Neighborhood Bridges program honors Hoover's 'queen of kindness' from Gwin Elementary

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The Hoover Helps nonprofit on Tuesday night recognized a Gwin Elementary School counselor as Hoover’s “queen of kindness” for helping meet the needs of children in her school.

Gwin counselor Wendy Sizemore in the previous school year identified needs of 513 students that the Hoover Helps Neighborhood Bridges program was able to meet with donations valued at $2,670, said Hoover Helps cofounder Greg Bishop in a report to the Hoover school board Tuesday night.

Neighborhood Bridges uses a website and emails to advertise needs identified by counselors in Hoover schools throughout the year, and people who take part in the Neighborhood Bridges program anonymously make donations to meet those needs.

Sometimes donors will provide clothes that meet children’s specific sizes. Other times, donors will give school supplies, snacks or hygiene items. Another need met recently was that of a single mother of five children who needed monetary help to replace the transmission in her vehicle.

In all, this past year, anonymous people in the community and business sponsors stepped up with $46,000 worth of donations to help more than 3,200 children, Bishop said.

He appreciates both the donors who step up to the plate to meet needs and all the counselors who help identify children who truly are in need, he said. Sizemore was the leader of the pack last year.

Sizemore said she appreciates the opportunity to be a counselor at Gwin Elementary and appreciates the work and the efficiency of the Hoover Helps Neighborhood Bridges program.

“It’s so nice to be able to go on my computer. You just type up what you need, and you submit it, and it just shows up at your school,” Sizemore said. “I’ve worked in other school systems where we don’t have the help of the community. We’re just so fortunate here.”

Sizemore said she’s thankful for Hoover Helps founders Greg and Donna Bishop and all the people who participate in Neighborhood Bridges and Hoover Helps. There are some kids who would have had to move outside of Hoover if they had not received help from Neighborhood Bridges, she said.

The school board also on Tuesday night recognized Ginger Hewitt, a library media specialist at Berry Middle School, for receiving the Alabama School Library Association’s 2022 Ann Marie Pipkin Award for her outstanding leadership in advancing education technology for students.

Hewitt has had numerous accomplishments over the years, including collaborating with former Berry Middle School Principal Chris Robbins to transform the Berry library into a multimedia literary experience and learning space, and collaborating with colleagues to create multimedia digital books for a variety of classes, said Sherea Harris-Turner, the school system’s public relations specialist.

Hewitt also has worked to receive more than $30,000 worth of grants throughout her career in education, Harris-Turner said.

The school board also on Tuesday night:

Approved a $238 million budget for fiscal 2023, which starts Oct. 1. Read more about that budget here.

Thanked state Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, and state Rep. Arnold Mooney, R-north Shelby County, for recent donations made to Hoover schools in their districts from the legislators’ discretionary accounts.

Approved a new policy required by the state Legislature that requires the school system to get parents’ approval before providing counseling services for students with a licensed mental health counselor.

Heard a report from the school system’s federal programs coordinator, Natasha Flowers, that the system held special school enrollment fairs for parents and students who primarily speak a language other than English before school started this year. Fifty-five students attended the fairs, which provided interpreters in four languages and gave students a chance to meet their English as a Second Language teachers.