Couple brings tidings of joy, toys
It was a great afternoon yesterday for the 400 kids who attend White Center Heights Elementary School.
Many of the students here are children of immigrants — 29 different countries are represented — and 88 percent of the students are on free or reduced-cost lunches.
Yesterday, every student went home with a new basketball, football, soccer ball or other sports item. And four were lucky enough to win shiny, new bikes.
And it was a great afternoon for Reed and Roxanne Slattery, the couple who spent a year gathering the gifts and cash donations for the "Christmas in June" event. Some 2,100 children at five White Center elementary schools received gifts. This is the second year of the Slatterys' project of love.
The Slatterys wants to reach out to the students at this formative age. The couple, who are both 22, grew up in White Center, and Roxanne Slattery said she has seen that by high school, White Center teens have hardened views on life.
"A lot of them have a ghetto mentality," she said. "They don't feel they need school. It's something their parents make them do."
But receiving something as simple as a basketball or a football during their early years, she said, helps them "see that there are people who actually want them to succeed."
Reed Slattery said he knows how life can get sidetracked for a teen. He attended three different high schools, and a community college offering high-school credits, as the suspensions piled up.
"I think there was an alcohol charge, during a basketball event," he recalled. "There were fights in the school, in the neighborhood. I wasn't the best student."
After graduating from Evergreen High School in 2001, Reed Slattery began working at a warehouse, where he now earns $16 an hour. He is studying business at community college.
"In the real world, you can't handle situations by fighting and intimidation," he said.
Roxanne works at an after-school program, earning $9 an hour, and also attends community college.
Wanting to somehow help the young kids in the neighborhood, the couple teamed up with the YES Foundation of White Center, which helps youths in the area.
Tida Lunh, 9, a fourth-grader whose parents emigrated from Cambodia, won one of the bikes in a drawing. She ran to the stage to claim her prize, a bit in disbelief.
"When I grow up, I maybe want to be an artist or scientist of some kind," she said later, the bike by her side. "I like to study science. You get to learn cool stuff like minerals and how fungi grows."
Another bike winner was Dina Friah, 11, a sixth-grader whose family emigrated from Kuwait. She said her family had faced discrimination in their native country, "because our people are different people."
Dina said her grades were good — "85s and 95s and 100s." An avid reader, she just finished "The Tail of Emily Windsnap," about a girl who discovers she's a mermaid.
She talked about her future.
"I see myself in a house with a car, probably a Jeep, and teaching," she said.
Juan Carlos Casamalhuapa, 10, a fourth-grader whose father came from El Salvador, went home with the present he had requested, a soccer ball.
He talked about one of his favorite school projects: researching a famous person over the Internet. Juan Carlos chose Ludwig van Beethoven. "I like music," he said.
Juan Carlos said he plans to go to college and hopes to be an astronaut.
Yesterday, Reed and Roxanne Slattery smiled as they watched the children. The couple, who met during their senior year of high school and married shortly after graduating, saved their earnings until they accumulated $20,000 to buy a home in White Center.
It's where they plan to raise a family.
"This," Roxanne said, "is our community."
Erik Lacitis: 206-464-2237 or elacitis@seattletimes.com
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