeded to launch a series of pizza sales, bake sales and auctions to raise money for Solowiej to get these kids what they needed. Many other community members jumped on board, from businesses to faith communities to the Interlochen Arts Academy.
      The money raised went into a pool, to be doled out as needed. Since that first lean year, large blocks of funding have come from the Family Independence Agency and other private and public human service agencies.
      That first year, I-CAN organizers began compiling a resource directory of services available both in Interlochen and Traverse City. This directory has expanded over the years to include more than 120 listings in areas ranging from education and housing to food pantries and kids' programs.
      I-CAN also offers everything from adult volleyball and Lamaze classes to teen dances and psychological counseling at the Interlochen Community School. Solowiej is especially proud of the high school general education classes on-site in the evenings, which last semester had seven students successfully complete their course work.
      "I-CAN is for everyone, we have an unspoken theme that everybody needs to give and to get," Randall said. "My job is basically to answer the phone and the questions I get range the gamut. I might do more of my work in the check-out lane at the grocery store or the parking lot at the post office, people come up to me all the time."