The word community is defined as a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals.
Each year, Grace Place Preschool in Tabernacle dedicates a week to getting its parents and others in the township involved in an attempt to teach preschoolers everyone plays a key role in a community.
No matter how big or how small, each job has a role and plays an important part in making the community a better place, as preschool director Melinda Depetris said.
Depetris has been the director of the preschool for almost two years now, but the community worker week event predates her time.
“The previous director started community worker week to build the preschool children’s knowledge of jobs and careers in our community,” she said. “The children and adults enjoy it thoroughly, and we bring it back yearly because of the past success.”
The students have been learning about different jobs in the community and how they each play a different role, so they are very excited about getting the chance to meet the people who fill these roles.
“My favorite part is to see the excitement on the preschoolers’ faces when a presentation is going on. It creates higher level thinking for the children,” Depetris said. “There is such enjoyment in learning new things.”
Parents and friends will be presenting their careers to the preschoolers this year during the week of Jan. 26–29. The school makes it four days long to give parents and other community members a prime opportunity to share their interesting careers in depth.
The four days are split into two time slots per day. One parent comes in for each separate time slot.
“The parents seem excited to present their material. The pride of their work is displayed in their presentations. Even the parents that do not present seem to think the idea of community worker week is a great way to give preschoolers background knowledge of their community at large,” Depetris said.
Anyone is invited to present. Parents are given the information about the event directly and are encouraged to invite family members and friends. The information is also put on the Lord of Life Lutheran Church bulletin to get as many people as they can involved.
The Grace Place Preschool is a ministry of Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Tabernacle.
The school prides itself on recognizing each child as a unique individual created by God.
Community worker week applies this practice by physically showing the kids how each one of these individuals uniquely benefits the community and makes Tabernacle what it is today.
