We don’t yet know details of Bill Jones’ decision to step down as president and CEO of the United Way of Wyoming Valley, nor do we know his plans for the future. But we do know the values Jones brought to the job he has held since 2012, and the vision he shared — figuratively and literally.
Days before turning 10, Abigail Blake got fitted for a new pair of glasses. She donned a pair of frames, beamed a smile and announced she wanted that model “because they look like my mom’s!”
A common scene? Maybe, but in an uncommon setting. Blake took time out from her classroom at the Greater Nanticoke Elementary Center to get a vision screening and, if needed, not only a prescription of corrective lenses but the glasses themselves. How? The United Way’s “See to Succeed” Program, which gives more than 500 area students each year the services for free, right in their schools.
“I like to say if a child can’t see the chalk board, they can’t see their future,” Jones smiled as he watched the program in action last November.
If you caught Jones at such events often enough, you might also hear his personal story about missing a catch in a baseball game in his early 20s because he coudn’t make out the ball flying toward him. “My teammates weren’t too happy with me for a while,” he admitted, but it did prompt an eye exam and his first pair of spectacles.
During a “Real men read” event at Dodson Elementary, Jones wore a striped Cat in the Hat chapeau while sharing “Zack’s Alligator” with the tykes. He started by asking “How many of you want to be a good reader?” The query sparked some competition. “I’m already a good reader!” one youngster shouted. “I can read two books!” another bragged. “I can read 100 books!” a third one-upped (50-upped?) the second.
Thanks to a United Way focus on early literacy through programs like Real Men Read and partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library that has put more than 200,000 books into the hands of thousands of children, more of our tots are entering school and reaching third grade with essential reading skills.
“Graduation rates are a key indicator for a community’s success,” Jones often pointed out, “And third grade reading literacy is a key indicator of graduation.”
Then there’s the “Nurse’s Pantry,” a United Way program bringing basic goods to low-income children right in their schools so they don’t miss classes over often inexpensive needs.
“Last year, we learned that a child and three siblings missed ten days of school because they couldn’t afford lice medicine,” Jones recounted when the project was launched in Wilkes-Barre Area School District in 2018. “A child may have only one pair of pants or one shirt that gets ripped, and they stop coming to school. They don’t have clean clothes. They get embarrassed. They get bullied.”
These and other programs were all designed and implemented with a core goal in mind, one that transformed how the United Way of Wyoming Valley spends its resources: Reduce childhood poverty in the long term by taking often-inexpensive steps assuring they are healthy and academically successful from the start of school. Numerous studies show that children who start to fall behind in the earliest grades are more likely to have bigger problems later in life.
Throughout his tenure at the agency, Jones has championed this cause with a quick smile and compelling stories of children helped. He has always been savvy enough to make sure the media saw plenty of children grinning, bragging, or playing games whenever a new program was launched, an old one expanded or got a boost in funding.
Importantly, it was never a question of bringing the children to the event; The United Way kept going to the children. Jones explained the simple logic during that inaugural Nurse’s Pantry opening.
“We are meeting the kids where their needs are.”
Thank you for that, Mr. Jones, and good luck in your next venture.
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